The informant is Catholic, and of Irish descent. They agreed to meet up with me, and share pieces of folklore for this project.

So what folklore do you have about softball?

“Um, so I play… well I play a lot of sports, but I play softball. And we, whenever we were on a winning streak, like if we like… won a game, you would not wash your socks. Like you had long softball socks, and you wouldn’t wash them if- until you lost again. So like, it was suppose to be lucky. You couldn’t wash them; it would like, wash out the good juju or whatever.”

Although the informant was in a school sport, one can still consider this as occupational folklore. As another field where people rely on chance a lot for success, those involved tend to follow superstition as there are usually not harm in doing so.

That said, the idea of not altering the state of something for fear of washing away the good luck can also be found in Chinese culture. For Chinese Lunar New Year, families do not sweep during the first few days, nor are they suppose to cut their hair. Like how a win in a game may have upgraded the socks to a charm for good luck, a new year brings in good luck to a household.