Warren Morris

[William Malone]

Warren Randall Morris was born on January 11, 1974 in Alexandria, Louisiana.

His name was etched in baseball lore forever when he hit a walk-off home run for LSU to win the College World Series in 1996. The Tigers were down to their final out, trailing Miami by one with a runner on base. Morris hit a wall scraping home run over the right field fence, walking off the Hurricanes and flipping the game's result. It was the first home run of the season for Morris, who missed most of the year with a broken hamate bone. He won Showstopper of the Year at the 1997 ESPY Awards.

The Texas Rangers drafted Morris in the fifth round of the 1996 MLB Draft. The draft was held on June 4th, a few days before his heroic home run on June 8th. Morris didn't sign right away, playing for Team USA in the summer Olympics and earning a bronze medal. Negotiations were dragged right up to the deadline, but the two sides eventually came to terms. He began his professional career at the High-A level in 1997.

Morris blossomed into one of baseball's best prospects, and hit .331 at the Double-A level in 1998. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a deadline deal for Esteban Loaiza that year, and Morris cracked their Opening Day roster in 1999. His rookie season in Pittsburgh was fantastic, hitting .288 with 15 home runs and 73 RBI. This was good for a third place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting, coming in behind Scott Williamson of the Reds and Preston Wilson of the Marlins.

He was never able to reduplicate that 1999 season, and the Pirates released Morris following the 2001 campaign. The Minnesota Twins signed Morris, expecting him to compete for time at second base with Denny Hocking and Luis Rivas. All three of them made the Opening Day roster, but Morris was quickly sent to the minors as the odd man out. He went 0-for-7 in four games with the Twins, which included two starts. Minnesota never called him back up to the big league roster, and he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in June for a player to be named later. That player became minor league shortstop Seth Davidson, who never got above Double-A in his professional career.

The final big league action for Morris came in 2003 with the Detroit Tigers. He played 97 games for them that season, batting .272 with six home runs and 37 RBI. Morris spent the 2005 season in various minor league systems, and retired right before spring training in 2006. After his playing career ended, Morris moved back to Louisiana and began working in banking.

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