Keith Anderson Stays Competitive

Keith Anderson photo courtesy of Sony BMG Nashville.

Oct. 1, 2008 — Long before he built his career as a country singer, Keith Anderson had his eye on professional baseball, and he snagged some interest from the major leagues, too.

Unfortunately, his first showcase for a pro team also destroyed his chance of ever playing in the big leagues. The Kansas City Royals asked him to work out for them, and he ended up tearing his rotator cuff at the beginning of the tryout.

"I was invited to Royals Stadium to try out there, and was just nervous," he told the national radio show GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. "I was one of the youngest kids on the field, and I had a real strong arm, and until I warmed up, it was a pretty wild arm. I didn't take the time to completely warm up, and the second throw to third, I knew I'd really hurt it, and so that was the end of that. And then the next season, I was just having to doctor it up with all kinds of stuff — [including] shots — and had a great season and was invited back and had a really good tryout that year, but once I got to college, I had to have surgery on it and just didn't recover."

With Major League Baseball’s playoffs beginning Wednesday, you know Keith will be following the action. But whatever pangs of regret he may have, they’re now tempered by the knowledge that the baseball injury allowed him to refocus on music, where he’s done quite well. In fact, the video for "I Still Miss You" remains in the Top 5 on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown almost nine months after it was first released to radio. In the meantime, he’s just released a follow-up single, "Somebody Needs A Hug."