Dodgers Blue Heaven: Voodoo Doll to Hex Brooklyn Dodger Pitcher Sal Maglie

Friday, March 31, 2017

Voodoo Doll to Hex Brooklyn Dodger Pitcher Sal Maglie

Spooky!

Fans will do anything to guarantee a victory. Heck, as evidenced by this thing found on eBay (eBay link), folks will even dabble in the dark arts.

Probably the weirdest Dodger item you'll ever see, featured is a circa 1956 or 1957 voodoo doll depicting Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Sal Maglie -- complete with nails in his body.

This piece of folk art has been artfully (or evilly) constructed within an 8" box with clear plastic cover, a tombstone-looking black bed, a Dodger doll with its head replaced with Maglie's and a cartoon image that likely explains why this fan went to these lengths.

The image (as seen on the right) shows a startled batter and the following caption:

Why, Ump it was purely accidental! Just like his beaning me my first time up..."

As you may know, Sal Maglie was renowned for being a pitcher who didn't mind throwing up-'n-in. After all, there's a reason he was nicknamed "The Barber." Per Judith Testa at the SABR Biography Project:

"He scares you to death. He's scowling and gnashing his teeth, and if you try to dig in on him, there goes your Adam's apple. He's gonna win if it kills you and him both." So the Cincinnati Reds' Danny Litwhiler described the unnerving experience of batting against Sal Maglie.

Clearly, Maglie was a man to be reckoned with, and the only thing that could possibly stop him was a hex. As for who created this the auction tells us that a young lady by the name of Dot Abramson constructed this object to help her home team -- the Phillies.

I have no idea if Dottie's voodoo hex worked, but I do know that Maglie had Philiadelphia's number. In his career Sal went 17-9 against the Phillies. He had a career 2.24 ERA in 31 starts, 16 complete games, 5 shutouts, and a 1.156 WHIP in 232.2 total innings.