If preparation is the key, and it always has been with Mark Prior, then this one might confound him.
How, after all, does one prepare for the unknown? How will Prior deal with the two factors that constantly buzz about but have never really landed on him?
How will he handle the expectations and pressures of a superstar status he appears to be barreling toward full tilt? And at the same time, how will he cope with the seemingly inevitable letdown he has somehow managed to avoid thus far in his storybook career?
“Yeah, you really have to search for struggles he has had, don’t you?” says Kerry Wood, who knows firsthand of the trials of unbridled early success.
Cubs manager Dusty Baker characteristically gets right to the point: “You never know how he’ll handle any of it until it happens,” Baker says.
It hasn’t happened. Prior, who turned 23 Sunday, takes a seven-game winning streak, a 15-5 record and a 2.41 earned-run average into Thursday’s scheduled start against the Montreal Expos. A shoulder bruise suffered in a baseline collision with Atlanta’s Marcus Giles on July 10 cost him a berth on the All-Star team and caused him to miss three scheduled starts, but since returning Prior has been the best pitcher in the National League.
It wasn’t supposed be this easy, not even for a prospect touted as the best college pitcher ever in one scouting survey, and Prior seems to realize it. Ask him, for example, about his most humbling moments on the mound and he eagerly tries to come up with a quick answer, as if to prove he has had them. Really.
“I was just drafted by the Yankees,” he says, going back to his senior year in high school, “and I think it was the next day–I got lit up. If you think you’re above things, you’ll be in trouble. I never take this game for granted.”
With Prior, there is always a lesson to be learned, a way to get better, smarter, more prepared.
He willingly brings up poor outings against Houston in May and St. Louis last season and adds, “I’m going to have more of them.”
If he seems almost too intent on telling us that, it is only because he has seen what Wood has gone through.
“Unfortunately,” Prior says, “Kerry Wood has two or three bad starts and it’s `What’s wrong with him?’ The perception is that he should strike out 20 guys every day, and it’s unrealistic.”
Prior acknowledges being aware of expectations but says he has a simple way of dealing with them.
“I do my running, throwing and lifting, everything I can do to get ready for the game,” he says. “And after that it’s up in the air.
“I’m sure there is always going to be criticism in my career from the media and accountability to the fans, but my job never changes.”
Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild has observed how Prior has handled adversity and is impressed.
“He’s been through the [collision] and games when he didn’t have his best stuff,” Rothschild says, “but he was still able to hang in there and show toughness.”
Prior is a student of the game, an observer who has learned some of the most valuable lessons from watching and listening.
“The older pitchers will say, `You’re going to have great games and bad games and you can’t do anything about them,'” Prior says. “But it’s what you do with the mediocre games, when you have trouble with your location. I guarantee Roger Clemens goes out lots of times with ordinary stuff. A lot of times it’s willing yourself to win.”
Cubs general manager Jim Hendry says Prior is “more mature at his age than any player I’ve ever seen,” and Prior’s teammates have acknowledged that by voting him player representative.
Those who know him say his maturity will serve Prior well as he continues on a path that seems destined for superstardom.
Prior may be just as well equipped to handle criticism. When he was at Southern Cal, the story goes, Prior’s parents, Jerry and Millie, framed an action photo of Mark and hung it on the wall between pictures Mark already had mounted of Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens.
When he saw it, Mark was horrified and had his parents take it down.
“He was mad that I framed a picture like that of him,” Jerry Prior told the San Diego Union-Tribune two years ago. “For us it was parental pride. But it made him very uncomfortable. He just felt it was a little too much.”
He believes it’s a little much that reporters want to talk to his family these days and respectfully asks that they please don’t try.
Prior is eager, however, to correct what he believes is a common misconception about his baseball upbringing and his father’s involvement. Jerry Prior, a Loyola Academy grad, was a football player at Vanderbilt, “and he just wanted all of us exposed to the proper techniques,” Mark says. “All of us” includes brother Jerry, who played tennis and baseball, and sister Millie, who played college tennis.
“My father got hurt playing football and he didn’t want to see his kids get hurt,” Mark explains. “He didn’t know baseball. He did not want to be a dominating father or a Little League parent, but everybody has made it out as if he groomed me to be in the big leagues.”
A chance meeting with Tom House led to a collaboration that continued through college. House, a former big-league pitcher, is thriving as a new-age pitching instructor in Southern California. He was at a game to watch his son play against a team featuring Prior, a talented but raw 15-year-old who was shelled that day. House knew he could help.
Prior’s support group, if you will, soon expanded to include Jim Brogan, a former NBA player who worked on Prior’s mental approach. Prior scoffs at talk of the “entourage” of specialists that groomed him for stardom.
“My father was just very supportive and wanted to protect me like most parents try to do,” he says. “My mom (an educator) was low-key, but probably more hardcore into academics. She really instilled discipline in all three of us.”
It is that background, as well as Prior’s own low-key demeanor, that should keep him on an even keel as he approaches the next level of fame, not that he necessarily looks forward to it.
“I kind of like where I am right now,” Prior says. “It’s weird being here in Chicago having grown up in San Diego and L.A. There, they maybe know Tony Gwynn or Kobe or Shaq, but they’re more excited to see Tom Cruise. Fans go to games late and leave early.
“But fans here are die-hard. I walk around with my head down sometimes because people know my face. They’ll call me `Mr. Prior,’ which is still mind-boggling. I try to take it all in stride.”
Prior’s coach at USC, Mike Gillespie, has thought about Prior’s burgeoning celebrity.
“As this thing has escalated, it’s clear this guy is like Elvis now–it’s nuts,” he says, laughing. “And I wonder myself how people like that who continue to succeed can deal with it.
“We all wish we had his ability, but it does bring with it a certain amount of difficulty. As much as anyone could deal with it, he’s the guy. He brings a focus to his work that he’s not going to let anything interfere with and there is no runaway ego. He’s as grounded as a human being can get.
“But outside work, as it relates to `Can I go to a restaurant? How do I say no to the ultra demands?’ It’s something he never anticipated.”
Prior is still adjusting to the everyday realities of pro ball.
“This game is all about making adjustments,” he says. “I was used to high school and college, where you have the same guys on your team every year. Here you have constant turnover with managers, players. I’m still getting used to getting to know somebody and then turning around and they’re not there. It’s weird.”
When it comes to keeping his ego in check, Prior vows that if friends, family and teammates don’t keep him in line, baseball always will.
“This is a very humbling game, a game that can bite you in the butt,” he says. “It’s built on very negative statistics. A good hitter gets a hit 30 percent of the time he’s up to bat. You’re not a good shooter if you hit 30 percent in basketball. No other sport is so negative.
“But it’s funny: That’s the thing I love. Every time you show up, there is something to learn.”
A 7-game hot streak
A look at the game-by-game log of Cubs pitcher Mark Prior since he returned from the disabled list on Aug. 5.
DATE OPP RES IP H R ER HR BB SO PIT ERA*
8-5 at S.D. W 3-0 6 2 0 0 0 1 6 79 2.87
8-10 at L.A. W 3-1 9 5 1 1 0 1 9 116 2.76
8-15 vs. L.A. W 2-1 9 7 1 1 0 0 5 118 2.65
8-20 at Houston W 6-0 7 4 0 0 0 1 9 100 2.54
8-26 at St. Louis W 7-4 8 3 1 1 1 1 6 116 2.47
9-1 St. Louis W 7-0 8 5 0 0 0 3 8 131 2.36
9-6 at Milw. W 8-4 7 10 3 3 1 1 7 129 2.41
Streak 7 starts 7-0 54 36 6 6 2 8 50 789 1.00
Pre-DL 19 starts 8-5 128.2 116 53 43 11 34 150 2115 3.01
Year 26 starts 15-5 182.2 152 59 49 13 42 200 2904 2.41
*–ERA for season; PIT–pitches thrownSource: STATS, Inc.
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How Prior stacks up
A look at how Mark Prior’s first two seasons stack up against Tom Seaver, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens and Dwight Gooden in their first two full seasons in the majors:
PITCHER YRS TEAM AGE ST REC. IP H ER BB SO ERA
Prior 02-03 Cubs 21-22 45 21-11 299.1 250 92 80 347 2.77
Seaver 67-68 Mets 22-23 71 32-25 528.2 448 145 126 375 2.46
Martinez* 94-95 Dodgers 22-23 54 25-15 339.1 273 131 111 316 3.47
Maddux 87-88 Cubs 21-22 61 24-22 404.2 411 185 155 241 4.11
Mussina 91-92 Orioles 22-23 44 22-10 328.2 289 96 69 182 2.62
Clemens 84-85 Red Sox 21-22 35 16-9 231.2 229 100 66 200 3.88
Gooden 84-85 Mets 19-20 66 41-13 494.2 359 110 139 544 2.22
*–appeared in one game in 1992 and 65 games in 1993, 63 of them in relief.
Source: baseball-reference.com
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