Bob Nightengale of the USA Today. (Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images)
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Bob Nightengale put the jinx on Drew Rasmussen literally one pitch before the Rays’ pitcher’s Perfect Game bid was squashed.
Baseball has a lot of unwritten rules. One of them works like Fight Club. Just as you do not talk about Fight Club, you do not talk about no-hitters and perfect games.
As USA Today’s baseball guy, Bob Nightengale definitely knows that. Yet he continues to wield his Twitter for evil by jinxing every no-hit bid that comes along.
On Sunday, it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill no-hitter he jinxed. It was Drew Rasmussen’s eight innings of perfect baseball.
Tampa Bay #Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen just three outs away from making history
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 14, 2022
Nightengale referenced the Rays‘ pitcher and his pursuit of perfection on Twitter just before the start of the ninth inning. On the next pitch, Orioles shortstop Jorge Mateo hit a double down the left field line.
Twitter called out Bob Nightengale for jinxing Drew Rasmussen’s perfect game
Jeff Passan was shaking his head.
The rest of Twitter was too.
Bob Nightengale is really going to ruin this perfect game, isn’t he?
— The Royals Rundown Podcast (@RoyalRundownPod) August 14, 2022
i don’t believe in jinxes unless its bob nightengale
— leggy (TIM LOCASTROS #1 FAN) (@ogleggy) August 14, 2022
Come on, Bob. Maybe your tweets don’t transfer their cursed energy into the bats of hitters eager to break up a no-hitter or perfect game. Maybe jinxes are a figment of our imagination. Maybe talking about what’s happening on a pitcher’s mound doesn’t impact the performance of the pitcher.
But maybe it does! Maybe, just once, you could try not sending that tweet informing your followers about the thing that’s happening at a random ballpark on a Sunday afternoon. Give it a chance, respect the power of a jinx and let’s see what happens. It could be fun.
The Rays went on to beat the Orioles 4-1.
