It took Hunter Morris only 136 games to make his name known throughout the minors.
The Huntsville Stars first baseman just wrapped up the greatest season any player has had since the franchise came to Huntsville in 1985.
Morris needed one full season at Double-A to grab the attention of league field managers, broadcasters and print media and become the fifth Star in history to be named the Southern League Most Valuable Player.
The honor places him with the likes of ex-Star Jose Canseco, an outfielder and designated hitter who spent 16 years in Major League Baseball.
"It really is crazy," Morris said. "It's an honor. It's a pretty exclusive list of players that have been in that position before. The last Brewers player that won it was Corey Hart back in 2003 and he's had a great career up to this point, and he's going to continue to do well."
The 23-year-old led the league in six different categories with 28 home runs, 113 RBIs, 158 hits, 74 extrabase hits, 294 total bases and a slugging percentage of .563.
He played the secondmost games this season, had the second-most at bats (522) and doubles (40) and scored the third-most runs (77).
His 113 RBIs are the second most in all of Minor League Baseball this season and the most in the Southern League since 2000.
"It's good and bad," Morris said of his MVP title. "It's a lot to live up to. I would like to think that it could only get better from here, but at the same time, you kind of set a standard. You continue to want to live up to that from here on out and that's not always the easiest thing to do, especially in baseball. It's not the easiest sport to try to stay consistent with, but I think it's a good place to be right now and to continue to build from there."
His MVP crown isn't the only honor he's received this year.
He was named the Topps Southern League Player of the Month for June and July, the first player to receive the accolade back-to-back since Montgomery's Delmon Young in 2005. He was named to both the mid-season and post-season All-Star teams and earned the Brewers Minor League Player of the Month for April and July.
But his on-field success didn't start there.
He graduated from Virgil I. Grissom High School in Huntsville with a career batting average of .470, 46 home runs and 198 RBIs.
While in high school, he was a member of Team USA's silver medal team in the World Games in Cuba.
He was also named Huntsville City Player of the Year four times, as well as North Alabama Super Metro Player of the Year and Alabama 6A All-State Player.
He was All-SEC at Auburn, hitting a team-high .351 in 54 games as a freshman in 2008. He also finished second in home runs (11) and RBIs (49) and tied for third in runs scored (42) that season.
Morris was named SEC Player of the Year in 2010, batting .386 with 23 home runs, a school record.
That same year, Morris was drafted by the Brewers in the fourth round of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft.
Morris is the first Huntsville native to play for the Stars, a luxury for the hometown hero.
"It was surreal," Morris said. "Just to play in front of my friends and family and be at home with my wife and son every day, it's an opportunity that very few guys in Minor League Baseball ever get. It's something that I certainly didn't take for granted; I enjoyed every minute of it. Hopefully I didn't disappoint the home-crowd too much. Hopefully they enjoyed watching me play as much as I enjoyed getting to play in front of them."
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