On Pitching & Pollen (One Sixty-Two: Day 21)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Twenty-One: Brandon Morrow, Toronto Blue Jays

Last spring, I mowed the lawn three times with the gas-powered Honda mower I’d been using for years. All three times, I awoke the next day with an allergy explosion in my head. This spring, Katie embraced the beautiful weather that mid-April brought, only to end up in the house for several days of nebulizer treatments. Chelsea goes out to play in the yard with the dog each day, then comes in and sneezes through a tissue box. For Amy, the process is simple: Breathe in pollen, sneeze, feel mucus settle into sinuses, then drive to doctor for antibiotic.

Spring is, for many of us, the most beautiful sensory season. And yet, it’s also the most difficult season for many in terms of health. As the pollen swirls around us, we wonder how something so lovely can be so frustrating at the same time. Should we go outside or not? Such is the quandary of spring for the allergy sufferer.

We long for some consistency, some stability, to this season. In the world of baseball, there are teams across the country looking for stability as well. From allergies, sure. But more than that, from pitchers. Nearly every team can tell you about a guy who has all the tools to throw incredibly well, yet can’t seem to put it together. He’s like the spring weather – he looks so good, but toss in a little pollen and he’s making you sick. For this kind of pitcher, the pollen takes the form of bases on balls, or poorly placed pitches, or mental struggles that leave him battling himself on the mound, rather than his opponent.

Brandon Morrow is 25 years old, 6-foot-3, and blessed with a thunderbolt for a right arm. He can strike out anyone, at any time. He was drafted with the fifth overall pick in the 2006 amateur draft, and he has experienced high expectations every day for the past four years. And while he’s wowed them with the strikeouts, Morrow has amazed baseball watchers with his wildness.

In 232 innings pitched so far in the majors, Morrow has struck out 250 batters. That’s tremendous. But he’s also walked 154 hitters, culminating in Monday’s debacle in which he walked six Red Sox hitters before leaving the game in the second inning of a game his team would lose. Of course, Morrow also struck out four Boston hitters, and he only gave up three hits. But the hits will hurt you badly if you give free passes to six other guys.

When Morrow throws a heater past the man at bat, it’s a thing of beauty to see. But far too often, the beauty ends up turning into a beast as those deliveries sail far and wide. Something has to change; perhaps a look back at the basics of his windup.

I’ve gone back to basics as well. After spending a week in the house with an allergy-induced sinus infection last June, I gave up on mowers with engines. I dropped the Honda off with friends who’d just moved to Jersey from the city, and purchased an old-school, blade-rotating reel mower. It doesn’t work that great, and the grass lacks that clean, crisp cut that it used to have. But this mower cuts the grass gently, so I don’t get allergy symptoms from mowing the lawn anymore. I’ve also gone back to allergy shots, to build up my immunity.

I’m trying to adjust so that I can enjoy the spring. It’s too wonderful to give up. In the same way, I hope that Brandon Morrow can find a way to work through the rough spots and blossom, once and for all.