I for one will be rooting for Chicago. Even if I attempt to be the bigger (wo)man and neutralize the Utley Factor, I’d still go for the Cubs. From what I can tell, lots of Mets fans feel similarly. In fact, in an extremely scientific Twitter poll I conducted on Monday, 47 percent of respondents (out of a total whopping 32 votes) are also for the Cubs. (The Jays came in second with 28 percent, 16 percent for Cleveland and nine percent for L.A.) It makes sense. We Mets fans have known droughts—and because of that, it’s hard not to have at least a little sympathy for a team that hasn’t touched World Series turf since 1945.

76 years (or 108 since their last win) is a long time, enough to make even the most rational-minded among us consider the possibility of some dark magic. And this is another tether between Cubs and Mets fans (and players)—superstitions galore! Of course, baseball in general is rife with superstition, but the Cubs’ long dearth of World Series appearances is probably the most famous curse still in action, (and in an interesting twist, one in which the Mets feature). Simultaneously, Mets players routinely top lists of performing the strangest luck-seeking routines. I’ve read a lot of weird, weird habits these past few hours, and rounded up some of my favorites here, but first—the curse:

Tavern owner Bill Sianis brought his good luck charm—a goat named Murphy—to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series at Wrigley. The powers that be let Sianis but not the goat in, declaring that the goat stunk, while Sianis in turn is said to have declared that the Cubs would no longer win. And they haven’t since, not the World Series, anyway.

The Mets are implicated, too, in the curse of the Billy Goat by a trio of Murphies—when the 1969 Mets performed the miracle of overtaking the first-place Cubs in a race to the World Series, it was under the management of GM Johnny Murphy. The team’s announcer at the time? Bob Murphy. Then of course there was 2015 Daniel Murphy, (who the Mets might argue is their own special curse). In the NLCS, though, Murph was MVP, hitting four home runs and batting .529 for the series.

The more you look at it, the more it makes sense that the Mets, and their fans, might believe in a little baseball magic. Starting with:

Rally Caps!

The start of the tradition is often pegged to 1940s Detroit baseball, but its more widely noted that Mets fans popularized the superstition. Fans at Shea in 1985 employed the rally cap in wide swaths, and the practice spread to other fans and the players themselves, most memorably the next year in the World Series, when Mets in the dugout turned their caps inside out in a tight 2-3 Game 6, at which point they of course did rally to force a Game 7 … and the rest is history.

Richie Ashburn

An original 1962 Met, Ashburn used to sleep with his old baseball bats.

Did it work? Ashburn’s magical bedmates weren’t strong enough to do much about that 40-120 team record, but Ashburn himself had an All-Star year—his last in the majors—slashing .306/.424/.393. He averaged .308 over his 15-year career with a WARP of 72.1.

Dick Stuart

Stuart, a ’66 Met, always chewed a piece of gum while going up to bat, then threw it out across the plate before the first pitch. What the hell, Dick—now the next guy’s gonna have that stuck to his cleat!

Did it work? Well, it wasn’t amazing (that’s what you get for littering!) In Flushing, Stuart batted .218/.292/.356, with a career average of .264 and WARP of 6.4.

Lenny Dykstra

A Met from 1985-89, Dykstra was known for changing his batting gloves each time he struck out.

Did it work?: Seems like it—the Mets went all the way in ’86, and Dykstra was a good hitter throughout his career, slashing .285/.375/.419 with a WARP of 46 (though, annoyingly, his All-Star years were all with the Phillies). His luck certainly ran out later though, off the diamond—maybe he should have thought about some gloves when he was out (allegedly) committing grand theft auto?

Turk Wendell

Pitchers are known to be the most superstitious players of the most superstitious game but Wendell really took it to the next level—a treasure trove of quirks. One of his more normal habits was to avoid stepping on the foul line, as many players do, though he was known to jump over it and avoid the surrounding dirt completely as well. He also chewed four pieces of black licorice per inning while pitching, then brushed his teeth in the dugout between innings. He wore a necklace strung with the teeth of things he’d killed. Instead of a 10-million-dollar contract, he asked that it be written out as $9,999,999.99 (to match his uniform and favorite number, 99).  Then there was that time we lost him in the woods for a while, and he came back with a giant dead mountain lion ….

Did it work? Well, maybe it helped him not get eaten by that mountain lion? As a Met from 1997-2001, Wendell had a 3.34 ERA over 285 games, slightly better than his career average of 3.93, and WARP of 3.1.

Oliver Perez

Perez also had a particularly distinctive jump over the first base foul line, one that changed in height depending on how good he was pitching that day.

Did it work? Eh. A Met from 2006-2010, Perez had an ERA of 4.71, with an overall career average ERA of 4.46 and a WARP of 8.7.

R.A. Dickey

Dickey’s pitching rituals aren’t particularly quirky (especially in the shadow of Wendell’s); he was most known around the clubhouse for taking a Jacuzzi, then a shower, before a start. At the plate, though, things get a little weirder. Dickey names his bats really bizarre, slightly Medieval names—some greats include “Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver” and “Hrunting.”

Did it work? I don’t know about Dickey-as-slugger, but a Met from 2010-2012 and a 2012 All-Star and CY Young winner, Dickey spent some of his best years in Queens, with an ERA 2.95. He has a career ERA of 4.01 and a WARP of 15.

Moises Alou

Okay, ew. I had read before that Alou chose not to wear batting gloves—badass. And read somewhere else that he’d taken to peeling the skin off his hands to avoid too much callous build-up—seems painful and/or painstaking, but fine. But apparently Alou’s additional trick for toughing up his skin while avoiding callouses was to piss on his hands. Jorge Posada was also into this habit, a maneuver that, the Wall Street Journal suggests, may not even make chemical sense. But sorry guys, for me the efficacy and chemical makeup of one’s urine is really a moot point; can’t we all just go back to talking about Jason Giambi’s shiny, slump-busting thong?

Later, as a Cub, Alou had a hand in the fateful 2003 Steve Bartman incident, in which Bartman, a fan in the stands, interfered with a catch that would’ve been the second out in the inning. At the time, Chicago still held a 3-0 lead, but Bartman’s obstruction was the first in a series of (yellow) snowballing mishaps. The Cubs eventually gave up eight runs and lost the game, and the next day the series. The curse of Murphy the goat, it seems, was no match for Alou’s pee.

Did it work? Well not that time! But overall, Alou was a great hitter. As a Met in 2007-2008, at age 40, he batted .342/.391/.507 with a career line of .303/.369/.516 and WARP of 41.

Pedro Martinez

It’s hard to believe that a Hall of Famer like Martinez would be into superstitions. That said, he invited actor and fellow Dominican Nelson De La Rosa, to the Sox clubhouse for good luck in 2004 during the World Series. De La Rosa himself was record holder, recorded by the Guinness in 1989 as shortest living adult, at two feet, four inches.

Did it work? I mean, hell yeah! The Sox broke their curse; Martinez is one of the greatest pitchers ever to have played the game. His numbers in Queens toward the end of his career, 2005-2008, don’t do him justice: his ERA was 3.77, versus the 2.52 across his 7 years in Boston, or 2.93 overall. Maybe, after a long and successful career, it was just his time. Or maybe Martinez really did need good luck from his buddy De La Rosa, who died suddenly in 2006.

Anyway, coming off a killer season, and with no Murphies in sight, I’ll put my rally cap on for the Cubs these next few days—only if they really need it, of course.

Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

The Expos franchise relocated to Washington D.C. in 2005 after years of poor attendance in Montreal, but baseball supporters say things have changed since. First, Montreal’s mayor has made bringing the Expos back part of his platform, and has been campaigning for baseball’s return to the city since he took office in 2013. Impressive attendance numbers at exhibition games over the past two pre-seasons, too, suggest the public’s renewed attraction to the sport; notably a two-day Mets and Blue Jays series in 2014 brought a crowd of 96,000, with a 2015 Reds/ Jays series racking up similar attendance figures.

Fans also point to the death of former Expos star Gary Carter, and the fact that there are now two French-Language sports channels available in Montreal as other catalysts for the public’s resurgent interest in the game. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, too, is more open to the idea of a team in Montreal than Bud Selig, calling a return “a viable possibility,” provided the MLB finds itself in a position to relocate a team or expand.

Both expansion clubs of the 60s, Expos and Mets fans have, over the years, shared the familiar heartbreak of rooting for a fledgling young team. Fans have also shared a love of several key players who starred on both teams at some point in their careers. Given the low budget preventing the Expos from resigning strong players once they were eligible for arbitration, many teams can probably say the same; nevertheless, here are a few stars close to our hearts who’ve worn blue pinstripes on both sides of the International Boundary.

Rusty Staub (WARP 56.2)

An Expo from the team’s inaugural 1969 season and the first guy to win the Expos’ Player of the Year award, outfielder/ first baseman Rusty Staub is arguably the most-beloved of the Expo-Met trajectory players. While in Montreal he took French lessons in an effort to connect with Francophone fans, telling Sports Illustrated: “I felt I should be able to communicate with the people of Montreal in their own language. After all, they were interested in baseball. I thought I should be interested enough in them to learn how to converse with them.” As a result, Staub became a fan favorite and was gifted perhaps the best nickname in all of baseball: “Le Grand Orange,” for his red hair. He remains the franchise leader in OBP for players with over 2,000 team plate appearances at .402, and the Expos retired the number 10 in his honor in 1993.

Despite a series of injuries, Staub continued to perform well with the Mets, leading the team in hits and RBIs in 1974. In 1975 he became the first Met ever to surpass 100 RBIs in a season (with 105 total), a team record he would hold until 1986 when he was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame and his record was tied by …

Gary Carter (WARP 65.3)

Catcher for the Expos from 1974 to 84 and then for the Mets from 1985-89, Carter was another player to earn acclaim from both teams. After a decade of strong hitting for the Expos, his number eight was retired by the organization in 1993. A street near the Expos’ former park was renamed for him in 2013.

Carter was an important part of the Mets’ 1986 World Series win, with two home runs and nine RBI, one of which was the sacrifice fly in Game 6 that tied the score. He was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 2001, and won Manager of the Year Awards for his work with the Gulf Coast Mets and St. Lucie Mets in 2005 and 2006.

An 11-time All-Star and three-time Golden Glove winner, Carter was also inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. He died in 2012 after suffering from brain cancer.

Cliff Floyd (WARP 27)

Floyd made his MLB debut with the Expos in 1993 as the National League’s youngest player at the time. He played in Montreal until 1997, then again in 2002, before being picked up by the Mets in 2003. A rookie with the Expos, and hindered by injuries during his time with the Mets, Floyd actually put up his best batting average with the Marlins (.317 in 2001), but he had a particularly successful 2005 season with the Mets, hitting his career-high of 34 home runs … also the Mets’ highest total that year.

Floyd was on the BBWAA Ballot for Hall of Fame in 2015. He currently broadcasts games with Sirius XM.

Pedro Martinez (WARP 80.4)

Full disclosure: I had a giant crush on Pedro Martinez growing up, so please excuse any fangirling. But honestly, can you blame me? Debuting with the Dodgers in 1992, Martinez hit his stride after joining the Expos, including pitching nine perfect innings against the Padres before they scored a hit in the bottom of the 10th. His 1997 season saw him go 17-8 with a 1.90 ERA and 305 strikeouts, earning him the Cy Young Award and the honor of being the only Expo ever to win one.

As a Met from 2005-2008, Martinez started strong with a record of 15-8, leading the National League with a 0.95 WHIP, his sixth time topping in the category. He was injured and needed surgery in 2006, but played well in 2007 upon his return and recorded his 3000^th strikeout that year (against only 701 walks), becoming the first Latin American pitcher to do so. Though a Met at the end of his career (the less said about his Phillies run, the better), the whole career was such an impressive one—219 wins and 100 losses, an ERA of 2.93, and the highest winning percentage by a right-handed pitcher since 1893—his continued celebration is much deserved.

Bartolo Colón (WARP 38.6) (was on Expos in 2002)

Okay, so he was only an Expo briefly in 2002–after his career was underway with several seasons in Cleveland–but how could I resist the chance to sing the praises of Big Sexy? With a 20-8 record, including three shutouts and eight complete games, his time in Montreal was pretty damn impressive. Plus, as of March 4 of this year, Colón remains the last active player to have played for the Expos. After the retirement of LaTroy Hawkins last year, Colón is also the oldest active player in the MLB.

In 2014, Colón took his 200^th win in a game against the Phillies, and in 2015 he broke the team record previously held by Dwight Gooden for most consecutive decisions as a starter (26).

Though he was offered more money elsewhere, Colón chose to stick with the Mets, signing a one-year contract for 2016. That, combined with the extensive charity work he does in his hometown of Altamira, and these photos of him in spring training show his true colors as not only a talented pitcher, but an all-around good guy.

I’ve got my fingers crossed for the baseball lovers of Montreal that a team makes its way back to Quebec soon. In the meantime, motion to get a poutine stand at Citi Field?

Photo Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports