Baseball superstitions seldom have normal beginnings. The Rangers' bullpen hammer is no different.

Reliever Jason Grilli came across the piece of hardware – complete with a Rangers-blue shock-absorption grip – while in a cab with Josh Hamilton in Phoenix during last week's series with Arizona. A man on the street sold it to him for $5, a bargain price, according to Grilli.

"It probably was hot," Grilli said. "It has no relevance to anything. It's just funny."

After the Diamondbacks' mascot ran over a pin that held the bullpen door closed, bullpen coach Andy Hawkins used the hammer to bend it back in place and allow the door to open. The Rangers won the game.

A superstition was born.

It's a bonus that it fits in nicely with one of pitching coach Mike Maddux's mottos: "Rather be the hammer than the nail."

When not fixing broken bullpen doors, killing mosquitoes or opening cans of Red Bull, the hammer stays in the bullpen catcher's bag or hangs in Grilli's locker.

Grilli has posted pictures of it on Twitter and even created a page for it on Facebook, where it has over 100 fans.

"It's taken a life of his own," Grilli said. "You never know when you're going to need a hammer."