Author Archives: Steve Keene

Out of Left Field: Carlos Silva is a hard eater

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MlbHlSqIn just a matter of days we’ll actually have some baseball to watch. Rejoice! Admittedly, the games won’t matter, but it’s a start, right? It will certainly make a nice change from feeding on scraps of non-news, or trying to predict the future, via the medium of numbers, in a bid to win a fantasy league.

In the meantime, here’s the latest instalment of the baseball news that really doesn’t matter. Just think, a week from now, this column may even have some proper baseball content! I wouldn’t count on it though.

In the comments section of last week’s missive, BaseballGB’s scoring stalwart, Joe Gray, had evidence of one player not in the “best shape of his life”. Chicago Cubs’ Carlos Silva is a little portly, it seems. With my addiction to curry and cake (rarely eaten together I hasten to add), I can relate.

Silva’s manager, Lou Piniella, is now in on the act, getting on our rotund hero’s back with this choice quote:

“Silva is a hard worker, there’s no question about it. He might be a hard eater (too).”

Poor Carlos, don’t get upset. It just means there is more of you to love, that’s all.  Continue reading →

Out of Left Field: This column is in the best shape of its life

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MlbHlSqPitchers and catchers. Spring training. This column is limbering up, ready for the new season, and feeling good. Leaner, fitter and happier. Welcome, good people, and observe this column preparing itself for Opening Day.

Just sit back and enjoy the following training montage. I imagine that awful Journey song will accompany it. It gets everywhere.

While the great and the good of the MLB are being put through their paces, your correspondent is in training himself. He’s reading Hemingway’s collected advice to writers, he’s thumbing through Bryson’s Dictionary for Writers and Editors, he’s perusing ’10 rules for writers’ in today’s Guardian and he’s scribbling furiously in various notebooks. He’s even thinking about baseball itself (who’d have thunk it?), scanning the Hardball Times Annual, SABR’s free Emerald Guide to Baseball (you need this, people!) and mock drafting like crazy.

And most importantly, your correspondent is honing his eye. Pitchers across the southern states are getting their eye in this week, and so am I. But it’s not easy. Now is time for fluff and bluster in MLB. Nothing of note is happening. This column isn’t looking so promising now, eh?

An aside: how good is life as a baseball professional? You get over four months off (if you’re lucky enough to miss those pesky play-offs), and then on your first few days back you just play catch and wander around in the sunshine. Those lucky things.

No such easy life for this columnist. I’ve had my nose to the proverbial grindstone, and have come up with the following. Bear with me, and be kind, dear reader.  Continue reading →

Out of Left Field: Big apples, big statues and eternal youth

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MlbHlSqJust the other day I was thinking to myself, what the world needs now is love, sweet love. Or failing that, the world needs another baseball column, full of recycled news with witty asides.

So, without further ado, howdy folks, and welcome to my very first (and hopefully not last) column, here at the esteemed BaseballGB. Let me introduce myself. As the more eagle-eyed among you might have ascertained from the byline above, my name is Steve. I’m a New York Mets fan. There, I said it. Just like an Alcoholics Anonymous member saying “I’m an alcoholic” for the first time, I feel so much better about getting my shameful admission out there in the open.

But I digress. I’m aware that there are plenty of great round-ups of baseball news across the web, including some excellent work here in this fair parish. But what about those other stories? What of those tales of the bizarre, the barely believable, the shocking, the silly and the downright daft? Well, dear reader, you’ll find all that here each week.  Continue reading →