Baseball is shot through with superstitions. Players, managers, and fans all get caught up at one time or another believing that where they sit, what they wear, or what is said affects the outcome of the game.

During the 1955 season, the Dodgers were again the favorites to win the National League pennant. About mid-season, Frank Kellert, a rookie outfielder, received a package from his family in Oklahoma. It was a buttermilk cake. He shared it with the team before a game, and we won. The cake lasted long enough for us to win a couple more games. Sometime after that, the team went into a minor slump. Kellert was asked to contact his family for another buttermilk cake. The cakes kept coming, and we kept winning and clinched the pennant.

During the World Series, we had a supply of buttermilk cakes. We beat the Yankees in seven games for the first and only world championship in the 75-year history of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Here's the recipe for that buttermilk cake:

1 cup shortening
4 whole eggs
1 dash salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda (dissolved in buttermilk)
1 cup buttermilk
4 tbsp. vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans
2 cups sugar