“As a sport that arouses almost religious fervour it is unsurprising that baseball has its fair share of superstitions. It’s said that you will be jinxed if you lend your bat to another hitter, while some players stick chewing gum on their caps to bring good luck. But rarely in the history of America’s national game has there been anything quite like this. Frank and Jamie McCourt, the multi-millionaire owners of the LA Dodgers, have been revealed to have employed a Russian scientist to beam thought waves to boost the team’s chances.
According to Bill Shaikin of the LA Times, the McCourts paid Vladimir Shpunt several hundred thousand dollars over five years to apply his “V energy” and help the Dodgers to victory. Between 2004, the first season under the McCourts’ ownership, and 2009, Shpunt was retained for Dodgers matches, despite the fact that he knew little about baseball.
He would channel positive vibes towards the players as he sat in Boston, some 3,000 miles from LA. By watching the game on television, he could get instant feedback on how his energy was affecting performance. “It’s very big work. I like this team to win,” Shpunt told Shaikin. Shpunt began his professional life as a physicist in St Petersburg but says he discovered he had healing powers in the 1980s.”
Read more at The Guardian
Ah! Fools and their money are easily parted!
leave it to the dodgers to hire a guy named VLAD!