Mike Morgan

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Michael Thomas Morgan (born October 8, 1959 in Tulare, California) is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who competed for twelve different teams from 1978-2002, currently the major league record.

Morgan was selected by the Oakland Athletics in 1978 as the fourth overall pick in the major league draft.

Morgan made his major league debut on June 11 of that year with Oakland. He spent two seasons with Oakland before spending the 1980 and 1981 seasons in the minor leagues.

In 1982, Morgan resumed his major league career with the New York Yankees. In 1983, he played for the Toronto Blue Jays. He spent the entire 1984 season in Toronto's farm system before being chosen by the Seattle Mariners in the Rule 5 draft in December of that year. Morgan played for the Mariners from 1985-1987. He spent the 1988 season with the Baltimore Orioles. He won the Little League's Junior Cy Young honor that year for humanitarian work.

From 1989-1991, Morgan pitched for his sixth team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Morgan's first winning season came in 1991, his lone All-Star season, with a 14-10 record. However, Morgan was also known for an infamous footnote. On July 28 of that year, he was at the losing end of Montreal Expos pitcher Dennis Martinez's perfect game, even though Morgan himself was perfect through the first five innings.

From 1992-1995, Morgan pitched for the Chicago Cubs. In 1992, he went 16-8. In 1995, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. After being released from the Cardinals in 1996, he signed with the Cincinnati Reds and spent the remainder of the 1996 and all of 1997 with the Reds.

In 1998, Morgan signed with the Minnesota Twins. He was traded later that season to the Cubs. He went to the postseason for the first time, but the Cubs lost to the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series. In 1999, Morgan joined his 11th team, the Texas Rangers.

In 2000, the 40-year-old journeyman signed with his 12th and final team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Morgan was a reliever who was also an emergency starter. In 2001, Morgan and the Diamondbacks won the World Series in seven games against the New York Yankees. Morgan retired in 2002 with Arizona. He was the last active player to have competed during the 1978 season and one of the last four (the others being Jesse Orosco, Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines) to have played during the 1970s and continue to play past the 2000 season.

In the 597 games Morgan pitched, 411 were starts. His career record was 141-186 with a 4.23 earned run average, 1403 strikeouts and eight saves in 2772-1/3 innings pitched.

Morgan was tied with journeyman NHLer Mike Sillinger and MLB journeyman pitcher Matt Skrmetta for the most teams played for in any North American professional sport through 2006. However, Morgan's record was broken in 2006 when Skrmetta joined his 24th professional team and 13th organization in June of 2006. ^[1]

[edit] See also

• List of baseball players who went directly to the major leagues

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• The Baseball Cube: Morgan's complete professional career