Rookie, The

It isn’t just the physical aspects of pitching that count in professional baseball. It’s also a pitcher’s mental composure that makes the best batters "go down swinging." Early in his pro career, Morris had plenty of physical ability. But what about that other, crucial factor?

...my biggest problem wasn’t my arm; it was my head. I didn’t face batters with the belief that I would dominate them. I did it with the fear of screwing up. (The Rookie, page 83.)

In other words, to BE a winner Morris had to believe he COULD be a winner. That confidence, for him, came neither easily nor quickly.

Then came the injuries. Before he reached the upper echelons of minor league baseball, Jimmy had a sore left arm. It hurt too much to throw 110 pitches a game. Before he was 25, he had two major operations on his pitching arm:

• January, 1986 - "Tommy John surgery." (Scroll down 10%; on the right-hand column, click on "How the Tommy John surgery works.") Using a patient’s healthy wrist tendon, doctors replace a damaged elbow tendon. Morris’ operation did not go as planned. His surgeons (Frank Jobe and Robert Kerlan) had to transplant an ankle tendon because they could not use his wrist tendon.
  
  
• Spring training, 1987 - Blown-out shoulder. Pitching well after his tendon transplant, another part of Jimmy’s pitching anatomy gave out.

I wound up, and as my arm approached the release point, it froze. The ball flew out of my hand and sailed high over the plate, hitting the left edge of the backstop about twenty feet up. I grabbed my shoulder and knew right away it was serious. (The Rookie, page 127.)

After that surgery, the Brewers released Jimmy Morris. He was out of pro baseball. Temporarily.