I settled into my middle seat, next to a guy holding a catchers mitt in his hands and watching the wheels spin on other planes. But then he placed the mitt on his lap and turned his phone toward me,…
Author: olabner
Welcome! I've followed baseball since I was 8 years old and started this site to illustrate the beauty of the game in prose, poetry, and photography.
I have a Master's in Creative Writing at Missouri State University. For my thesis I wrote a collection of nonfiction micro essays about working in remote Alaska fishing lodges for five summers in my 20s.
After graduation I worked as a northern lights guide in Bettles, Alaska, for 8 months. You can find my favorite aurora photographs at bestnorthernlights.com
I am a freelance writer and photographer. You can find my portfolio at maryellenchiles.com
After the news of Marlon Byrd’s suspension for 162 games for PED use (again), I simply could not summon the words. Because I already have. If you missed it the first time, find my rendition of Carrie Underwood’s “Before He…
The catcher knelt in the dirt holding his face in his hands as if he’d lost something dear to him. In fact he lost the ball with two strikes as it bounced in the dirt and bounded to the right…
I should be gracious, I should be nice. I should be many things I’m not. My team has won many titles so many I forgot to notice a team in blue and red – the baby bears that hibernated. But…
Sean holds his aluminum bat level as the fastball reaches him and the ball dribbles down the chalk line the third baseman charges the plate until I can see triangles made of eye black dripping down his jaws. “Let it…
I wipe dust off a green chair and sit down and expect someone to tell me to move where my ticket says I should go Someone might ask me if I’m scouting that hitter whose hands sting when he stands…
I didn’t want to see every game I possibly could because I would try to grasp how Chicago’s Arrieta might keep the ball away from Ichiro (in Miami) who could slap at a pitch and be three steps up the…
It so happened that a man didn’t like what another man said. So the first man took off his shirt and threw it on the ground. But he didn’t throw it on any pile of dirt: it was a more…
Arguing about fighting in baseball requires referencing literature that is not written down. Or discussed, beyond the mysterious language of major league clubhouses all clubhouses with different dialects that change from season to season, depending on the cultural makeup of…
When he swings and misses – everyone has left you alone. When he takes a pitch – you have time to think. Time to reconsider. When the ball floats past his heart, which the strike zone used to cover –…