Whoever it was that said a little fame never hurt anybody was never on the cover of TIME’s sister magazine Sports Illustrated. Athletes have suffered precarious misfortunes after appearing on its cover since the magazine’s inaugural August 1954 issue featuring third baseman Eddie Matthews, who suffered a hand injury that forced him to miss seven games. More recently, Winter Olympic gold-medal hopeful Lindsey Vonn suffered a much publicized bruised shin shortly after her own cover in February 2010. The ‘jinx’ has even affected multiple people at once, as three of the Yankees’ ‘Core Four’ players (Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada) featured in an April 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated, all suffered injuries within a week, leaving only team captain Derek Jeter unscathed. SI tried to address the topic in a January 2002 issue. The magazine interviewed sports psychologist Jim Loehr who called the jinx “a failure to efficiently metabolize heightened expectations.” In layman’s terms, the ‘jinxed’ cover subjects merely choked under the extra attention.
Top 10 Sports Superstitions
From the playoff beard to lucky shorts, sport stars are fond of using of unconventional measures to ensure their team's success in the big game. As the 2011 World Series kicks off, TIME takes a look at superstitions that have become intertwined with the wide world of sports