Justin Morneau


Justin Ernest George Morneau is a Canadian former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball for the Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, and Chicago White Sox. At and, Morneau was drafted as a catcher by the Twins in 1999. He converted to first base in the minor leagues and made his MLB debut in 2003. Morneau held that position throughout his career and in 2007 became the first Twin since Gary Gaetti in 1987–1988 to hit 30 home runs in consecutive seasons.
A four-time All-Star, Morneau was named the 2006 American League Most Valuable Player, finished runner-up for MVP in 2008, and won two Silver Slugger Awards. Additionally, Morneau won the 2008 Home Run Derby and the 2014 National League batting title. Internationally, Morneau represented Canada at the 2006, 2009, 2013, and 2017 World Baseball Classic. After retirement from baseball, he was elected to the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame and currently serves as a Special Assistant in the Twins front office, as well as a color commentator for the team on Bally Sports North.

Early life

Justin Ernest George Morneau was born on May 15, 1981, in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. Morneau is the youngest son of George Morneau, a hitting coach for many softball and baseball teams, childcare worker, and sporting goods store owner. His mother Audra Chartrand was an elementary school teacher and former fast-pitch softball player. Justin has an older brother, Geordie. His father once played hockey for the Brandon Wheat Kings and attended the training camp of the Minnesota North Stars.
Morneau grew up in New Westminster, British Columbia, the historic "Royal City", adjacent to Vancouver, where he played hockey for the local minor team, the New Westminster Royals, and emerged as a star goaltender, playing for teams a year older than he was. He also played baseball in the New Westminster Minor Baseball Association and for the North Delta Blue Jays in the B.C. Premier Baseball League.
Morneau attended Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary School in New Westminster, later transferring to Richard McBride Elementary School, where his mother was a teacher and coach and where he enrolled in a French immersion program. He played basketball and volleyball and ball hockey on the school teams.
Growing up, Morneau was an avid sports fan, whose favourite athletes included hockey players Patrick Roy, Cam Neely, and Ray Bourque; and baseball players John Olerud, Ken Griffey Jr., Jack Morris and Larry Walker. His favorite NHL team was the Boston Bruins, and his favorite MLB team was the Toronto Blue Jays.
Morneau attended St. Thomas More Collegiate in 1994–95 for his eighth grade year, where he played basketball. Coaches approached him to play for the school's famed football program, based on his athletic ability, but he declined.
Morneau transferred to New Westminster Secondary School and graduated in 1999. He continued to play basketball and hockey while in high school. He was named the New Westminster High School Athlete of the year and was a member of Canadian national champion baseball teams in 1997 and 1998. In 1998, he was selected the best hitter and catcher of the National Championships playing for Team British Columbia.
Morneau was associated with the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League; he attended training camp and played one preseason game of Major Junior hockey as a goaltender. Morneau chose his jersey number for goalie Patrick Roy. He is listed as winning the Memorial Cup in 1998 with the Winter Hawks. As Morneau put it, "I was the third goalie. A backup to the backup. If somebody got hurt, I might have gotten out there as a backup. I played in an exhibition game and backed up some regular-season games.". Morneau remained on Portland's Protected Player List until he decided to focus on baseball instead of hockey. According to Winter Hawks assistant coach at the time, Mike Williamson, "He was young and raw — a big guy who covered a lot of the net. I remember a conversation we had with him when recruiting him. We told him he should go to hockey because not many Canadian guys end up going very far and doing very well in baseball. He showed us otherwise."

Professional career

Draft and minor leagues

Morneau did not attend college, despite receiving many attractive offers from NCAA schools. He was selected by the Twins in the third round of the 1999 Major League Baseball draft. He converted to first base in 2001 while playing for the Class-A Quad Cities River Bandits. In six minor league seasons, he hit.310 with 87 home runs, 153 RBI and 122 doubles.
Morneau participated in the 2002 and 2004 All-Star Futures Games, playing for the World teams. He was twice named Eastern League Player of the Week in 2002. On September 3, 2002, Morneau was promoted to Minnesota's Triple-A team, the Edmonton Trappers, but did not play in a game for the team that season. He made his first Triple-A appearance in 2003 with the Twins' new affiliate, the Rochester Red Wings, and finished the season batting.268 with 16 home runs and 42 RBI in 71 games.

Minnesota Twins (2003–2013)

Early career (2003–2005)

Morneau made his major league debut with the Twins on June 10, 2003 against the Colorado Rockies, batting clean-up. He singled in his first career at-bat off Jason Jennings and went 2-for-4 in the game. A week later on June 17, he hit his first career home run off Kansas City Royals reliever Albie Lopez. Morneau played in 40 games with the Twins in 2003, batting.226 with four home runs and 10 RBI.
In 2004, after Morneau compiled impressive minor league numbers, the Twins dealt veteran first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz to the Boston Red Sox and Morneau became the Twins' starting first baseman. He appeared in 74 games for the Twins in 2004, hitting.271 with 19 home runs and 58 RBI in 280 at bats while committing just three errors.
The 2005 season was a struggle for Morneau, as he dealt with off-season illnesses as well as being hit in the head by a pitch in April. He finished the season with a.239 batting average, 22 home runs and 79 RBI in 141 games. Although he never appeared to fully shake off his early season setbacks, Morneau finished first on the Twins in RBI and second in home runs.

Dominance (2006–2009)

During Morneau's first three seasons with the Twins, he wore #27. Starting in 2006, he wore #33 for the rest of his Twins career. After a slow start to 2006, Morneau exploded offensively in the months of June, July, and August, raising his batting average nearly 50 points in June after beginning the month hitting.240. He raised his average another 33 points in July and after June consistently appeared near the top of the American League leaderboard in batting average, home runs, and RBI. On August 9, Morneau became the first Twin since 1987 to hit 30 home runs in a single season. He finished the season hitting.321 and slugging.559 with 34 home runs and 130 RBI in 157 games. He was second in the league in RBIs and tied Larry Walker's 1997 total for the most RBIs in a season by a Canadian. For his hitting, he won the 2006 American League Silver Slugger Award representing first basemen. His efforts helped the Twins win their fourth division title in five years.
On November 21, 2006, Morneau won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in a close vote over Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, becoming only the fourth player in Twins history to receive the honour. He became the first Canadian to win the AL MVP award, and the second Canadian to win a major league MVP award.
In 2007, Morneau played in 157 games, batting.271 with 31 home runs and 111 RBI. In May 2007, Morneau won the Player of the Month in the American League for the first time in his career. Morneau appeared on the cover of the arcade baseball video game The Bigs in Canadian stores and at Best Buy stores in the United States. Morneau was named to the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game roster in 2007 for the first time. He also participated in the 2007 State Farm Home Run Derby for the first time. He was up first and hit four homers and ended up tying with Albert Pujols in the first round. He was subsequently eliminated with only one homer on five chances in a tie-off. Pujols advanced to the second round with two homers. Morneau had his first career three home run game on July 6, 2007, against the Chicago White Sox. He had a solo, a two-run, and a three-run homer. He had an at-bat to try for his fourth home run, but his bat got under the ball, and he flew out to deep left field.
In January 2008, Morneau agreed to a six-year contract extension worth $80 million, which at the time was the longest and richest contract in Twins history until in 2010, teammate Joe Mauer signed an eight-year, $184 million contract. Morneau produced with his new contract, as he played in all 163 of the Twins' games and hit.300 with 23 home runs and 129 RBI.
On July 10, 2008, Morneau tied a career high with five hits in a game as the Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers. He hit what went on to be the game-winning home run to finish the day 5-for-5 with a walk in a 7–6 extra-innings win. Morneau was then announced as a reserve player for the American League in the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Morneau won the 2008 Home Run Derby, defeating Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers. He became the first Canadian to win the Home Run Derby. Later during the All-Star event, Morneau scored the winning run for the American League in the MLB All Star Game at Yankee Stadium on a sacrifice fly to right field off the bat of Michael Young. Morneau was awarded the Lionel Conacher Award as the Canadian Press Male Athlete of the Year, joining Ferguson Jenkins and Larry Walker as the only Major League Baseball players to win the award. Morneau finished second in the balloting for AL MVP, as Dustin Pedroia won, and Kevin Youkilis came in third.
In 2009, Morneau batted.274 with 30 home runs and 100 RBI in 135 games. He was selected as a reserve position player at first base for the 2009 All-Star Game, marking Morneau's third selection to the All-Star Game. On September 14, Morneau was officially diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back after a long slump; he missed the rest of the 2009 season and the playoffs.