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 300th 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.
