Starting at Shawnee Mission South and ending up on a MLB mound with the Los Angeles Angels, Mike Morin’s baseball journey was filled with ups and downs. Being surrounded by friends and the right influences Morin was able to get to the biggest stage.

“A lot of my closest friends, I really met through baseball,” Morin said. “We started playing baseball together in elementary school. So I just have a core group together. We grew up together and then maybe added somebody else. But honestly, the majority of my friends, specifically in high school, are just like my core group of baseball buddies that I met, some as early as being in elementary school.”

As a freshman, Morin didn’t have the talent that most know him for, but he had a fire in him and a will to win that was unlike most.

“His competitive attitude. I mean, it didn’t matter, because I had him in PE classes, it didn’t matter what we’re playing, it was playing to win,” former head baseball coach Mitch Wiles said.

Morin first made the varsity team as a sophomore and even though he didn’t contribute much and ended up getting hurt, he was still able to develop relationships with the team and play with his friends.

Morin started to separate himself his junior year and prove he was one of the better players on the team.

“I mean, that was the biggest thing talent wise, there were guys in the league and stuff that were maybe more talented. But talent only gets you so far,” Wiles said. “You want to go somewhere more, and then it becomes yours, your attitude and willingness to work and those kind of things, and just having that goal and never letting anyone say you can’t. Don’t listen to anybody. Just go and get after it.”

Morin’s biggest moment in his high school career came in a game at Kaufmann stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, against SM East.

“So I was, like, our, you know, the ace of the team my senior year, and we went up against East, and they had their best pitcher. He was a pretty big prospect, like he was 6’5”. Threw unbelievably hard at that time. He was like the guy that everyone kind of looked on, super projectable body already threw hard.. So there’s a lot of eyes on that game just because of this guy,” Morin said.

But with all those eyes on him, Morin made the most of his opportunity.

“I showed up to that day and had one of the best outings I’ve ever had, and the Royals scouts that were there saw it and sent a scout to the rest of my starts that season,” Morin said.

Morin started to gain attention and ended up getting drafted in the 40th round of the 2009 draft by the Royals.

Morin committed to Iowa Western Community College before his senior year and was intending on going there until a much greater opportunity presented itself with one of the top division one programs in the country, University of North Carolina.

Morin’s Mom Leatha Cline helped make the UNC connection through facebook. After a friend saw the hometown prospect drafted by the Royals he reached out to UNC.

“He sent an email on my behalf to the North Carolina coaching staff saying, ‘Hey, there’s this kid in Kansas that is really good, and he has got drafted. You guys should consider taking a look at him’,” Morin said.

At the time Morin didn’t know any of this was going on and out of nowhere, got a phone call that would drastically change his trajectory.

“I got a phone call from the pitching coach from North Carolina called my house and was like, ‘Hey, Mike, yeah. How’s it going? When do you get to pitch?’ and I was like ‘well I’m gonna pitch in a couple days and he goes, alright, well, I’m gonna fly out and I’m gonna come. I’m going to come watch you pitch,’” Morin said.

Morin’s next game was a great performance and led to a change in his decision.

“So I was playing in this against college competition already, and they came out and watched me play, and I struck out 16 batters in eight innings,” Morin said. “Three days later, it was the fourth of July, 2009 I was in Chapel Hill with my father, and I signed, decommitted and signed, my letter to go to North Carolina.”

Morin spent three years at UNC. His sophomore year, they made it to the college world series in Omaha.

“We ended up going to the College World Series that year,” Morin said. “We actually played in the first game of TD Ameritrade. So George Bush, the president, threw out the first pitch, we had a flyover with stealth bombers. There were 30,000 people there. It was just like the most unbelievable experience at that age.”

After Morin’s success at UNC, he was drafted in the 13th round of the 2012 MLB draft to the Los Angeles Angels. His journey to the big leagues began there and it was a two-year journey to get to the big leagues.

“It’s like you couldn’t be farther away from the big leagues the day you get drafted. Like you got to go pay your dues and rookie ball and learn that stuff. It’s a whole new thing that you’re figuring out for the first time,” Morin said.

With the struggle that is minor league baseball, it’s important to find a friend and someone you can train with.

“Mark Stockington and I became close. We got so much stronger. It was just like I had a guardian angel that came down. We were each other’s best friends and shadows and trying to accomplish the same thing. He was extremely physically gifted, so he really, really pushed me in the best way possible, because he was so much stronger than I was. And so when we were working out, it just massively increased my strength,” Morin said.

All that hard work paid off in 2013 when he was awarded Angels Minor League Pitcher of the Year. That momentum carried into 2014.

“I got invited to major league camp, but I was the first person to get sent down to minor league camp,” Morin said. “By April 27 I got called up to the big leagues. So three weeks later I got the big news,and I made my debut on May 1 of 2014.”

Big league debuts are special for any player, but for Morin he got to debut in one of the most iconic stadiums in baseball against one of the most historic teams to ever play: The New York Yankees.

“It’s indescribable. I got called up on it on April 27 and my very first game that I was a part of was in Yankee Stadium. So really, the very first day that I ever spent was in New York City, playing against the New York Yankees, and that was an indescribable experience,” Morin said.

Then he came back to Los Angeles making his home debut against the then Cleveland Indians, now the Guardians.

“I had no idea where the ball was going, absolutely no clue. I think I threw, like the very first pitch I ever threw, I think was a pitch slider, and it got smashed to right field for a single and
and then the next guy flew out to center field, but I had no idea where the ball was going,” Morin said. “My adrenaline was so wild, thankfully, I didn’t spiral into anything crazy.”

Morin played in the big leagues through 2020. Making it to the big leagues is one of the greatest accomplishments for any baseball player.

“In order to succeed you need to find a small group of people that are trying to accomplish the same goals as you,” Morin said. “So it’s so important to stay true to yourself and your values and what it is that you want to do and not try and fit in and do things that aren’t aligned with the best version of yourself and who that person is and where they’re trying to go.”