Steve Carlton Likes Ukrainian Food

 

2021 Topps X Sports Illustrated card, reproducing Carlton's 1983 SI cover.

The back of the card makes no reference to Carlton's affection for Ukrainian cuisine.

This 2021 Topps X Sports Illustrated Steve Carlton card has an unlikely connection to Ukraine. I’ll explain. The card reproduces the cover of the October 3, 1983 issue of Sports Illustrated, celebrating Carlton’s 300th win.

Steve Carlton won his 300th game against his former team, the St. Louis Cardinals, on September 23, 1983. Carlton pitched 8 innings in the game, threw 137 pitches, gave up just 2 runs, and struck out 12 batters.

Carlton wasn’t speaking to the media in 1983, so Sports Illustrated was being ironic with the caption on the cover, because Lefty wasn’t going to tell them how he won number 300. But his wife Beverly did speak to the media the night he won his 300^th game. She said, “Steve would like to play another 10 years, and as hard as he works, he just might. I wouldn’t mind that at all. Baseball’s been great to us.” Asked if there was anything else she wanted to add about Steve, she said, “Well, he likes Ukrainian food.” Who knew? It’s very curious that Beverly Carlton thought this was an important enough fact about her husband to mention to the press. It’s also curious because “Ukrainian food” isn’t very well known in the United States—it doesn’t conjure up an image the way “Italian food” or “French food” would. But that’s kind of fitting with Steve Carlton’s whole vibe that he likes Ukrainian food. Steve’s not a guy who goes with the crowd, he does his own thing. How many other baseball players have had “wine collecting” listed as a hobby on the back of their baseball card?

The 1975 book Steve Carlton: Star Southpaw, by Martha Eads Ward, also references Carlton’s love of Ukrainian cuisine, but it fills in some details. “His favorite dish is a Ukrainian concoction: dough filled with sharp cheese, potatoes, butter, onions, and sour cream.” Sounds delicious, but not exactly low-calorie. What Ward is describing sounds like varenyky, considered one of the national dishes of Ukraine.

I don’t know enough about Steve Carlton’s family background to know if he’s of Ukrainian heritage, but now I wonder if it was a diet of Ukrainian food that allowed Carlton to pitch for 24 years, win 329 games, capture 4 Cy Young Awards, and rack up 4,136 strikeouts? Someone should ask Lefty.

Book Review: Unscripted, by Nicole Kronzer (2020)

 

Hardcover edition of Unscripted, by Nicole Kronzer, 2020. I bought my signed copy at the Red Balloon bookstore in Saint Paul, and I got my bookmark when I gave Nicole and Katharine Woodman-Maynard an F. Scott Fitzgerald walking tour. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Author Nicole Kronzer

Unscripted is the debut young adult novel of author Nicole Kronzer. Released in April of 2020, Unscripted is the story of Zelda, a high-school student who loves improvisational comedy. As the novel opens, Zelda and her brother Will are on their way to improv camp at the Rocky Mountain Theater Arts Summer Camp. Zelda’s enthusiasm is quickly dampened when she finds that she’s one of just a handful of girls at the entire camp. The girls don’t even have a counselor for their cabin.

Zelda earns a highly coveted spot on the varsity improv team, coached by the hunky Ben, who is just a few years older than Zelda. Ben is flirtatious towards Zelda when they’re off stage, but during varsity rehearsals he offers her no support and doesn’t protect her from the toxic masculinity of the rest of the all-male team. Really, the first clue that Ben is an idiot is the fact that he has no idea who F. Scott Fitzgerald is. He asks about her name, “Like the video game?” Zelda responds, “And the Fitzgerald.” Ben has no idea what she means, but he finally recalls that Leonardo DiCaprio was in the movie of The Great Gatsby. Zelda tells him, “It’s also a good book.” (p.33)

Unscripted deals unflinchingly with the atmosphere of toxic masculinity at the theater camp, and the novel shows how soul-crushing it is for Zelda to deal with. Unscripted is an excellent novel, and Kronzer paints an effective portrait of how Zelda chooses to navigate the difficult minefield of the camp. Unscripted is also very funny, and the jokes and skits the characters come up with feel authentic. One of the parts I found the funniest was Zelda writing a list of “Funny Dead Bodies,” concluding with “Hitler? That’s punching up. Or other things Nazi-adjacent? …But what are decades-old Nazi bodies doing undecomposed in the woods?” (p.104)

If you’re looking for a fresh new YA novel that tackles a serious topic, but will still make you laugh, check out Unscripted.