Being a Prodigy Has Downside : Dodgers’ Morgan Says He Was Pushed Into Majors

He was 18 years old, one week out of high school in Las Vegas and pitching in the big leagues.

A dream come true? Not for Mike Morgan, the Dodger pitcher who was almost as much a novelty for Charlie Finley and the Oakland Athletics on June 11, 1978, as Jim Abbott was for Gene Autry and the Angels Saturday night.

“I was 18 years old and raw, and it killed me,” Morgan said. “It didn’t kill me as a person, but it killed my career.”

Mike Morgan will turn 30 this October. This will be his 12th season in professional baseball. The Dodgers, who acquired him from Baltimore for minor league outfielder Mike Devereaux in March, are his sixth big-league team. He has won 34 games and lost 68, the worst record of any pitcher with more than 20 decisions in the major leagues.

Before he was 20 years old, Morgan made nine major league starts and lost all of them.

“I’m my own worst enemy,” he said, “because I learned how to lose, right out of high school, not how to win. I learned it was easier to lose than win. Usually, it’s the other way around.

“You look at the stats, and then you see me throw, and you think, ‘He has great stuff, what happened?’ But I lost my pride and my confidence.”

The Dodgers represent one more chance, maybe a last chance, for Morgan, who was scheduled to make his first start Tuesday until rain washed out the Dodger-Brave game Saturday, changing Manager Tom Lasorda’s pitching plans. Tim Belcher, originally scheduled to pitch Saturday, will go today. Orel Hershiser is scheduled to pitch Monday in San Francisco, followed by Tim Leary Tuesday. After that, Lasorda said, he’s undecided.

“All those years in the game, and suddenly I look up and I’ve been here 11 years,” Morgan said. “It’s gone by so fast. I still have so much to learn.

“But it’s good because I’m in the National League, and I’m 0-0 over here. I feel like this is my first year in the big leagues, and I’ll have to see what happens. . . . Stuff-wise, my career is still pending.”

Eleven years ago, the A’s were unwilling to wait for Morgan, just as the Angels have decided that the time is now for Abbott. But if there are parallels in their situations, Morgan also acknowledges the differences.

“He’s 21 years old, not 18,” Morgan said. “He’s pitched college ball (University of Michigan), the Olympics, things like that.

“I just dominated guys in high school ball, I never got knocked around. He’s been knocked around, he’s been beaten in college. And he was in a big-league camp. At least he got to pitch there.

“You’ve got to hope he does well. Just from the interviews I’ve seen on television, it seems like he’s gotten himself together.”

Morgan did not embarrass himself on the night he made his debut. He pitched nine innings against the Baltimore Orioles and lost, 3-0, to Scott McGregor.

“Wayne Gross dropped a foul fly, then Lee May hit a two-run homer off me,” Morgan said.

He made two more starts, lasting a total of three innings, and within a week he was in the minor leagues.

The next season, he was 5-5 with triple-A Ogden, Utah, when Oakland pitcher Mike Norris was injured, and he was called up again, only to suffer through a 2-10 season.

“It was tough,” he said. “You’re 2 and 13 and still a kid, and you should be pitching in rookie ball or Class A. The L’s were piling up. No W’s were piling up.”

And soon, Morgan found himself on an endless shuttle, going from the A’s to the New York Yankees to the Seattle Mariners to the Orioles, before winding up with the Dodgers. He won 11 games in 1986 and 12 in ’87 for the Mariners, but in no big-league season did he ever win more games than he lost.

“I’ve got to establish confidence again and do the job,” he said. “There will be rough days, but I’ve got to learn how to forget about them. Usually, I take a poor outing into my next one, which makes things worse.

“Things have been tough, but the game’s been good to me, because I’ve had opportunities. I’m not looking behind, I’m looking ahead.”

Like Morgan, other Dodgers will be watching Abbott--at least from afar--with interest.

“My only concern,” said Dave Anderson, the Dodgers’ player representative, “is if they’re pitching him only because they’re trying to sell him.

“I think that has crossed everybody’s mind. But if he’s legitimate and getting people out, that’s great. “Bob Horner made the jump (from college to the big leagues) and did it very successfully. Pete Incaviglia did it very well.”

Orel Hershiser spent a five-year apprenticeship in the minors after pitching for Bowling Green State University.

“But I wasn’t as talented as he is,” Hershiser said with a laugh. “I don’t think they’re using him (to sell tickets). The Angels are a good organization, and if they have a top prospect, they’re not going to ruin him.

“He sure got people out in spring training. It’s not like he got ripped in spring training and still made the team.”

Tim Leary, an All-American at UCLA, was three years out of school before he made more than just a cameo appearance for the New York Mets, the team that signed him.

“Physically, (Abbott) apparently has the ability,” Leary said. “Now, if the Angels are going to let him start, then they’re going to have to stay with him through some rocky times, too.

“He might take off and do outstanding, but if he does struggle, the thing they have to guard against is the guy going down to the minor leagues and becoming mentally frustrated, which would set back his progress in the big leagues.”