Fan Obsessed With L.A. Dodgers Finds Career

April 2

Sarah Morris doesn't just watch every Los Angeles Dodgers game. She obsesses over each one.

Her life revolves around a Web site she created called Sarah's Dodger Place (www.dodgerplace.com). It provides a listing of every Dodgers game, and Morris' incisive commentary on the players' performances.

"She was basically covering the Dodgers, writing stories that nobody but her mother would read," said Bill Plaschke, a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, Morris was sending him e-mails, blasting him for what she though was less than stellar coverage of her favorite team.

"This person thought I was an uninformed, self-absorbed writer who didn't understand the Dodgers and didn't understand the game," Plaschke said. "And the e-mail was so researched and so biting, yet so fair and that made it very unusual for me."

Doesn't Miss a Game

Over time, Plaschke responded to dozens of Morris' e-mails, learning that the pen pal he never met was a 31-year-old Dodgers fan who grew up in California then moved to Texas, with her divorced mother, to a house they inherited.

When she can't get the games on television, Morris listens to her beloved team using Internet audio of Dodgers games.

"I sent her an e-mail, saying: you know you could really take all this knowledge you have and go work for your local paper and she sent back a note saying: well, no, I really can't because I'm handicapped," Plaschke said.

At the time, Plaschke did not know that his e-mail pal has cerebral palsy, and no control over her hands or her feet. She wears a bonnet because she has no hair. The Social Services Department in Texas told her she was too disabled to work. The news left her heartbroken.

Surviving on Disability and the Dodgers

So, Morris survives on disability checks and the Dodgers. She wrote to Plaschke that her dream was to be a Dodgers columnist, but she misspelled dream, writing "deam" instead. But Morris had a good excuse for the misspelling.

"She sends back another e-mail saying this is all made harder because of the fact that I [Morris] have to type with my head," Plaschke said.

Morris uses a head pointer to slowly type on a computer, which is programmed to read back her sentences, such as "The Dodgers suffered a crushing defeat to the San Francisco Giants six to four last night "

But when Plaschke got Morris' e-mail telling him about her condition, and how she types, the writer was skeptical.

The Real Sarah Morris

"I didn't believe any of it. That's it. That's too crazy," Plaschke said. "There's no way I believe it. And I sent her back an e-mail saying, Sarah, let me call you and we'll talk about it. And she sent back an e-mail saying, 'No, you can't call me. I can't talk.' "

So, Plaschke went to Texas to see for himself whether there really was a Sarah Morris.

"And then I get closer. And I see two or three old wheelchairs sitting in front of the house and I realize: my gosh, this is it — this is where this person lives," Plaschke said. "And I open the door and there's Sarah. She's probably 87 pounds, and she looked very tiny in a big wheelchair and when I sat down I almost cried right there on the spot. I was ashamed that I thought Sarah was a phony."

At first, Plaschke couldn't believe that Sarah's mother, Lois, understands everything her daughter tries to say.

As strange and even upsetting as Sarah may sound to outsiders, theirs is a language that's quite natural to the inseparable mother and daughter.

When Bill Plaschke wrote about Morris, Los Angeles Times readers besieged the Dodgers to hire Sarah as a columnist for their Web site. They did.

A Paid Writer

Morris is now a paid writer for the team's Web site, read by tens of thousands of Dodgers fans.

"They took advantage of the wildness of the Giants' pitchers," Morris wrote in one of her columns. She still has some learning to do, her boss said.

"Is Sarah Morris a very good writer? Right now, no. And you know what? She'd be the first one to tell you that," said Ben Platt, the Dodgers' Web site manager. "But is Sarah Morris working at being the best writer she can possibly be, while covering a team that she loves dearly? The answer is: Yes."

The opportunity to write and learn has changed Morris.

"She's becoming more and more independent," said her mother, Lois Morris.

"It takes hard work to achieve anything," her daughter says, speaking through her mom. She still works in a little house in Texas, writing her stories, pouring her heart out.

"Sarah Morris is the kind of person that makes you want to hug your children. Just hug 'em forever and it makes you want to stop and talk to the neighbors," Plaschke said. "And, you know, she is the kind of person that makes you appreciate, you know, everything you have, and realize everything that you can do."