• October 11, 1999
• Vol. 52
• No. 14

Throw and Tell

Gifted with a 98 Mph Fastball, Teacher Jim Morris Goes from a Texas Classroom to Baseball's Big Leagues

The Reagan County High School baseball team had a beef. Not about their field in Big Lake, Texas—where dust from a nearby rodeo arena sometimes stops games—but about batting practice. According to the kids, coach Jim Morris, a former minor leaguer forced out of the game a decade earlier by arm problems, was making pitches that they just couldn't hit. "The team used to tell me I was throwing too hard," says Morris, 35, who also taught science, "I thought they were complaining because they didn't want to take batting practice." Finally, he proposed a deal: If the team made the state play-offs, he would try out for the major leagues.

The kids did their part, and in mid-June, Morris did his, dazzling scouts with his 98 mph fastball. Within a week Morris had signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and, with the blessing of wife Lorri, was launched on one of the most improbable baseball adventures this side of Kevin Costner. After posting a 3-1 record at the Devil Rays' Durham, N.C., farm club, the big lefthander got his call to the majors last month. On Sept. 18, against the Texas Rangers, Morris entered the game in the eighth inning, becoming the oldest big league rookie in nearly three decades. As Lorri, a college admissions officer, and the couple's three children looked on, Morris struck out Royce Clayton on four pitches. "My 8-year-old is ecstatic—he took that ball to school," says Morris. "My 5-year-old just wants me to come home."

Unfortunately for little Jessica, Daddy still has work to do. He's headed to the Arizona Fall League, where teams send their most promising prospects. "It's been an unbelievable journey," says Morris. "It's strange to go from signing report cards to signing autographs almost overnight."