February 13, 2026

Ralph Branca, a Black Cat, and Friday the 13th

On Friday the 13th in 1951, Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca posed with a black cat before a game at Ebbets Field, and the team won.

On Friday the 13th, April 13, 1951, Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca walked onto the field at Ebbets Field carrying a black cat. He was wearing jersey number 13.

The cat had crossed his path earlier that day, which under normal circumstances might have been taken as a bad sign. But baseball has always had a complicated relationship with luck. Players avoid stepping on foul lines. They wear the same socks through a winning streak. They eat the same meal before every game. So Branca didn’t shoo the cat away.

Instead, he posed with it for photographers before the Dodgers’ matchup with the New York Yankees. A pitcher holding a black cat on Friday the 13th was either tempting fate or daring it to try something.

That afternoon, Brooklyn beat the Yankees 7–6.

For some, it felt like confirmation that superstition, when handled correctly, could be useful.

It also wasn’t the first time a black cat had been enlisted by a Brooklyn team in need of a turnaround. Back in 1927, when the club was still known as the Brooklyn Robins and had lost 5 straight games, a stranger reportedly approached the team with a 3-month-old black kitten. Handing it over, he offered a piece of advice that sounded half like a riddle:

“It takes a thief to catch a thief, and maybe it takes a jinx to lick another jinx.”

The team named the kitten Victory. Soon after, they won 4 games in a row.

So in 1951, with that bit of history in mind, Branca chose not to argue with precedent. He held the cat, let the cameras flash, and took the field.

Later that same season, he would give up the “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” one of the most famous home runs in baseball history. But on that particular Friday the 13th, superstition worked in Brooklyn’s favor. And so did the cat.

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