Sadly for us, Prior's story a short one
Two headlines, one blessed and the other cursed, eerily intersected on mlb.com over the weekend.
"Peavy happy to have joined White Sox" and "Padres part ways with oft-injured Prior."
Around here the former was accompanied by fanfare and the latter by fan snickers.
Still, maybe it's just me again, but something about the apparent end of Mark Prior's baseball career is sad.
No, not for the former Cubs pitching phenom. Prior was a little too distant - earlier emotionally and lately geographically - for too many locals to feel sorry for him.
My sympathy is for baseball fans generally and Cubs fans specifically. There never are enough great players to go around, and Prior was expected to be great before a series of injuries broke him down and blew him up.
Think of what the music industry missed because Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and others died sooner than later.
That's what I'm thinking about Mark Prior's career. A contemporary of new Sox' ray of sunshine Jake Peavy, both are 28 years old and each should be entering his prime.
Peavy is so good that the Sox traded four promising pitchers to get him from San Diego and agreed to pay him at least $52 million over the next three seasons.
Meanwhile, Prior's minor-league salary was $15,000 this season, yet the struggling Padres still appear done with him because his arm just couldn't stay healthy.
During 2003-04-05, Peavy compiled a 40-24 record with ERAs of 4.11, 2.27 and 2.88. Over the same period, Prior was 35-17 with ERAs of 2.43, 4.02 and 3.67.
These were two of the game's future stars, but Prior was considered the future star of stars. Two scouts told me back then that, age and salary aside, Alex Rodriguez was the only player they would take for Prior.
When Roger Clemens came to Wrigley Field with the Yankees in search of his 300th victory, Prior was the pitcher I chose to talk to about the milestone.
Why him? Because he had something like 11 career victories at the time but was projected to win 300 games during his career - heck, maybe 400 or 500.
That was then and this is what seems like a lifetime later. Today Jake Peavy is a Bigfoot and Mark Prior an itty-bitty footnote.
Theories abound about Prior, including that he's just another guy blindsided by the Cubs' curse.
Some insist Prior must have used steroids that led to his body crumbling. Some blame ex-Cubs manager Dusty Baker for overusing him. Some believe pitchers like Peavy simply are tougher.
Regardless, I hate having to wonder "what if Mark Prior had stayed healthy?" Pitching records shattered? The Hall of Fame? My goodness, a couple of World Series in Wrigley Field?
Think of what TV viewers would have missed if "Seinfeld" and "Law and Order" were canceled after a couple of seasons, which is sort of what happened to Prior.
Anyway, hopefully Jake Peavy will be fortunate enough to not only finish his career a decade or so from now but to complete it as well.
You know, as opposed to Mark Prior leaving us with a huge "might have been."