When you see 22-year-old Calgary-born pitcher Mike Soroka walk onto the baseball field for practice at SunTrust Park in Atlanta, Ga., that’s when it really hits you how much the young All-Star from Bishop Carroll High School has achieved.
At six-foot-four, he towers over not only most people, but also most players on his Atlanta Braves team.
He’s a long way from his old baseball field in Calgary now, but his humble demeanor never wavers, no matter how bright the lights are on a Major League Baseball diamond.
This week, he makes his debut in the MLB playoffs with the Braves.
In 2018, Soroka suffered a series of injuries that affected his shoulder and he was only able to make four more starts for the Braves before missing the rest of that season. Now, he’s scheduled to take the mound in Game 3 of the team’s series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Game 1 of the series will be played on Thursday in Atlanta.
In the eyes of Soroka’s teammates like Touki Toussaint, he has the precision of a specialist on the mound.
“It’s impressive the way he carries himself and goes about his business.”
The two teammates still find the time to joke around on the diamond, however.
“He’s (Soroka) a goofball,” Toussaint said. “When it’s game day, it’s game day for him. He’s all about his business.
“But even then, he’ll be like in the dugout, flicking seeds and stuff. It’s like nothing bothers him. That’s something we all try to put in our game and he’s mastered it.”
Inning after inning, Soroka, a born-and-raised Calgarian, has been getting it done for the Braves and he has been having one of the greatest seasons ever by a Canadian pitcher.
The rookie himself is heating up so-called “Hot-lanta” by becoming the youngest player ever added to MLB All-Star team and now, he has put himself in Cy Young Award contention while on his way to being a World Series contender with the Braves, a team that has not advanced in the playoffs in almost two decades.
“It goes back to being hurt last year and having that taken away for a while, but then understanding how you can make every throw count a little more,” Soroka said. “It’s just a new appreciation for being able to do what you love everyday.
It’s been a long journey since he first started playing baseball, which happened to be the same year he experienced the devastating loss of his mother at just 13 years of age.
“I’m obviously carrying her memory in my heart every single day,” Soroka said. “I think about her all the time and what she’s thinking right now and how I would like to do justice by who she would want me to be as a person first.
“I think a lot of what she was expecting from me is just to be a good person, first and foremost. It never really had to be anything sports-specific.
“She would do a really good job of keeping me level-headed, making sure that I’m not more of a person than I think I am just because of where I’m at in baseball. Because at the end of the day, that doesn’t mean too much.
“[I] try to make her proud of the person I want to be today.”
Soroka’s dad Gary said baseball and sports in general was a way for them both to deal with the loss.
“When my wife passed away, yeah, it was a tough time,” Gary Soroka said.
“We just kind of immersed ourselves in sports. It was sort of, ‘What do you want to do?’ It was a great escape.”
READ MORE: Calgary-raised Mike Soroka stuns baseball world with amazing MLB debut
Mike’s accomplishments mean the world to Gary.
On top of memorabilia around Gary’s house, and old Soroka jerseys on display, he has boxes filled with Mike’s trophy’s and awards. His son’s success truly hit him when he was standing in line for the buffet at the hotel in Cleveland before the MLB All-Star game.
‘You’re going by… getting your breakfast, and there’s Clayton Kershaw there, and Jacob deGrom and those types of things, and that’s when it really sunk in, that holy cow, Michael’s really, really accomplished something this year,” Gary said.
According to Gary, the minute his son threw a baseball, everyone knew he’d go to the majors.
“I’d be very happy to be out on the field, it would be really cool.”
Mike Soroka is paving the way for Canadians dreaming of the big leagues. Braves manager Brian Snitker calls Soroka “the real deal.”
“There’s been a lot of really good players come out of Canada,” Snitker said. “He’s one of those young guys that you can talk with.
“He’s very mature in his thinking, and down to earth and really together,” Snitker said. “He’s a very impressive young man.”
Would Soroka have ever expected the success he has achieved at such a young age? Maybe not this soon, but he’s confident in his ability because he knows he’s setting an example for future generations.
“I think a lot of it is being able to be that example for kids like me five or 10 years ago. There wasn’t too many, and you know, Jim Henderson and Chris Reitsma were the first couple from Calgary.
“Just because you’re not from Texas or California or Florida, doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
Soroka will try to make his historic season come full circle one inning at a time for the Braves as they chase a spot in the World Series.
He’s scheduled to make his playoff debut on the mound for Atlanta in Game 3 on Sunday in St. Louis.
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