John Lackey kept throwing out baseballs, seemingly wondering what was wrong with them. Corey Kluber kept throwing out Cardinals. He didn’t entice them to hit meek grounders that he could field and toss to his first baseman. He didn’t get…
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
Lance Lynn keeps striking out hitters, with three people on at once, and just one another time. He strikes out nine in six innings. He leaves with his team up 3-0. And Matt Carpenter takes a stance at home with…
Mark Reynolds hit from the right, with a pink bat in his hands and pink shoes on his feet. He hit a weak grounder to the pitcher to start the inning, but not because of his fashion. The Pirates’ lefty,…
St. Louis led this one by three entering the 9th inning. Trevor Rosenthal faced Gregory Polanco, who squinted at strike one and weakly knocked the next pitch into the stands. Foul. After a ball, Rosenthal sneered at his catcher, firing…
Kevin Siegrist kicked the air and fired a pitch toward home. Yadier Molina caught it, dust billowing from his glove like stars. But though the universe may expand, even an umpire has his limits. The ball was low and outside,…
I can still see the growing green grass covering the lumps and molehills of a baseball diamond. A slice of a red barn cuts through my vision. And somewhere, where I can’t see, my grandfather walks between the yellow backhoe…
Kolten Wong almost helped turn a double play to end an inning with the bases loaded. Instead, the Cubs scored two runs on a grounder to short. Jhonny Peralta picked up a ground ball off the bat of Starlin Castro,…
The Cards fell behind 5-0 in the 1st. To the Cubs. Full moon. Annoyance gripped me like a snake latching onto my heel. Maybe it was a small bear. A bad inning trumped a bad century. Or was it the…
St. Louis and Pittsburgh were tied at 1. In the bottom of the 11th, Peter Bourjos smacked a ball up the third base line and started to run, sifting the dirt with each step. He stood at second, with red…
Concerning the tiny clods of dirt layered on the cleats of shoes: Might they remain after each series, and move from place to place? There, a bit of mud from Tampa, and a piece of dirt from Kansas City. Here,…