Every sport has its superstitions. Baseball guys won't step on the foul line. Hockey players grow playoff beards that could house small woodland creatures. And then there's Hannah Wells, who apparently looked at the entire menu of athlete rituals and said, nah, I'll just eat the bugs.
ESPN's broadcast feature on Wells's bug-eating habit aired during a Texas softball game in Kentucky.
The bit is exactly what it sounds like. If Wells spots a ladybug, the ladybug is going down the hatch. No ceremony, no salt-and-pepper, no second thoughts. Ladybugs have been a good-luck symbol going back forever, but most people stop at letting one crawl on their finger and making a wish. Wells is operating on a whole different level of commitment to the cause.
The main Barstool account boiling the story down to its essence.
And honestly? Hard to argue with the results. Texas softball has been one of the premier programs in the country for years now, and if part of the secret sauce is a player treating ladybugs like good-luck Tic Tacs, then who are we to question the methodology. Whatever it takes is whatever it takes.
StoolBaseball running it back with the Jordie tag, because of course this is a Jordie story.
This is the kind of human-interest nugget that broadcast crews dream about finding. Forget the swing mechanics and the spin rate breakdowns — give us the player who is single-handedly trying to chew her way to a national title. Hannah Wells, please never change.