Stlcardinals.com
April 27, 2001

Morris' "Sense of Self"

By Derek Glanz

The qualities that make Matt Morris a successful pitcher are easy to discern during a simple conversation with him, when Morris reveals his perceptiveness, thoroughness and energy.

Before Friday's start against the New York Mets -- his first start against them since August 21, 1998-- Morris shared a look at the thought processes that translate into physical success as he returns full time to the starting rotation. The 26-year-old righthander missed all of 1999 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in spring training that year and pitched entirely out of the bullpen last season while building arm strength. But even with a two-year absence from the rotation, neither his stuff nor his mental sharpness abandoned him.

"Each time out there I'm figuring out my game a better and better," says Morris, the first Cardinals pitcher to go past five innings in spring training and the first to pitch well in back- to-back games in the regular season. "Each time out there you're throwing pitches and getting results. You're seeing ground balls off pitches that you throw away and seeing jam shots off pitches that you're throwing in. So you keep making those pitches and you keep executing them because you believe in them. After a while you stop thinking about them and that's the level you try to get at."

Morris' speech reflects an acute "sense of self," where mind and body meld into one when he, like any pitcher, is throwing well. One gets into a rhythm.

"That's the level you want to get at," says Morris. "Every time you take the mound you want to know what pitch you're going to be throwing next. Youre going to fire one pitch and when you're walking back to the rubber you know what's coming next and you know what's going to happen. When you get to that level you're going to be on top of your game."

By all accounts, including his own, Morris' stuff, which features a nasty mid-90s sinker ball - is back. Morris thinks he is a better pitcher now than back in 1997 and 1998, when he posted ERAs of 3.19 and 2.53, because of what he has seen rather than done.

"I'm smarter, definitely."

"I'm more comfortable and I know what's going on."