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Baseball And Family - Sorting Out Priorities
by Norman and Ann Bales
All About Families

Sportswriters used to think of baseball as "America's favorite past time." With declining attendance figures, multi-million dollar contracts, and a recent strike that prematurely ended a season, there's some question as to whether you can say that anymore. To make matters worse, they have corrupted the sport with aluminum bats (admittedly not at the major league level yet), expansion teams, and the designated hitter rule. Even so a lot of young people still want to play the game and everyone who does dreams of wearing a big league uniform and playing before thousands of fans.

Jim Morris was one of those young men. He had enough talent to get a look by the Yankees, Brewers and White Sox, though he never made it out of the minor leagues. He had a good fastball, but developed arm trouble in his twenties and went on to other things. He got married, became a father, developed a relationship with God and went to work at a real job, teaching science and coaching high school baseball in Big Lake, Texas, which is a long way from Yankee Stadium.

Jim's players complained that he threw too hard in batting practice. Frustrated by his inability to motivate the team, he made a deal with them. He promised to attend open tryout for a big league team if they would win their district championship. After facing the coach's fastball in batting practice, they decided their opposing pitchers were easy to hit. They won the championship.

The coach kept his end of the deal and attended an open session offered by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. At first the Tampa Bay people thought there was something wrong with their timing machine, but then they realized this overweight, 35-year-old high school coach could throw a 98 mph fastball. He was quickly signed to a major league contract and became the oldest rookie to enter the major leagues since 1970. He played for two years, but chose not to accept a spring training invitation to try out for the Dodgers earlier this year because of tendonitis.

It's a great story. It reminds us of The Natural and Field of Dreams. But this one is true. However, we were most impressed with the rest of the story. His story is published in a book, The Oldest Rookie. In a review of the book, Harry Stein writes, "Morris lays out how, during the long years of frustration, he learned to be successful in ways that never occurred to him when he was a stud athlete; by setting educational and professional goals and systematically working toward them; and even more so in his roles as husband and father." -Modern Maturity; May-June, 2001.

Life doesn't always turn out the way we plan it. Sometimes we have dreams that cannot be realized. Though his early dream was thwarted, Jim Morris received something far more valuable than his moment in the spotlight. He didn't play in Yankee pin stripes and he probably never had the opportunity to make small talk with George Steinbrenner, but he received a greater blessing by learning to appreciate the importance of being a husband and father.