Mike Morin: Finding Peace

Ben BeeriWhat was your first memory of thinking to yourself, like, hey. Like, I wanna be a professional Major League Baseball player.

Mike MorinIt really was never a thought, I think, to be honest. Right? Like, you I my mom sent me, like, some some thing that I wrote when I was, like, 10, and it's like, you know, I'm Michael Morin, and I'm afraid of snakes, and I love Kansas basketball. And when I grow up, I want to be a Major League Baseball player. Like, that actually does, like, fact check it. Like, I do have that. My mom sent me that. But genuinely, she also didn't tell me when I was five years old to go throw a tennis ball against the wall.

Like, bro, I would literally just go out for hours on end and throw a tennis ball against our garage. No one told me to do that. And so I think that there is something that's very important and that each person it doesn't mean don't pursue your dreams, but each person is meant to be here for the greater good of humanity and the quantum like collectiveness of consciousness and that everyone has a role. I genuinely do believe that as well. And so it's like not shutting down the person that's intuitively drawn to X. It doesn't matter what it is drawing music, like engineering, like coding.

Like, it doesn't matter. It's like, do you have this innate fire that no one told you to do that you just genuinely love? And for me, for whatever reason, it was me throwing a ball. I no one taught me how to do it. My mom and dad, they weren't like Olympic athletes. My dad wasn't a professional baseball player. Like, from a genetic perspective, like, I was granted with good height and athletic ability, but, like, also my parents aren't exactly like phenoms from an athletic sense. It was just like, dude, it was just genuinely what I was brought into the world to do. I do believe that.

And at minimum, being able to now having gone through that, now utilizing that experience, that platform to now do good after baseball in whatever that is. It was just like that was my platform. That was like my training ground. It's like the last ten years of transformation prepared me for this moment in whatever unique way that is. That's the question that I ask myself as I did I agree to come down here from above and experience every single one of these things almost as if it became choiceless and that it was going to happen no matter what?

That is a question that I like, did I choose my parents? And did I choose the life that I've lived up until today? Or did I have a massive choice every single day that led me to this moment of this actual fate or destiny of you are going to come down as a soul, and you are going to experience this, this, and this, and this, and this, and you will get. Right? So if like for every positive and or negative, you're agreeing to go through X, pain and or suffering and or triumph and or defeat, in order to then by the end point, even if your life is taken too soon.

Did you agree upon that coming down here?

Ben BeeriSo I've been studying over the last years, I've been studying Kabbalah. And in Kabbalah, we believe that your soul chooses everything that's going to come in your life. And that down to the smallest detail, you go through the motions, and you get to experience anything that can be good for you, can be not as good for you, but possibly better to you as a person, things that can trigger you and trigger your soul's correction and things that you need to kind of work through. There's gonna be different challenges that continue to come up in your life until you work through them a certain way.

And it's interesting because when I was younger, I would look at certain things. Like, I grew up. I went to school. I didn't have very many friends. Things were difficult for me. I was the outcast kid. I went through a few more years of school, and I got kicked out of school. And it's like those were some very tough times. And being a kid and not having friends to begin with and going to these different schools didn't make it any easier on making friends, and things got a lot worse before they got better.

And I look at things now, and I look at my genuine desire to connect with people as authentically as I can and how much gratitude I have for the people that I have in my life and the friends that I have. And I'm just so grateful. And I feel like had I not went through what I went through when I was younger, struggling to connect with people, that I wouldn't have the level of gratitude I have for it today. And the level of gratitude I have for my genuine friends today, people like yourself, people that are in my life on a consistent basis right now, like, I'm so grateful for that level of gratitude.

And I look back and I say, okay. My soul chose this early on in my life, so I can develop this later on in my life. And I look at things now, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Mike MorinWell said, I appreciate you sharing that. I think my I think we all want the answers and I'm searching for answers because I have so much transformation happening in my life and I'm just trying to ground down whether it's financial stability or a routine or a child that sleeps or, you know, like a newfound purpose or a newfound business that helps people. And so I think like it's Okay for me to be where I'm at. And I do try and give myself grace. But then it's like, what would you say if something keeps coming back even though you think that you learned the lesson? Right? So it's like if something keeps popping up and you feel like you've done the work, why does it keep coming back?

Ben BeeriMaybe you've got to do the work in a different way. Yeah, I'm curious. No, genuinely like workshopping it. Yeah, no, that's believe that I mean, something keeps coming back in your life. You have to continue to relive a certain situation. It's like you're meant to go down a certain path, and whatever the situation is will continue to prevent it to present itself until you

Mike Morinchoose to go in x direction. But what happens if you feel like you've already gone in that direction and you feel like you

Ben Beerihave worked through it? Then have you really actually gone down that road fully without shortchanging yourself? I don't know. Yeah. No. It's it's a That's the question you have to ask. Like, how deep have you really gone? I mean, okay. You're an outfielder. You're tracking a home run. Ball's gonna go slightly over the fence. Do you just reach up? Did you jump up? Did you scale the fucking wall? You didn't scale the fucking wall. Yeah. Ball's going to get hit over your head again.

Mike MorinThat's fair. I just think it's it's an interesting call this. It's just an interesting thing that's been on my mind recently. I've talked about trying to remove self limiting beliefs and everything's happening for you, not to you. The things that and then it kind of goes to this in my mind, like these things that are choiceless, that you are not wanting to choose or experience in this three d reality. And you feel like you've done the work, and it might keep popping up. And it is caught all for the greater good. And there is there, of course, like another lesson to be learned. But it's like, is it just fate?

Is it just something you already signed up for? Is it something that your soul agreed upon, even though you don't necessarily want to experience whatever it is you're projecting might be fear because you don't have control over it? And did you choose that before you came down here? Is like where my mind goes is like, is fate and destiny, and what are you actually in control of, and all of these different things. And so that's really what's made me dive into being like, Okay, there might be something going on that I don't love.

For whatever reason, I know at the end of it, it will make me a better person. But I'm kind of tired of the tape of the discomfort. Right? Like, can only take so much. You can only take on so much pressure over and over and over. And it's like, but is it pressure that you're just putting on yourself? Right? Is it not actually scary? Is it not actually x? Is it this story that you're making up in your mind? And why does it keep happening? It's been very thought provoking. It's been on my mind of what is choiceless?

What are certain things that are just meant to be part of your story, no matter if you do or do not want that to be part of your story.

Ben BeeriAnd also, is fear and what is anxiety? Are either of those even real? Like or is it are you just kind of triggering it yourself based off of something that you may be uncomfortable of the potential result that lies on the other side. And the discomfort that you're experiencing can often be because sometimes the best things that can come out of life are on the other side of fear and or anxiety. Absolutely. You're walking out to Yankee Stadium, like, on your first, like, game, you get called up. It's like, yeah. Like, what's the level of fear? What's the level of anxiety? Like, am I going to play? Am I going to perform? My family's gonna see me here.

And it's like, what really lies on the other side of fear or anxiety. And I almost feel like anytime we feel fear or anxiety, we should ask that question as to what's lying on the other side of this because usually it's something that's so profound in our lives that we wouldn't be feeling the fear or anxiety if it wasn't something that was profound or significant or that would help us have a significant breakthrough in our lives.

Mike MorinAbsolutely. You know, I think learning to be comfortable, being uncomfortable, looking at it from the lens of this is a growth opportunity. And because I'm experiencing discomfort or fear or anxiety, these emotions of energy, it matters. Yeah. And so I guess as I try, like I said, I have to practice ultimately what I'm preaching and that it's like if I'm genuinely as a soul trying to connect to my highest timeline to have the biggest impact, certain things are going to happen in my life that are going to allow me to become the person that can actually sit here and talk about being the guy that has been forged in the fire and that has come out, call it bigger, faster, stronger. Right. Like the the idea of just this continued pursuit of excellence is something that I'm striving for and ultimately allowing and like wanting to choose growth through discomfort, even if it ultimately means it's not something I really want to experience in the three d reality.

Sure.

Ben BeeriAnd you think of the challenges that you face, like what are some of the most significant challenges you faced in your life? Well, mean, the baseball thing has so many different spider webs. When

Mike Morinyou're in the public eye performing and you're not performing to the level, it's hard to drown out the noise internally or externally from random people that are pissed off because they bet on your team to win and you blew the game. Or just like some person that just loves the team that you're playing for and they're just genuinely upset because they just love being a part of a team or a community, even if it's from their TV 1,000 miles away. And so that has, I guess, been the catalyst of wanting to be better and wanting to do better is because I've just had the privilege of, so far, been under a little bit of a microscope, mainly put on myself, of just wanting to do big things.

Mean, dude, like there's been I've been so blessed to have an amazing life experience. Right. Like, I didn't grow up in poverty. Like, yeah, my mom, like, wasn't like she was grinding. But like, dude, I have had such a beautiful life in comparison to so many other people. I've got to experience so many amazing, amazing things. And so it's like, boo hoo, something happened to you. Right? You know what I mean? Like, it could always it's perspective based. But like I said, it doesn't matter where you're at in life. If something feels big or something feels bad, it feels bad. Yeah. No matter who you are or where you came from or what your previous life experience was, whether you were a silver spoon child or someone that grew up without shoes. You know what I mean?

So I think big picture, like, dude, I'm genuinely grateful for so many of the things that I've been blessed with, like a Rusty Edmister or, you know, being able to experience, you know, being a professional athlete for ten plus years. But like, call it, you know, with with, you know, great power comes great responsibility and having to own up to mistakes, whether it's publicly or it's all I think what I've learned so much and one of the main like catalysts has ultimately just been like, call it my life on and off the field in the public setting of not talking about and presenting myself like I was perfect.

Right. Like we all have done things that we learned from that hopefully we don't do again, that maybe we don't want to air our dirty laundry, if you may. Yeah. But it's kind of like where I'm like really growing a lot is like this public type of perception that I've put on myself. And it's all just like ego based. Right? Like, it's just like you want to because you are X. Everyone expects you to be X. And if you're not X, then you've failed. Right. And so you like want to keep up this like public perception of I'm perfect or my life is perfect or and so I think I hope I guess I'm grateful for you asking the question because it's making me think of it in a way into which I haven't thought of it very recently.

And ultimately it just ends up being like fear and ego based of I'm not perfect. Right? Like, that's just like the things that I've done, the things that have led to all of this transformation were built on lower energy vibrations that were egotistical based on fear, anxiety, burnout, depression or, you know, shame or guilt or fear. And ultimately, it's like, who's judging me? And why do I care about who's judging me if ultimately, like the people that only care about the people that truly care about me are going to love me no matter what.

Right? Like they're going to love me no matter what and no one is perfect. And so like I'm having a hard time telling people that I wasn't perfect and that I made mistakes. Right. And just like showing the vulnerability of like, don't have it all together. Right. And I think like the power of being able to utilize a platform, even to something as small or as simple as this, like this isn't small. I don't mean to diminish that. But like globally speaking, there's a lot of other big things going on. And it's just like I want to judge myself less and I want to be more open and honest and transparent because so many people are going through so much.

And if my imperfections can allow other people to understand like how important mental health is and how important self limiting beliefs are and how important like your life being impactful no matter what and choosing excellence and greatness daily and not falling in the trap of instant gratification and mediocrity. Like if I need to be an example, like that ultimately makes my pain and suffering and discomfort like worth it if I'm able to share it in a way that I am. The more open and honest and vulnerable that I can be, the more real I become and not this perception of I'm Okay and I have it all together. And that's been the biggest catalyst of all of the things, like I said, that have happened on and off the field in my life.

It's like it just boils down to me being able to feel safe enough in my own skin to say, dude, I'm not perfect and I'm working on it. And I think like that in itself is is freeing. That in itself is lack of, you know, this hardcore self judgment of perfectionism of I need to be perfect.

Ben BeeriThat's powerful.

Mike MorinYeah. Thanks for bringing that out.

Ben BeeriIt's powerful. Yeah. And we all really like. Take a look at ourselves and when we feel like, hey, we've hit a certain level that other people perceive as successful, we now have this bar that we set for ourselves that it's like, can no longer show myself as below this. And if somebody else sees me as below this, they're going to think less of me. Yeah. Exactly. But we're all going through our ups and downs. And we all end up in spots where we are less than what we're perceived as. And also, it seems like it's very common that other people perceive us as

Mike Morinmore than what we are. And I think that is the like definitive balance of like who you perceive me to be or who I perceive you to be is most likely a better version of our own worst enemy and harshest critic. And like that is something that I genuinely want to work on for myself, of giving myself more grace and more forgiveness and being like, Okay, but I have this weird tape in my head that I need to be this guy. Like this guy, right? Yeah. That was ingrained in me, call it, in 2014 or '15. And now it's brought to ten years later. And that has been probably the most uncomfortable thing and the hardest thing is the public perception or the perception of everyone that you come in contact with of presenting yourself as if you have it all figured out and being vulnerable enough to be to drop the ego, to leave it at the door and find people, find platforms where you can open up and be honest about, man, dude, like I'm dealing with something, I'm going through something. And I'm sure somebody else is like me being able to share some of my story

at a high level, hopefully resonates with somebody else going through that. And I deeply believe that I alluded to it earlier in the podcast about the best people learn from other people's mistakes. And that rings so true. And it's like, if I can try and help or you can try and help someone based upon something that you have gone through or something that I've gone through of like, whether it's just like this perfectionism or this platform of needing to be perfect or presenting to be perfect or and not really being able to be vulnerable enough. It's like it kind of just ends there, right? Like if there's no actual sense of direction of accountability for actions that you're not proud of, then how could you possibly help somebody going through something if they don't know how not to do it?

And I think like that is something as baseball has now ended and every day that I get farther away from it, I'm able to create a better mindset. But I'm also able to really kind of go back and realize, man, dude, like I wasn't Okay. Everyone was just trying to allow me to I put up so many barriers that everyone just was like, Okay, well, my parents had to use to reach out to Amy because I wouldn't respond to them because I was doing bad. And so I didn't have the mental capacity to be Okay and let them know that I was Okay. And all they wanted to know was if I was Okay. So they would like reach out to Amy and be like, is Mike Okay? Because they couldn't even like get to me and like what that burden put on both my parents and my friends or my wife and just like allowing them, unfortunately, to go through something like silent suffering as I was suffering, but I was doing about it the best way that I knew how, which is internalize it, bury it, work on myself, and then I can present myself as I'm X to the world.

And it's just like not how to go about it, ultimately. And it just all boiled down to my inability to have to let people in. I put up so many walls and so many barriers, and just like, I was like, I'm not enough. And I'm only enough if I'm this. And so I'm just going to stay down here, live in density, keep working on myself. And all of a sudden you look up and it's like eight to ten years later. Like that's a significant amount of time for my wife having to deal with that. It's a significant amount of time for my mother and father. And there was plenty of highlights in between. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't just all stink.

But like really, like that is what happened. And that is why I get emotional is because it's not just about when you're causing yourself pain, so be it, right? If there's a level of self sabotage or self loathing that like you have to like learn. But when it starts impacting other people that you care so much about, I think like that is why I'm sad. It's like the people that love you the most, you ended up like hurting. And yeah, I'm grateful that there's still you know, supportive, if not more. And I think everybody is happy that I'm, call it, on the other side of it and looking to do good.

And that's all that I can do, right? Like you can learn how not to do it again. And so when you feel yourself starting to go down the rabbit hole of like, bro, that's not the way to go about it, that doesn't that didn't work. You trying to harbor and carry the weight of the world on your shoulders for a long time without being able to have resources in place like mental health resources or like a sports psychologist or just a friend that you feel like you can be vulnerable enough to say, I'm not Okay.

Like that's what I would hope moving forward that there's just better systems in place. It's come a long way, specifically in baseball, of like in mental health. Like it's not a buzzword, but it's definitely becoming more and more popular to be able to openly express what it is that you're going through. And so I think like big picture, view, like systems are beginning to get put into place. But if I could go back, I would say that oddly enough, one of the best months that I ever had was actually after one of the worst years that I ever had. So we get to the apex of 2014.

I'm good, the angels are good, life is good, this shit's easy. And the last day of spring training of 2015, I hurt my elbow. The second to last pitch of spring training. We were in the man. So the Angels and the Dodgers always finish spring training by playing a freeway series. They're exhibition games, but they happen in the big league stadiums. So, like, there'll be a game in Anaheim and two games in Dodgers or I think it flip flops every year. And, dude, and I, like, threw a pitch to Corey Seager, and all of a sudden, like, my elbow out of nowhere, dude. Like, I legit most of the time, like, you did you're, like, slumming it, and, you feel bad, and you know that you feel bad, and you know you're not okay. So you just but you just keep going. This one kinda came out of nowhere. I I was feeling excellent. I hadn't given up a run all spring training. I'm like, bro, I'm nasty. I'm literally so good. 2,014, I'm great. And now I'm also super nasty.

So, like, I'm nasty. And dude, out of nowhere, I threw a pitch, and out of nowhere I started feeling this burning sensation in my elbow. But I had so much adrenaline. I'm in Dodgers Stadium. You know, it's packed. And I'm like, out of deep in my subconscious, I'm like, woah, dude. I'm like, I think I did something to my elbow out of nowhere. Like I said, I've had elbow injuries before, and most of the time, they're kind of like, you can tell. Yeah. This one came out of nowhere. And the next pitch, like, throw some bullshit excuse me, language. I throw some bullshit change up and, like, he, like, grounds out to second base, it's, the end of spring training. And then, like, Mike Sosha's like, dude, congratulations. Like, you did it. You made the team and good job. And I'm like, sick. Cool. But I'm like, I go in to do like my workout protocol and I'm like doing this stuff.

There's like this thing they call it like a mojo and it's like works on your forearm. And I like went in like to do it and I like zap a pain in my elbow. And I like dropped the mojo. And I'm like, holy shit. Like, I'm not okay. Not okay. But dude, we're taking a flight to go to Seattle and opening day is right around the corner. Like, we got a day off tomorrow. I'll be fine. And dude, and I ended up just like, experienced a ton of pain and discomfort that lasted maybe like, I don't know, two months.

And I finally like blew out my oblique. So it was like this short reset. But it was like I was I didn't want to say that I wasn't okay. I didn't want to tell anybody I wasn't okay. And like, I would go and like opening night, it's like, come in seventh inning, we're winning. Mike, you're going in and like my elbow is killing me, but the second I got on the mound dude, 50,000 people opening night, like that shit goes away. So I was like, alright, this is manageable enough. I'm experiencing a ton of discomfort. I just had my first ever anxiety attack in the Grand Hyatt of Seattle, and I'm freaking out all the time, and I'm really messed up for the very first time, and I have no idea how to deal with it. But when the lights come on, my velocity is there and I can keep getting people out. So I was like, well, I'll just suck it up.

And I did that for a couple months and like it didn't go well. And like my ERA was like a thousand. I finally like blew out my elbow or blew out my oblique. And so I was like, thank God I have like a three week reset of like, I can heal my elbow while my oblique is healing. But anyways, dude, 2015, right after like this apex of 14 was like, dude, this like beginning descent into like having an anxiety attack, having extreme pain, like the second I wake up. And it's like, how am I going to manage that? And spending all day getting ready to prepare for this game.

And the rest of the year, it didn't work out well at all. And like you had mentioned earlier, it's like the rosters expand in September. So like I was pitching and then I wasn't doing well. And then ultimately, like I end up getting sent down, which was a massive fall from grace. Like previous year, you're like a guy not getting sent down to the minor leagues. Well, now I like stink have like a million ERA. And they're like, bro, you're bad. Go to the minor leagues and figure shit out, which is like I totally deserved it. They stuck on for months because I had built enough equity of proving that I could be a valuable asset.

Dude, I just remember I put on a bunch of weight, not healthy weight. I'm going through all this stuff and there's these guardrails that, like, the teams have of, like, making sure that, like, you're okay. There's a sports psychologist there. You have to, like, weigh in every couple weeks. Like, if there's anything, like, beyond the scope of normal, like, then they'll, like, help you out. And dude, we had this strength and conditioning coach. And he I was, like, kind of venting to him. Like, he knew that I was going through it and had been going through it all year.

And one of the other one of the other like employees, this old man named Rick Smith, who was like amazing, like, hey, Mike, like, like, can you like come into the training room? And and ultimately, like, it ended up being like a little bit of an ambush, but it was like an intervention that I talked with a sports psychologist. And at first I was like, Dude, what the F? Know, like, Bro, you guys like tricked me. I was supposed to be getting weighed in. But the dude, they knew that I was my own worst enemy and they were doing the right thing by trying to help me. And I end up talking to the sports psychologist for the rest of the month. And if you go back to the stat sheet, if you look at my performance throughout my entire career, September 2015 was quite possibly the most dominant time I ever had in the major leagues.

Because I was talking to a sports psychologist. Amongst other things, right? I was harboring all of these emotions, all of this pain. And it's just like, dude, I look back at it, and it was like without that, I wouldn't have been able to talk about everything that I was experiencing because I didn't feel comfortable enough. Not to say that the resource wasn't there. He was there all along. He worked for the team. But I didn't have someone in my corner that was forcing me to talk about my shit. And I'm forever grateful for T. J. Harrington in conjunction with Rick Smith, despite their, call it, ambush, because it was the first time that I was ever able to feel like I could say anything to someone.

It's a psychologist, like you can say whatever it is that you're going through and it's safe. Right? It was like the ultimate container of like safe space And how much it impacted me on the field was insane. Like I said, the correlation was absolutely insane. But then, dude, guess what? Fool me once. I didn't go back to doing that until like I was I knew once I had Tommy John, like I knew once I had surgery in 2021 that I you know, what I was going through on and off the field and like my previous relationship with, you know, a psychiatrist, a sports psychologist.

And so I started going weekly. But that wasn't until 2021. It's like 1617, '18, 1920. And I briefly spoke with somebody in 2019, and that was super helpful as well. But it's like when I talk about making and putting together better systems, it was like it's kind of like this, for me at least, it was like the bumpers, right, out of a bowling lane. And it's like, how do you not fall in the gutter? And being able to, as at least in my experience or as a male in an alpha dominated ecosystem of professional sports at the highest level, in conjunction with old school baseball, rub some dirt on it, it wasn't in that time accepted and that you showing weakness and showing up and pretending anything other than you're perfectly okay and you got it all figured out. And even if you're doing bad, you're going to turn it around. Like this level of just like optimism that you just have to like irrationally like pose is ultimately, I think like that was the beginning of me projecting to be okay because every day I didn't want

the team that I was on to know that I wasn't okay, and then be like, he's not okay, so we're going to send him to minor leagues, or he's not performing. You know, it's like you just have to pretend and put on your armor that you have it, that you're going to turn it around tonight, so please don't get rid of me. And so I just pray that it doesn't matter if you're an athlete or a professional athlete or everyone's going through something and there's enough online mental health platforms, whether it's an in person visit or Teladoc or AI, come to find out. Did you know that some of them probably don't fact check me on this, and we can fact check me on this. I saw something that I think that the most utilized tool for AI is actually for mental health.

So many people feel like they can just talk to some machine learning AI and just vent. Isn't that insane to think about? We have all of these resources, right? We have breath work, and we have all of this stuff. And at the end of the day, and we have the supercomputer in our pockets that is our phone and now call it ChatGPT or whatever it may be. And so the number one usage, I'm pretty sure, and we'll have to go back and look at it, I'm pretty sure the number one usage currently in 2025 is people use AI to offload, invent and act as if it's your own personal psychologist.

Like, that is insane. But it just shows where we are and it like encourage people to continually use whatever resource that they feel safe using to be able to voice how it is that they're feeling, even if they don't feel safe enough to talk to a real human. Something is better than nothing. And being able to, whether it's write it out and burn it or talk to a psychologist or talk to a friend is like creating a safe container and having a safe container where you can regularly talk about the things that are going on in your life is ultimately performance enhancing.

Beyond called the mental health is like just like a better version of you and being able to find a safe space to talk about your stuff that you're going through is actually going to, obviously it sounds dumb, but it's like it genuinely correlates directly with just being a better version of yourself and whether it's performing better in your home or in your workspace, it's something that is really dear to my heart because of what it is that I was able to go through. And being able to talk about it in a place like this is not something I was comfortable doing very long ago.

Right. And so I appreciate your container. I appreciate your ability to just hear me vent. But I also hope that someone listening to this takes some sort of action, whatever they're comfortable in doing, to be able to get some sort of resource that they can talk about what it is that they're going through, because that matters to me. It matters deeply to me. Knowing my own personal experience and what everyone, you know, at the highest level, it's like there is a lot because you are under a microscope.

And people choose to self medicate or whatever it is. And it's it's just not the answer. Right? It's a temporary displacement that maybe alters your mood in the moment, but it doesn't really help you do the long term work and eventually it's just going to keep showing up. And I look at that and whether it's creating at some point, you know, a wellness and social club or a fitness studio or something as awesome as like this platform of being able to feel like you can be heard and you can impact people and being able to like just sit and talk in a very open, honest, transparent way where people can absorb what it is that you're saying and say, man, dude, like that guy also went through that. That guy also is going through that.

And if I can help somebody, I think ultimately like that is having talked off the record with you of just about like what is the authentic journey is like providing a platform and a space that allows people to tune in, whether it's one viewer or at some point you'll have millions of viewers to be able to understand people of all walks of life are all probably going through something very similar that might resonate with somebody, whether they're a professional athlete or a school teacher or an entrepreneur. And it's like, dude, there's a lot of stuff that is hard if you make it hard and it's hard if you are trying to navigate alone with no resources.

So that's what I got.

Ben BeeriIt is. It is. And we all have fears about talking about what's going on in our lives because somebody else may think something of us. And what would happen if they do, or what are the other potential consequences that you could face? And you were talking about being in a spot and dealing with injuries and medicating. Uh, that was something that you guys went through as a team while you were on the Angels. You guys you lost one of your teammates.

Mike MorinWhat do you remember about that whole thing? You just don't know what someone else is going through. And that is ultimately like why I believe so wholeheartedly of creating better systems, specifically in regards to what's happened to me as most of a bunch of other people. That probably happens in a bunch of other sports of just like you don't want to show that you're not okay and to have the team use it against you. Not to say that they will in a victim mentality. It's just like that's also a self limiting belief story that you're going to make up your head. Like the infrastructure is there. Like there's a sports psychologist there for a reason. But like it's this own weird depiction in your head of like don't give them anything that tells them that you're not Okay. So it's this own weird thing that I think each athlete goes through probably, whether it's in high school or college or professionally speaking.

And that is part of the problem is like the perception and it's beginning to shift of creating better systems of like this person is here to help you. He's not here to tattle on you. That I think the narrative is slightly changing. But yeah, I think his passing in conjunction with my own injuries, with my own failures, has positively transformed my life in the worst way possible. But that is ultimately where the growth is, right? Like you were talking about, like, I'm not the person that sits in front of you today that is ultimately a better person to my core and my soul without that event taking place in my life.

And it will never go away. Like time does help. Talking about it helps. Creating better systems help. Creating an arm sleeve someday that mitigates Tommy John surgery helps. And so being a part of the solution based upon tragedy is how I'm trying to move forward. And the best way that I know how is to learn and avoid something tragic happening again. And I genuinely look forward to being a part of the solution. When we talk about soul contracts and we talk about purpose and we talk about impact, like one of the main things that I want to do that I'm actively pursuing is, like I said, trying to create solutions so that people don't have to go through the things that I went through.

And that's how I'm choosing to try and heal. So that's probably as much as I kind of want to talk about like that part of my life And the next time I'm on or the time after that, maybe I'll be able to extrapolate that on more. So yeah.

Ben BeeriWell, thanks for sharing. Thanks for sharing. That was we all remember what was happening back then. Was very sudden and we saw all of a sudden that Tyler Skaggs was no longer with us. And what can you tell us about Tyler as, like, a friend and a teammate? He is.

Mike MorinDude, he's missed. And And hopefully a lot of good can come from something that was bad. Thanks for sharing. Yeah.

Ben BeeriAnd you look at all the things that have happened in your career with your elbow injuries and seeing athletes struggling with their mental health. What are you looking forward to today in your life to kind of have help have an impact on the younger generation, even going down to

Mike Morinyou've got players in Little League who are now kind of getting limited in how much they're throwing? Yeah, like I said, trying to just be a part of the solution and really kind of understanding, like I had this amazing experience and ultimately like having arm issues is part of doing business when you're throwing a baseball. It's not exactly a preferred biomechanical and anatomical movement that, you know, we're seeing too many injuries. Right? And so starting at the youth level is a great place to start.

Being able to not just talk about it, but implement structure beyond just like pitch limitations and things like that is like it's not working. If you like too many people at too young of an age are having to get surgery on their elbow. And And it's just an epidemic. There are so many different things that are going on, and it's all about getting on to the next thing, right? Whether it's a college scholarship or drafted or moved up to a higher level or getting to the big leagues or staying in the big leagues, it's like it is a performance based business.

And yeah, I think me and one of my best friends from college and my physical therapist that did my Tommy John rehab, like we're trying to create a product that ultimately like not only helps, you know, call it mitigate the stress that happens while you're throwing, but also utilizing like that product as a platform that can be extrapolated into so many other things. Right? Like the arm sleeve is and will be a gateway into providing the resources within the app or the system that allows for a mental health platform or, you know, a partnership with a little league program that monitors and helps regulate.

No 13 year old is going to tell their coach no. And sometimes the coach doesn't really have the best interest of a 13 year old at heart because he just, for whatever reason, thinks that winning matters when you're 13 and that just keeps going higher and higher up in terms of the chain. But like the idea of the arm sleeve as a platform to be able to give the athlete the resources that they're going to want and or need, whether it's through a recruiting profile or a mental health platform or whatever it may be in terms of coaching or helping is something that I'm like dreaming pretty big on that we're actively pursuing, trying to, you know, create into a product.

Still pretty early, unfortunately, but it's it's making its way sometimes slower than I thought. But nonetheless, it's like something that I feel deeply tied into of one of the things, like I said, that I really want to to bring into this world to help so many people potentially not have to go through the things that in theory, me or, you know, my college roommate buddy went through. And so ultimately, like trying to be a part of the solution and create products that are a part of the solution is, like, something that I genuinely want to bring in.

Ben BeeriDo you feel like the elbow problems and Tommy John surgeries and stuff like that, do you feel like that originates at the youth level?

Mike MorinI mean, dude, if you're good, you get to play. Everyone loves winning. No one likes losing. Most people don't understand that it doesn't matter if you win or lose at 10 years old, but it feels like everything matters to the parents and the kids, including myself and my parents. And so just like really understanding the infrastructure of the problem, like what's the root cause of the problem and being able to educate that no kid is going to get drafted at 12 is also very important. The athlete is always going to say they're okay.

Being able to have the Rick Smiths or T. Harrington's of the world that realize that you're your own worst enemy and help lead you to help. But a lot of people are just they want to do right and they want to do well. And it's easier said than done. But when push comes to shove, winning is better than losing and creating a container that kind of not takes out of people's hands, but just creating a better system to be non negotiable is something that I would want to instill long term because the athletes never gonna say no. And then when push comes to shove, like the guy that's coaching the team feels like winning is better than losing. And some people at a high level, whether it's collegiately or professionally speaking, like wins do matter. And if you're a coach, like you're graded upon your performance, no different than the player. And so if the player says they're okay, and they're good to go, who is that person to question that that person is, you know, fit to perform that night? And so

that part of it will never end, especially at the highest level. Like it really truly is a business at the professional lens, specifically at the major league level. But just being able to utilize technology, technology has come a long way. Implement and integrate technology and fuse it with something as simple as, you know, like a compression wearable or something like that. It's like, dude, we can start. And it doesn't need to be perfect, but let's start and let's continually test and retest and refine so that hopefully by the time that 12 year old is on a big league mound over the next eight to ten years, I've created an infrastructure so that that person has been doing the right thing each and every single day and giving them the resources that they need, even if they don't need don't know that they need them.

And that is like the compound effect of that is what makes me excited. The compound effect of, you know, there's so many amazing baseball development programs. There's a company based out of like Seattle, Washington called Driveline, and they really like honestly changed the game, specifically with pitching and biomechanics and weighted balls and all of this stuff. And towards the end of my career, was training at a local facility, which was amazing. They had all of the resources that you could possibly need to train professionally. But the gentleman that owns that is a gentleman named Ryan Chapman, and they have a strength and conditioning program.

They have PT on-site. And it's like to see these kids get implemented and integrated at such a young age is like a beautiful thing to watch. Right? Like having someone monitor them that actually sees it from a professional lens that can safeguard the kid and not just like, hey, it's baseball season. Just go pick up a baseball and throw even though you haven't thrown in ten months because it was snowing and you played basketball in Kansas and now it's baseball season. So, driveline is a catalyst for performance as well as safety and you know, it will continue to evolve because there's enough people realizing beyond the monetary value of just like a problem.

This is a problem, not the only one to see the problem. There's enough people I think that care that eventually starting at the youth level, hopefully these 10 year olds when they get to be 18 or 22 or 28, the infrastructure that was put in place, the compound effect of that

Ben Beeriultimately will lead to less injuries would be the ultimate goal. So helping young kids, young athletes who are starting out and playing baseball, helping them not only preserve their physical health preventing injuries, but also getting them to a space where they feel comfortable from a mental standpoint to go out and seek the help that they can use, uh, that really resonates with you. That would be a good start. There we go. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Morin. So great having you on today, Mike. Yeah, I really enjoyed having you on today on the Authentic Journey.

Mike MorinMike, where can people connect with you further? Dude, I'm a ghost. Ghost? I am a little bit of a ghost. Ghost. Dude, social media was not great for me. I got rid of it a while ago. It wasn't healthy for me to do bad and then have a bunch of people telling me that I stunk when I already knew that I stunk. So not so much a recluse, but just like the I just recently graded for the very first time on LinkedIn. So, dude, I just

Ben BeeriThere we go. Everybody flood as LinkedIn. There we go, dude. Um,

Mike Morintransformation Inc. Um, so, yeah, dude, I think, uh, that's just not something that I've it's been freeing, to be honest. There's I think there's so much information out there in the best way possible. But just like intentionally putting myself in an environment. And like I said, I'm no longer playing, so I'm not getting a whole lot of like, hey, hope you get hit by a car recently. But it's like, dude, like I said, I'm actively trying to continually work on on myself and kind of keep my vibration pretty steady.

So I tend to stay away from social media currently. So we'll see where I'm at long term, but for now I'm

Ben Beeria little bit off the grid. There we go. Well, hey, we'll have to see what ends up happening. But it was so great speaking with you today. And if you guys liked or anything resonated with you of anything that Mike had to say today, uh, we'd love for you to share this episode with your friends. Leave a comment. Leave a like. Subscribe to our podcast here at the authentic journey or on Instagram at The Authentic Journey Pod. I'm your host, Ben Beeri. I can be reached at Ben Beeri on Instagram at b e n b e e r I.

And we look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Authentic Journey.