This Royals pitcher does crosswords to solve pregame jitters. Try solving his puzzle
Tune in to a Kansas City Royals game on a night when Brad Keller is pitching and you might be hard pressed to tell how he’s doing without knowing the score.
There often is little difference in Keller’s behavior whether he struck out a batter to end an inning or served up a three-run home run.
“It’s just another advantage,” Keller said. “If the batter sees you struggling out there, they kind of champ at the bit, so I tried to keep a stoic demeanor out there.”
Keller, 25, admits that beneath the placid surface the butterflies in his stomach make their presence known.
On days he’s scheduled to start, Keller often feels edgy, but he’s got one unusual way to combat those feelings once he gets to the stadium: crossword puzzles.
“It’s a way for me to kind of calm my nerves, in a sense,” Keller said. “I feel like all day, as the day goes on, I get pretty tensed about the start and I’m kind of overthinking things. So once I get there (to the stadium), I find the crossword puzzles are a way of taking an hour or whatever it takes me, just to kind of get away from the start and kind of calm my nerves. I’m able to lock in on something else and not just focus solely on the start that night.”
In conjunction with an interview for this story, Keller came up with a Royals-themed crossword puzzle. Test yourself (Spoiler alert: the answers are at the bottom of this story):
“It was fun trying to do it, but it was hard, I’ll tell you that,” Keller said of coming up with the Royals-centric clues. “It was tough, I try to throw people for loops and we’ll see how it goes. I hopefully get some feedback on it.”
Keller’s own puzzle of choice is the USA Today crossword because it is challenging without being too difficult to solve.
The game fits in nicely with his pre-start tradition, one that will continue before Thursday’s season opener against the Texas Rangers at Kauffman Stadium.
“I grab two waters, and then I go sit down right at that front table in the clubhouse. I knock it out real fast,” Keller said.
“Well, it’s not real fast at all. It usually takes me a while, so I’ve just got to make sure I get it done before we go to our pitchers meeting with Cal (Eldred, the pitching coach) and the catcher, it’s usually Salvy (Perez), and then I’m all set for the start. Ready to go. I’ve got my brain locked in at that point.”
Keller’s pregame activity began during his rookie season in 2018 after a suggestion from pitcher Jason Hammel, who was in his final season with the Royals. Hammel was an avid crossword puzzle fan and told an initially skeptical Keller he knows more than he might think.
That indeed proved to be the case for Keller, who was 5-3 last season with a 2.47 ERA. Now it’s a tradition that has rubbed off on others. Greg Holland, Wade Davis, Scott Barlow, Jake Newberry and Brad Brach all do crosswords, but perhaps not with the same dedication as Keller.
Other teammates will stop Keller and ask to help.
“There are a lot of guys who kind of jump in and then some of the other guys will see you doing it in the clubhouse. They’ll come through ask for a question and try to get it,” Keller said. “It’s pretty fun.”
ANSWER KEY
1 ACROSS: Two
3 ACROSS: Blues
4 ACROSS: Yost
6 ACROSS: Piniella
9 ACROSS: Busby
10 ACROSS: Moore
12 ACROSS: Jackson
14 ACROSS: Rojas
15 ACROSS: Howser
16 ACROSS: Soler
18 ACROSS: Kauffman
19 ACROSS: Sluggerrr
20 ACROSS: Leibrandt
2 DOWN: White
3 DOWN: Brett
5 DOWN: Saberhagen
7 DOWN: Livestock
8 DOWN: Cain
10 DOWN: Merrifield
11 DOWN: Davis
13 DOWN: Appier
17 DOWN: Otis
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 9:33 AM.
