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Hometown hero returns
American League MVP pays a call on Richard McBride Elementary School
By Alfie Lau
Record Reporter
More than 12 years after he left Richard McBride Elementary for New Westminster Secondary School, Justin Morneau returned to his old stomping grounds a hero.
Morneau and fellow major leaguer Adam Loewen of the Baltimore Orioles were at McBride Wednesday morning to present two bags of baseball equipment for the school's Winterball program, an initiative of Sport Canada, Baseball Canada and Major League Baseball.
More than 200 students from grades 3 to 5 were the recipients of the bats, balls and bases that Loewen and Morneau brought with them.
The Winterball program - think baseball in a gym with regular bats, softer balls and shorter distances between bases - is now in a total of 1,100 schools involving 200,000 students across Canada. In 2007, 400 new schools in Canada, with 80,000 new participants, will receive equipment to participate in the program.
"It's good to be able to give back to the community you grew up in. _ It's always special to come back," Morneau said. "I've been back a couple of times to visit my mom. Everything seems small when you come back."
'Mom' is Audra Sinclair, a resource teacher at McBride who loves her job so much she commutes in from her home in Victoria to work for four days per week.
"I'm so proud of him," Sinclair said.
"It's still a bit surreal, a bit strange to turn on the TV and see him as big as life. _
"I think I've always known that he could do this and he deserves everything he's earned."
Morneau and Loewen were also gracious enough to field a wide variety of questions from the students who couldn't contain their glee at seeing two genuine baseball stars in their gym.
Loewen said that his toughest opponent is New York Yankee Derek Jeter - Jeter finished second to Morneau in the MVP vote - and his favourite pitch is the fastball. When someone asked him how Morneau fared against that fastball, Loewen and Morneau's responses left everybody laughing.
"Justin has three hits in six at-bats against me, I think," Loewen said. "But one of those times, I struck him out on a slider in the dirt _ I think I also struck him out when I was 14 and he was 17."
"But that's never been proven," Morneau replied.
"It was still pretty satisfying," Loewen answered back.
Morneau was also candid with his answers, saying that his heroes as a youngster were former Toronto Blue Jay John Olerud, former Seattle Mariner and current Cincinnati Red Ken Griffey Jr. and former Montreal Expo Larry Walker from Maple Ridge. Morneau also finessed his way around a student's question about who his least favourite opponent was.
"You can't really say hate because there are some guys you hate on the field but you can go for dinner with them afterwards. A.J. Pierzyski (a catcher for the Chicago White Sox) used to play for us and he gave us (rookies) problems during my first year. On the field, he's not one of my favourite players but I can talk to him afterwards and he's OK."
McBride principal Greer Draney told the assembled students that Morneau was a shining example of what happens if children have a dream and are willing to work toward that goal.
"Thirteen years ago, a young fella was sitting right where you are sitting," Draney said. "Now he's the American League MVP."
Draney also joked that this was the first time he had seen the news of a press conference being held at McBride circulated through the Associated Press wire service.
Sinclair said she still couldn't believe so much time has passed since Justin moved out at age 18 to pursue his baseball career.
"I can still remember being sad to see him go," Sinclair said. "I only had him around for 18 years. I think he was lucky to go to Minnesota where the people have been so good to him."
One of those friendly Minnesota types is Morneau's girlfriend Krista Martin, who also accompanied Morneau in December when he was parade marshall for the Hyack Christmas parade.
"I love the fact that there's snow here," the native Minnesotan said as she was doing double duty taking pictures for Sinclair and the McBride school. "It's nice to be here because from our place, we can see the snow on the mountains."
Martin added that she and Morneau also made some friends in Minnesota who have relocated to Vancouver for work.
"We've gone out a couple of times with Willie Mitchell and his wife," Martin said of the Vancouver Canucks defenceman who had played with the Minnesota Wild before signing as a free agent with Vancouver last summer. "I grew up in a really small town so it's nice to come to Justin's home and be close to the big city."
Morneau was the American League most valuable player last year with a .321 batting average, 34 home runs and 130 runs batted in.
Morneau has also been in the news because he's getting a pretty substantial pay raise.
Salary arbitration figures between Morneau and the Minnesota Twins were exchanged Tuesday. Morneau, who made $385,000 last year, stands to make at least $4 million - the Twins' offer - next year. Morneau has asked for a $5 million salary, with three-person arbitration panels to decide which offer to accept next month if both sides don't come to an agreement in the interim.
Morneau expects to spend the rest of the month in New Westminster before he goes to Florida for spring training in February, a trip he won't be taking alone.
"I love going down to spring training," Sinclair said. "It's a really nice break down there and I get a chance to spend some time with Justin."
published on 01/20/2007
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