As the great expectations surrounding the ascension of Stephen Strasburg to the Nationals reach their peak today, and the long-suffering fans of Washington baseball wait for their savior to ride into town, it is important to take a step back and examine the fate of other pitchers who arrived in the major leagues surrounded by comparable expectations.
And in doing so, one concludes that great caution should be exercised before premature comparisons to the likes of Walter Johnson are made.
We can stipulate that Strasburg has pitched with remarkable success in his dozen minor league appearances, and has demonstrated the rare combination of a fastball at times exceeding 100 miles per hour and a knee-buckling curve ball.
We can confidently take the word of the many baseball professionals and journalists who have witnessed his remarkable exploits in the minor leagues. But we should also understand that in baseball, as in life, it is hard to argue with the notion that there is nothing new under the sun.
While Washington baseball fans would rather forget the sad year of 1971, after which owner Bob Short moved the Senators to Texas and initiated a run of 33 years without the national pastime in the nation’s capital, it is instructive to remember what happened in June of that year.
With the second pick in the amateur draft, the Senators selected a pitcher named Pete Broberg from Dartmouth. Like Strasburg, he had a blazing fastball and tremendous anticipation surrounding his arrival in DC.
The Senators, a bad team anxious to boost their attendance, brought Broberg straight to the major leagues. And while he pitched for seven seasons, Broberg was never able to reach his enormous potential, finishing his disappointing career with 30 more losses than wins.
Just two years after the Senators moved to Texas and became the Rangers, the franchise drafted a pitcher named David Clyde, who had been undefeated with a microscopic ERA in high school.
Expectations surrounding Clyde were even greater than with Broberg, and Clyde also was brought directly to the major leagues. After a promising start, Clyde faded into obscurity, and arm injuries ended his career just three years after it started.
Speaking of long-suffering fans, none can compare to those of the Chicago Cubs, now 102 years removed from their last World Series victory. And they can recount chapter and verse of the shooting stars of their recent history, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.
Few pitchers arrived on the major league scene with greater success than Wood, who struck out 20 batters in one game early in his rookie season and inspired comparisons to the greatest pitchers in major league history.
But injuries soon took their toll, and Wood has become little more than a better-than-average relief pitcher in Cleveland. Prior was a similar case, demonstrating greatness early, and then succumbing to a series of injuries that effectively ended his career after five seasons.
None of this is to suggest that Stephen Strasburg will not be a great, or at least very good, major league pitcher, nor to dampen the deserved enthusiasm that accompanies his arrival in town.
But it is to suggest that baseball is a game that is not only extremely difficult, but also unforgiving. It can be especially cruel to pitchers, who are forced to place a type and degree of stress on their arms, shoulders and elbows that is wholly unnatural.
And we do our best prospects no favors by surrounding them with anointed status before they have thrown a single major league pitch.
Tim Donner is co-host, along with Phil Wood, of Talkin’ Baseball, the Washington region’s only radio program devoted exclusively to baseball, heard on the Fan, 106.7 FM, Sundays from 4-6 pm.
