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Title: “Locker Room Mojo . . . True Tales of Superstition in Sport.

Authors: Nick Newton and Bill Minutaglio.

Publisher: Middlefork Press ($32.29, https://www.lockerroommojo.com)

A fortysomething beer league hockey player, I’ve had my pregame ritual for years. My left skate is laced first, my first warm-up shot is aimed at a side board line--if I connect, I know I’m in for a decent game--three whacks of the stick on each pad of the ‘keeper and I’m good to go. And I know I’m not the only weekend warrior with a strange tic or two. Which is why I could appreciate the 88 tales of sport superstition.

The authors define “mojo” as a mix of magic, mystery and innocence. If knocking each cleat twice with a bat before every pitch helps one get that elusive “edge,” why not go for it? Recently fired Cleveland Indian Manager Mike Hargrove, as a player, developed his pre-pitch routine into such an extended art form, he was nicknamed “the Human Rain Delay.”

Appropriately, leading off the book is “the Curse of the Bambino,” the eerie hex that befell the Boston Red Sox the day they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. But other team jinxes and zany measures teams have taken in attempts to KO the demons abound.

The time line goes back to the 10th century BC and an ancient form of basketball played as a celebration of fertility by the Olmecs of Central America. Defeat did not rest lightly on the losing warriors’ shoulders. In fact, nothing did. They were beheaded. Not good mojo.

Richly illustrated, “Locker Room Mojo” describes in colorful detail some of the most fascinating, curious and just plain weird stories in sports.