Glad you dropped by. Seriously.
What you are looking at is a mixture of a personal archive for works published on various outlets and what just might turn out to be yet another blog. I hope it will.
In the meanwhile, feel free to go through the archived articles. If you care for baseball statistical analysis, there is plenty of that, highlighted by the study I did for The Hardball Times on how efficient the catchers are when blocking pitches in the dirt. If you like baseball, yet couldn’t care less for the numbers, you might enjoy a cool story about Jeff Francoeur or a thorough interview with Mike Piazza.
If you, like me, think that sports is about more than just winning and losing, then the story of Moshi Ants might be for you. Or the one about the right to play.
Continue reading Welcome
A few days after winning the 1994 Amateur Baseball World Series, Jimmy Summers entered the house in Eastern Ohio alone. He was about to negotiate his first baseball contract and all he brought to the meeting was a six-pack of beer, a burning desire to play ball and an open mind.
As he reached the cellar, he saw that Kruno and Damir Karin, the representatives of Baseball Klub Olimpija Karlovac, were already there. The brothers K were standing between the bar and the Ping-Pong table, flashing broad smiles and holding a bottle of vodka.
Jimmy looked at his beer and realized that he had brought a knife to a gun fight.
Continue reading Chasing a dream
U prvoj utrci protivnici su mu bili Marc Girardelli, Günther Mader i Luc Alphand. U posljednjoj – Marcel Hirscher, Beat Feuz i Alexis Pinturault. U gotovo dvadeset godina između, Didier Cuche mjerio se s generacijama i generacijama vrhunskih skijaša, redovno osvajajući bodove, ali i – srca navijača.
Ne tako davno, sport je pripadao sportašima. Tradicija, sportski duh, traženje najboljeg među najboljima – sve je to bila bit koja je vukla natjecatelje u vječnu borbu protiv još jedne sekunde, metra ili kilograma. Danas? Danas smo gazde mi – vi i ja – svaki sa svojim daljinskim upravljačem, a sportaši su svedeni na zabavljače čija je svrha postojanja nastup u predstavi koja nas mora zadovoljiti.
First thing that crossed my mind was that I was an idiot. Honestly, how else can you describe a man whose alarm clock starts shouting at five in the morning. On a vacation.
Continue reading Of six bulls and an idiot
In a sense, there has been an air of spring training atmosphere around September baseball in Oakland for a while now. Only without the hope part.
The weather is great. The games don’t really decide anything. And not too many watch them to start with.
So, when Jeff Francoeur and his 59-83 Royals rolled into town to take on the 64-77 Athletics last September, the world wasn’t exactly holding its collective breath.
Continue reading Outfield assist of another kind
It wasn’t fear.
It was a growing realization that I have made a challenge to something very powerful and that it was going to show up in its best shape. Now the question was – was I up to it?
Continue reading The unspoiled continent – Part VI – Time to go home
So, yeah, that whole thing with the Ukrainians was pretty surreal. A pub in Antarctica? Are you kidding me?
I mean, what’s next? Being woken up by a dinghy with a crazy dude in a kilt in it, playing bagpipes and inviting everyone to a party on board British marines’ sailing boat, where I’d meet an expedition trying to conquer Forbidden Plateau, National Geographic Antarctica-kayaking-crew and arguably the best solo sailor of the world?
Exactly.
Continue reading The unspoiled continent – Part V – The party at the glacier
There are many things one envisions about Antarctica.
A pub is not one of them.
I thought it was going to be cold and it was. I thought I might see the whales, the seals and the penguins and I did. I thought sailing might be tough and it was going to be. But, it never, ever crossed my mind that I could spend an evening in Antarctica drinking vodka and playing billiard, translating small-talk from Russian to Spanish to German to English to Russian, all while listening to The Sundowners’ Colonial Classics.
Yet, there I was.
Continue reading The unspoiled continent – Part IV – Ukrainian vodka and Highland fling (nsfw)
Sure, there were specific things that happened and that remain. Like drinking vodka in the southernmost pub of the world, all while being celebrated by Ukrainian scientists because your countryman shot a goal that sent English soccer team home and Russians to the big stage. Or drinking Laphroaig on board UK military expedition boat, while chatting to National Geographic crew and Sebastien Magnen. Yes, that Sebastien Magnen.
But, more than anything else, Antarctica leaves a series of continuous and interlaced impressions in one’s mind, interchangeable puzzle pieces in the big picture of possibly the last pristine place on Earth.
Here are some of mine.
Continue reading The unspoiled continent – Part III – In which words (mostly) give way to pictures
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