Joe Henderson / Tampa Tribune

It was just another Saturday afternoon three months ago in a tumbleweed town two stops from nowhere on the central Texas prairie.

It was really too hot for this sort of thing. The mid-June sun sent 104 degrees to bleed the patience and enthusiasm from Doug Gassaway as he waited for 70 wanna-bes to finish wasting his time at a tryout camp for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“Not a one of ‘em could play a lick,” he said. Gassaway, a regional scout and graying baseball lifer who has sent more than 90 players to the major leagues, had spent about two hours in that oven when he looked at the last guy in line.

Jimmy Morris. He was carrying 25 pounds more than he should around the middle. He had a baby in his arms, one holding on to his legs, and he was pushing a third in a stroller.

Morris was 35 years old and looked it. His hairline was receding, there were flecks of gray around the temples. He wore softball pants. Gassaway rolled his eyes.

“I looked at him and said, ‘C’mon Jimmy, I’m hot and I’m tired. Let’s get this over with so I can go home,’ ” Gassaway said.

What happened next cannot happen anywhere except the movie of the week. In those moments that followed, Jimmy Morris became The Natural, or Kevin Costner in a cornfield, or any other bit of Hollywood sap you can swallow – except this was very, very real.

Ask Royce Clayton of the Texas Rangers, an accomplished big-league hitter who struck out against Morris on Sept. 18 on four very, very hard pitches in a game at The Ballpark in Arlington.

Or ask Jim Edmonds, Mo Vaughn and Tim Salmon of the Anaheim Angels – combined salary this season, $16.1 million. Morris set them down in order two nights later.

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