By Bob Markus



Eddie Stanky, when he managed the White Sox, had a favorite expression he used whenever an opposing pitcher threw a gem at his team. "He's another Walter Johnson," Stanky would say sarcastically. Is it only a coincidence that the newest "another Walter Johnson," pitches for Washington, as did the original.? Stephen Strasburg, of course, cannot hope to duplicate the record of The Big Train, who won 417 games for the Washington Senators in a 21-year career. He pitches in a different era, where pitch counts rule and a complete game is as rare as a Nessy sighting in Scotland. Johnson completed 531 of his 666 starts for the Senators. Strasburg has started only five games in the majors (completing none)and already is being touted as an All-Star game performer. I'll admit I'm as impressed as anyone by what I've seen of Strasburg. His debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates was quite possibly the most eagerly anticipated in major league history. The result was stunning--no walks, 14 strikeouts and a big, fat W alongside Strasburg's name in the box score.

But as a one-time Cubs fan I can't help remembering the excitement caused by Mark Prior's first major league start under circumstances amazingly similar to Strasburg's. Prior, too, had received a then-record bonus for signing with the Cubs as the over-all No. 2 draft choice out of USC. That he wasn't, like Strasburg, the No. 1 selection was largely due to the fact that the Minnesota Twins, with the first pick, felt obligated to take hometown prospect Joe Mauer, a decision that proved to be justified when Mauer became a batting champion and MVP for the Twins. Like Strasburg, Prior's first big league appearance was a much-hyped start against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and, like Strasburg, Prior proved to be the real deal. He struck out 10 in his six innings and got the win. When he dominated National League hitters the next season and led the Cubs to within five outs of their first world series berth since 1945, there wasn't a Cubs' fan in Chicago who would have traded Prior for Mauer or any other big league player. Then came the infamous Bartman affair in which a fan named Steve Bartman caught a foul fly that Cubs' outfielder Moises Alou swears was headed for his glove. I've never believed that to be true. The ball was not in the field of play and in my mind it was doubtful that Alou was going to reach far enough into the seats to make the catch. Had he done so, the Cubs would have led 3-0 with two outs and nobody on in the eighth and quite likely would have been celebrating a few minutes later. As it was, they unravelled completely and not only gave up eight runs in the inning, but got rolled over the next night with their other ace pitcher, Kerry Wood, on the mound.

Wood, too, was a can't miss phenom who, in his fifth start as a 20-year-old rookie, pitched what many consider the greatest game in baseball history. He gave up only an infield single while walking nobody and striking out 20 Houston Astros. After the blown chance in the league championship series, it was all downhill for both young pitchers. Injuries piled on injuries for both. Prior hasn't pitched a game in the majors since 2006 and only today came word that he was going to give it another try by putting his once-electric stuff on display for major league scouts in a session at Southern Cal. Wood is still pitching, but in a relief role, one in which he has had mixed success. The Cubs offered further proof that early success is no guarantee of future stardom just last week when they placed Carlos Zambrano on the restricted list after his meltdown in the dugout at White Sox Park. Zambrano was a dynamic pitcher for the Cubs until they rewarded him with a mega-million dollar contract and he rewarded them by going in the tank.

The Cubs, of course, aren't the only ones who've seen incipient super stars fire and fall back. The Detroit Tigers' Mark (the Bird) Fydrich was the talk of baseball when, as a rookie in 1976 he went 19-9 and enchanted fans everywhere with his exuberance. He was to last only four more years and win 10 more ball games in the majors. He died just this year in a freak farming accident. Then there's the largely unremembered story of Bobo Holloman, who, in his first major league start, threw a no-hitter for the St. Louis Browns. I remember it, because I was a student at the University of Missouri and heard the game on the radio in my dorm room. Holloman who apparently had mediocre stuff, had his at-'em ball working that night. It was the only complete game of his career and before the year was out he was in the minors, never to return.

But the poster child for caution when forecasting a brilliant pitching career undoubtedly is Herb Score. The flame-throwing left hander, whom Stanky most certainly would have called "another Lefty Grove" burst on the major league scene at 21 and for the first two years was, indeed, a potential Lefty Grove. In his first five games he recorded 50 strikeouts, a mark that still stands He led the American League in strikeouts both seasons while posting won-lost records of 16-10, and 20-9. Then came the day early in the Cleveland star's third year when the Yankees' Gil McDougland labelled a fastball "return to sender" and caved in Score's face . Score was never the same after that and eventually left the mound for the broadcast booth. There are few things in life more fragile than a pitcher's throwing arm, which is why when I was covering the White Sox, owner Jerry Reinsdorf would never give a pitcher a long term contract. So, appreciate Stephen Strasburg for what he is--a dynamic young pitcher with a world of talent and a seemingly unlimited future. But don't be calling him another Walter Johnson. There was only one Big Train. With his two big league victories, however sensationally they were achieved, Strasburg is still only a Little Caboose.