The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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70 THE WOLVERINE SEPTEMBER 2019 WHERE ARE THEY NOW? ris faced a major league decision. He certainly made his mark at Michigan, with two Big Ten titles and a career batting average of .373. The average tied him with teammate Casey Close for the third highest ever by a Wolverine, just three points behind Hayward's best-ever .376. The New York Yankees drafted Close in the seventh round, Morris in the eighth, and Kamieniecki in the 14th, an amazing achievement in itself. But the "student" in Morris' student- athlete designation wasn't for display purposes only. The biology major stood ready to give up his senior season anyway, to concentrate on the demands of school. He wound up signing with the Yan- kees, an organization that allowed him to skip the fall instructional league and come back to Ann Arbor to work on his degree the two years he was with them. "Besides winning the World Series, getting the call that you're going to the big leagues is probably the most thrilling day in your baseball career," Morris said. "Once you've been there, you're a big leaguer. It's something you work for, for so many years. "It was a huge thrill to be able to call my parents and tell them I was going to New York. If you look at that team back then, they had Tommy John, Ron Guidry, Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, Jack Clark, Willie Randolph, Dave Righetti, John Candelaria … all these guys I had grown up watching, for 15 years. I'm looking down the bench and these guys are sitting there. It was a surreal experience, to say the least." Mattingly was an All-Star, and not going anywhere. So two years into his major league career, Morris found him- self dealt to the Cincinnati Reds, where he rejoined Sabo and Larkin. A Cubs fan growing up, Morris wasn't particularly fond of his new team. "I hated the Reds, and I hated the Phillies," he recalled with a laugh. He didn't hate the Reds long. In his first year in Cincinnati, the Reds reigned as the kings of baseball. They captured the World Series title in 1990, sweeping the favored and defending champion Oakland Athletics in four games. "We were on the edge of our seats every single day," Morris recalled. "We ended up going wire to wire, in first place from day one, with people chas- ing us. We didn't play well near the end, but at the playoffs we collected ourselves and were ready to go against the Pirates, then against Oakland. "We were really lucky to get through Oakland. They had a phenomenal team. We got some injuries during the series, and were lucky to win in four, because I don't know how much lon- ger we would have held on." Morris hit a career-best .340 that year, the first of his 10 seasons in Cin- cinnati. He wound up with a career av- erage of .304, spraying the ball to every exit over 13 major league campaigns. When he retired in 2000, he kept the promise he made to his mom upon leaving Michigan. He finished his biol- ogy degree, then went on to an MBA at Stanford. He has worked in business and baseball ever since, presently combin- ing the two with X10 Capital, a San Francisco-based fund making equity investments in top athletes. He is still living the dream. "Sometimes I'd be out there on the field, and you have these aha mo- ments," Morris said. "I'd look up, and I'd be in a major league stadium. It kind of dawns on you, what you're doing. It seems like an out-of-body ex- perience, and I'd have to snap out of it and concentrate. "That happened to me, not infre- quently, where I'd look around and say, 'Wow, what are you doing here?' It was all attributable to my time at Michigan, frankly. If I hadn't gone there, and had the coaching and been able to play with the players I did, it never would have happened." ❑ The Hal Morris File Michigan Accomplishments: Hit .373 in three years for Michigan (tied for third all time), earning two Big Ten titles and first-team All-Big Ten honors in 1986 … Hit .421 in 1985, the fifth-best single-season average ever at Michigan. Professional Accomplishments: Played 13 seasons in the major leagues, with the New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers … Became a World Series champion in 1990 with the Reds, posting a career-best .340 batting average that year … Hit .304 over the course of his career … Has been a scout for several major league teams, including acting as the director of professional scouting for the Los Angeles Angels from 2012-16. Michigan Memory: "On the baseball field, I hit a home run that helped us win the 1986 Big Ten championship against Wisconsin, which was a real per- sonal highlight," Morris said. "My Michigan experience, overall, I just think of my relationships with teammates and coaches. "It was so special back then, and it's lasted all these decades later." Education: Earned a BS in biology from Michigan in 2002; earned an MBA from Stanford in 2005. Family: Morris and his wife, Alyssa, have two daughters — Audrey, 6, and Henriette, 4. Morris also has two sons — Luca, 21, and Will, 20. Morris, who has worked in business and baseball since ending his 13-year Major League Baseball career, and his wife, Alyssa, have two daughters — Audrey, 6, and Henriette, 4. PHOTO COURTESY HAL MORRIS Morris hit a career-high .340 while helping the Cincinnati Red win the World Series in 1990. PHOTO COURTESY HAL MORRIS