In July, 1991 the Boston Red Sox called up a young pitcher named Kevin Morton to start against the Detroit Tigers. In the hangover of Independence Day Morton took the hill and proceeded to spin a total gem, a complete game five-hit victory for the Olde Town Team. Morton, already the Sox’ best pitching prospect, received instant hero status, and was projected out as the heir to Bruce Hurst, one of the few lefties to succeed in Fenway Park.
Needless to say things didn’t turn out as expected. Morton made sixteen starts for the Red Sox that season, but didn’t pitch in the majors again in his career. He went 6-5 in ’91, had an ERA of 4.59, and was out of baseball completely by age 26.
We get excited about young players, especially those who impress in their debut, or very early on in their first-team career. Today Emile Smith Rowe scored a beauty for Arsenal, and we’ve all seen his bending belle of a ball on Twitter, we have been hearing about his skills for some time. We need to not project this out. We need to let players develop, let coaching happen, give them room to fail, perhaps only then will they gain greater success. I worry about how much pressure we place on these prospects, when their eventual success at world-class level is so difficult to project (think of the excitement over “The Jeff”, not so far in the past). That success requires so many things to go right (and, perhaps more significantly, to not go wrong) – elements which are often outside their control.
So while today was a burst of brightness from a teenager – fun to see, giving us starry visions – we ought to withhold just a bit of our irrational exuberance and learn from Kevin.