When he was a kid, there was something about having an object hurtling toward him at 100 mph that appealed to Justin Morneau.
The White Sox veteran grew up in New Westminster, British Columbia — a stone’s throw from Vancouver — and had a passion for baseball and hockey.
On the field, he was a catcher. On the ice, a goaltender.
“That says it all,” Morneau said with a laugh.
Like most kids growing up in Canada, the dream was to play professional hockey and someday hoist the Stanley Cup. At the same time, Morneau was adept at catching and hitting a baseball and thus a two-sport star was born.
“When baseball season ended, hockey season started and when hockey season ended, baseball season started,” Morneau, 35, said. “I really had a love for both of them.”
Morneau is likely the only big-league baseball player whose lists as one of his childhood idols Andy Moog, a longtime NHL goaltender who played for the Oilers, Stars, Bruins and Canadiens in the 1980-90s.
“I always wanted to be a goalie from the time I was 5,” Morneau said. “The first time I put the pads on, I wanted to do it. My dad didn’t let me until I was 11. He kept figuring I’d grow out of it, but I never did. He finally gave in. I don’t know what it was, but I loved Andy Moog from the time I was little and as I got older it was Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek. It was a real obsession in the winter time.”
“The 5:30 in the morning practices. I wouldn’t have to set my alarm,” Morneau added. “It was fun to me to get up at 4:30 and go play hockey before school. That’s how much I loved it.”
Morneau was good enough to be on the roster — as the team’s third-string goalie — of the 1998 Portland Winterhawks who captured the Memorial Cup as champions of the Canadian Hockey League.
In describing his goaltending style, Morneau said with a laugh, “I was all over the place. I was learning to play goalie when everyone was starting to play the butterfly so I kind of taught myself how to do it. And then I attempted to do a little Dominik Hasek and I turned out just flopping around like a dying fish.”
But there was something about being between the pipes, much like being behind the plate, that appealed to Morneau.
“I liked that I could control the game,” he said. “A lot of the game depended on what I did and the same thing with catching, you control the game and control what pitches are called and the whole field is in front of you. You’re kind of the general. In hockey, you could be the difference-maker in every single game that you play and I liked that challenge.”
Morneau eventually came to a crossroads and had to determine which sport to focus on to make a run as a professional. He ended up in the dirt.
“I knew I was better at baseball,” Morneau said. “And being a goalie, there are only 60 guys in the league. When I was drafted (by the Twins in 1999), I was a catcher and there were always options to move to first or DH. There were a few more opportunities in baseball. If you’re only one of two on a team, it’s pretty hard.
“If I wasn’t good enough to make it (in hockey) when I was 16 or 17, it’s hard to imagine that you’d be good enough when you’re 20 or 21. I don’t know if the writing was on the wall, but it was kind of put in front of me that … baseball was probably the wise decision. I loved playing both of them so it wasn’t like it was a second choice to play baseball.”
Four All-Star Game appearances and being named the American League’s most valuable player in 2006 would seem to indicate that baseball was the correct choice. After missing the first half of this season while recovering from left elbow surgery, Morneau signed with the Sox and is hitting .275 with four home runs and 15 RBIs.
These days, Morneau’s ice time is limited to skating with his 4-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. He has had them in skating lessons since they were 3 and Morneau said hockey “is something that will be big in our house.”
Morneau counts Hawks defenseman Brent Seabrook as a close friend but said he won’t be changing allegiances from the Canucks to the Hawks.
“I’m a fan of a lot of the guys on the Blackhawks, but being a Canucks fan that would be like an anti-fan — cheering for my team from Vancouver and then switching to Chicago,” Morneau said. “It was the same thing in Minnesota: I told the people, ‘If you grow up in Minnesota you’re a Vikings fan and if you move to Wisconsin you’re not going to become a Packers fan.’ It’s the same thing here, if you’re a Bears fan and all of a sudden you start living near Green Bay, you’re not going to become a Packers fan. I’m loyal to my roots.”
Twitter @ChrisKuc
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