Padres Pitcher Lost Close Friend in Helicopter Crash That Killed Kobe Bryant

From 1993 until his death, John Altobelli was the head baseball coach at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. On Jan. 25, 2020, Altobelli spoke with one of his infielders, a freshman from Mission Viejo named David Morgan.

"He pulled me into a meeting and told me what my future kind of looked like and how he wanted me to be a leader," Morgan, now a relief pitcher with the Padres, recalled in an interview this week with the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The next morning, Altobelli and his wife and daughter boarded a private helicopter along with retired Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his daughter. The helicopter crashed into a foggy hillside, killing everyone aboard.

Morgan, who was 20 at the time, was understandably shaken.

"That impacted me a lot," he said of Altobelli's death. "Having that conversation with him right before his passing made me feel responsible to go back to Orange Coast and help lead that team to a (state) championship, which we ended up winning.

"So, yeah, he just made me a better person to persevere through that stuff."

Morgan made his major league debut with the Padres in May. Since then, he's quietly become among the most productive members of a bullpen that some consider the best in baseball.

In 26 games, Morgan has a 1.80 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. He's allowed just 22 hits across 30 innings. He boasts an average fastball speed of 97.5 mph that ranks in the 92nd percentile of all major league pitchers, according to Statcast.

Not bad for a player who did not take up pitching seriously until about four years ago.

"My coach (at Hope International University) told me, ‘Hey, get off the mound a little bit, maybe boost your draft stock.’ So I started pitching a little bit, not even thinking I was going to sign as a pitcher, just kind of as, ‘Hey, I have a good arm’ type of thing," Morgan told the Union-Tribune. "And it started turning more heads than I thought, and everyone started calling me about pitching, and it changed my trajectory."

The Padres signed Morgan as an undrafted free agent on Aug. 1, 2022. Altobelli isn't the reason Morgan converted to pitching, but the right-hander credited his former coach with teaching him some of the attributes that helped him reach the majors.

"He changed my work ethic and the way I viewed how to go about my day, every single day, at the field," Morgan said of Altobelli. "I learned how to be a leader because of him."

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