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Nerves, sweat and a phone call: How Casey Mize became Tigers' top pick

Casey Mize, his family and the Auburn Tigers team react to Mize being picked No. 1 by Detroit Tigers in 2018 MLB draft June 4 on the Auburn campus.

AUBURN, Ala. – Casey Mize awoke Monday morning sleep-deprived but with a drive ahead to chase a dream.

When Mize was in high school, he often made the 2½ hour drive from his small hometown of Springville, Ala., to Atlanta for travel baseball games, even on the days he wasn’t pitching. When he was a homesick freshman in college, he drove 19 hours to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League in Massachusetts, all by himself.