Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Foes and friends, Kansas seniors have shared a love for baseball

Longtime teammates, Seniors Erik Morrison and Ryne Price hope to see their final Big 12 Championship this year.

Kansan baseball players Erik Morrison and Ryne Price have a long history playing both against each other and on the same team.

By Shawn Shroyer (Contact)

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

It’s a story Ryne Price has told many times. He’s become pretty good at telling it.

The story is about the events that transpired between Price and Missouri third baseman Brock Bond seconds after Price’s second inning home run against Missouri in the 2006 Big 12 Championship.

“I was trotting around the bases and coming around second, I looked up to go to third and I’m like, ‘This guy’s right in my way, so if he doesn’t move I’m going to go right into him,’” Price said. “He didn’t get out of the way, so I lower my shoulder and bump into him. He scuffles back, comes at me, throws a punch and I dodged him like Willie Mays Hayes-Style. Then I grabbed him and threw him to the ground.”

The story is also about two friends having each other’s back. At its core, it’s the story of the friendship forged between Kansas seniors Ryne Price and Erik Morrison.

“The umpire tackled me over him,” Price continued, “and the first guy there was Erik. He got him pretty good – square right to the jaw. It was pretty tight just to know that he was the first one there.”

Price and Morrison were just sophomores, but their friendship goes back years before their days as Jayhawks. All the way back to their youth as 10-year-old enemies playing on opposing little league teams in California. Their friendship survived their high school years when Price moved to Kansas and Morrison stayed behind in California. It strengthened after they reunited as college freshmen. And with their college careers nearing an end, Price and Morrison are hoping for one more memorable Big 12 Championship.

The early years

As close as Price and Morrison are now, there was a time when the two could have just as easily been starting fights between themselves. Morrison likes to tell this story about the mutual respect between Price and Morrison before they became teammates.

When the two were in little league, Price played for a team from San Luis Obispo, Calif., while Morrison played for a team from Arroyo Grande, Calif. Price was a pitcher and the way he remembers it, Morrison was the “feared” player in the opposition’s lineup. The friendship between them was still in its developmental stages then to say the least.

“We were enemies at the same time, oh yeah,” Morrison said. “He thought that he was real funny when he’d pitch. I’ve faced him probably 20 times and he’s hit me at least 10 of those 20 times.”

In Price’s defense, he said he was just trying to keep from serving one up over the middle of the plate.

“I always had a knack for just dosing him right in the back,” Price said. “But also I’d rather hit him than give up a bomb to him.”

But there was always an understanding between the two that kept them from taking the rivalry too far.

When Price and Morrison were freshmen in high school and playing on San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande’s respective junior varsity teams, Morrison remembers one game in particular in which Price homered against his team.

“They were playing us at our place and he hit a home run and I was playing shortstop,” Morrison said. “He rounded second base and I gave him a high five then.”

If there was any doubt before that the two would grow up to be close friends, it evaporated in that exchange.

Although they played against each other on their high school teams, they played together during summers for the Firestone Rangers in San Luis Obispo.

“It was nice that I didn’t have to face him in the box anymore just so I wouldn’t get hit,” Morrison said.

The more they played on the same team, the more a certain college coach envisioned them playing together at the collegiate level – Price’s father Ritch Price, who was coaching at California Polytechnic State University at the time.

“I knew when I saw him play when he was 10 he was going to be on my recruiting list,” coach Price said of Morrison.

But the summer before Price’s junior year of high school, he was forced to move with his family from San Luis Obispo to Lawrence when Ritch was hired to be the baseball coach at Kansas. Still, Price and Morrison kept in touch and every summer Price would return to California with his younger brother Robby to rejoin Morrison and the Rangers.

In 2003 they won the United States American Baseball Federation 18 and under World Series with the Rangers. At the end of the summer though, Price went one way while Morrison went the other; separated by 1,700 miles for the next nine months until baseball would reunite them once again.

However, at the end of the 2004 summer season, Price didn’t have to make the long drive home on his own. Morrison was headed to Lawrence, too.

“We ended our summer season and we both had our cars packed up and we followed each other out, so we got here at the same time,” Price said. “It was nice having him here because we were both kind of like, ‘What the hell do we do now?’”

Playing for Kansas

After adjusting to the rigors of college life, Price and Morrison came into their own on the diamond.

Price started 60 games at second base in 2005 and collected a Kansas freshman-record 40 RBI to go along with his five home runs and all-Big 12 second team honors. Morrison set a freshman record appearing in 63 games, starting 62, at third base and drove in 36 runs.

Despite Morrison’s successes on the field, there was no doubt he missed home. But having Price there in the same clubhouse alleviated some of his homesickness.

“It helped a lot knowing him out here and that I’ve got like a brother out here,” Morrison said.

With a year’s experience in college – as well as Kansas – Morrison emerged as a premier third baseman in the Big 12 in 2006. He upped his average from .221 to .290 and led Kansas with 14 home runs and drove in 52 runs.

As for Price, a wrist injury limited him to only 22 games during the regular season. Nevertheless, he racked up nine home runs and 33 RBI in his sparse playing time and when the postseason rolled around he was at his best.

In the first three games of the Big 12 Championship, Price was 4-for-6 with three runs, two RBI and the fateful home run in Kansas’ 4-3 victory against Missouri. As a result of his scuffle at third with Bond, Price was ejected from the game and suspended from playing in the title game.

In Price’s absence, Morrison – who’d already gone 4-for-11 in the tournament with two home runs against Oklahoma State entering the title game – continued to swing a hot bat, going 2-for-5 with a run and two RBI as Kansas defeated Nebraska, 9-7, for its first ever Big 12 Championship.

The duo continued to rake in the NCAA West Regional with three home runs and five RBI between the two of them, even though Kansas dropped two of three games in the regional.

“We both played every day, so we were real experienced but at the same time nobody really knew who we were yet,” Morrison said.

Finding their place

Price and Morrison may have taken a backseat to the senior class in 2006, but in 2007 the Kansas roster was nearly devoid of senior leadership and Price and Morrison were looked upon to lead the team as juniors.

The season began with optimism. After playing his first two seasons at third – where he committed 48 errors – Morrison moved to his natural position at shortstop to form a double play combination with Price, who was still at second base. Expectations were high for Price and Morrison, who combined for 23 home runs the year before as sophomores. However, the season ended in disappointment.

Kansas had four stretches where it lost at least three consecutive games. The Jayhawks had one stretch in particular where they went 8-20. Kansas finished 28-30 overall – its first losing season since 2002.

In reality, the lackluster season was a result of poor pitching and a depleted as well as inexperienced batting lineup. But it was Price and Morrison who took the season the hardest.

“The thing that was the hardest to deal with was the fact that we were just losing all the time,” Price said. “We’d lose by a run, we’d blow a lead in the eighth, we’d have guys in scoring position with no outs and just couldn’t get it done.”

While Morrison cut his errors to 10 at shortstop, his home runs also dropped to seven. Morrison admitted that with the lack of power bats in the lineup he felt himself pressing at times to get the big hit.

In mid-April in a series at Texas Tech, Morrison’s frustrations reached a climax.

Kansas trailed Texas Tech 1-0 in the ninth in the first game of the series when Morrison hit a two-out single. However, he was called out at second attempting to stretch the hit into a double. From his perspective he was safe, so he gave the umpire a piece of his mind, which included a couple magic words that resulted in his suspension from the second game of the series.

“I’ve got to at least get thrown out of one game in my college career. I’ve always been kind of a hothead and fly off the handle. I’ve said a lot worse to umpires than that and nothing’s ever happened, but I guess he didn’t like me too much,” Morrison said.

But Morrison’s struggles were nothing compared to Price’s.

Despite leading the team with 10 home runs and a .956 OPS, his 62 strikeouts – which tied a single season record – and 19 errors at second base seemed to be the only numbers outsiders paid attention to.

Price’s bat was far too valuable to be taken out of the lineup and putting anyone else at second base would have made Kansas’ offense even more anemic. So Price, who was a catcher in high school, may have been out of position at second base, but there was nothing he could do but tough it out.

Still, aggravation got the best of him, too.

The weekend after the Texas Tech series, Kansas was playing at Oklahoma and Price finally became fed up playing second base. It happened after a muffed double play exchange between Price and Morrison. The ball was hit to Morrison and Price thought Morrison would turn the double play by himself, but Morrison thought Price was headed to the bag, so he flipped the ball to second. Both Price and Morrison watched, frozen, as the ball fell despairingly to the ground between them.

“After that, I came in and I was like, ‘I’m done playing second base after this year,’” Price said.

Final Season hopes

While it’s had its ups and downs, this year has been much less grueling on Price and Morrison.

Kansas is currently 29-22 overall and in seventh place in the Big 12. It will be guaranteed a spot in the Big 12 Championship if it remains in the top eight of the conference standings.

Individually, Price now holds the Kansas all-time home run record with 35 in his career while Morrison is second on the all-time list with 30. Before the season, when both players were tied with 24 career homers, Morrison said he wasn’t going to let Price beat him, so he’s still holding out hope that he’ll catch him.

“We’ve still got a couple series left and anything can happen,” Morrison said.

Still, Morrison is holding his own with a .487 slugging percentage and a team-leading 12 stolen bases. Meanwhile, Price has made a successful transition to right field, where he’s yet to commit an error and has displayed a rocket arm. At the plate, he leads Kansas with 11 home runs, 57 RBI and a .584 slugging percentage.

With the numbers they’re both putting up, there’s a good chance each will be drafted in this June’s MLB First-Year Player Draft. Last year Morrison was drafted in the 49th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates, but he returned to Kansas to prove he was better than a 49th-round pick and to take the Jayhawks back to the postseason.

As for Price, he said part of him felt like he’d underachieved his first three years at Kansas, but now that he’s put himself in position to be drafted he feels like he’s validated his Kansas career.

“Looking at it, it kind of makes you mad,” Price said. “I’ve never been drafted and I’m sure there’s a lot of scouts who don’t like me, but hopefully there’s one out there who will give me a chance to play after this.”

Neither senior is getting ahead of himself, though. Both Price and Morrison realize that anything short of reaching the Big 12 Championship this season will be deemed another disappointment in their eyes.

“Our ultimate goal is to make a regional,” Morrison said. “Now what we’re trying to do is finish this thing on a positive note and get ourselves in the Big 12 tournament and keep rolling through there. Once you get there anything can happen.”

Indeed. Nobody knows more about the unpredictability of the Big 12 Championship than Ryne Price and Erik Morrison and both are looking for a new story to tell.

—Edited by Sasha Roe

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