Steve Cilladi (82) during Spring Training in 2015 (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Steve Cilladi’s lifetime professional statistics read like the baseball version of Oliver Twist.
Forty games. Seventeen hits. Two homers, one triple, no doubles. Six walks, three times hit by pitch. Thirty-five strikeouts.
That’s what the ledger shows for five seasons. Please, sir. I want some more.
But Cilladi is no unfortunate, and he would rebel at the very thought of it. He is a man of means, ambition and perspective — Dodger bullpen catcher today, who knows what tomorrow?
“To me, negativity is an absolute distraction,” Cilladi said. “The time that’s used to complain or mope or whatever else, can be time better utilized for the person next to you or for you, and I really take that to heart. Why am I going to complain? If I have a negative thought in my head, I’m going to turn that into something that can either be productive for myself or that’s going to help the person next to me, and I think that’s something we need more of.”
