Field day in New West
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Justin Morneau Field unveiling a special day for the kids and the star who once wacked balls around Moody Park
Snow covered the field but it was a beautiful day for baseball in New Westminster on Saturday.
The white stuff didn’t stop the city from celebrating its humble superstar, naming the Moody Park diamond he grew up playing on Justin Morneau Field.
On Saturday, right beside the diamond, 10th Street between Seventh Avenue and Hamilton was shut for the afternoon. Several hundred people formed a horseshoe around Morneau, a first baseman for the Minnesota Twins and the 2006 American League’s most valuable player, while he did a live noon-hour hit with a local television station.
His proud and friendly father, George, walked around greeting the many New Westminster and baseball people he knew.
Morneau’s mother, Audra Chartrand, was hugging friends while his fiancée, Krista Martin, took pictures. Morneau was relaxed and laughed as he reconnected with the many familiar faces from his childhood.
Finally the ceremony started with several kids standing up on the grandstands to strain to get a better view. Nine-year-old Markus Zacharuk, whose cousin Canadian idol finalist Carly Rae Jepsen opened the proceedings by singing O Canada, led the crowd in reciting the New Westminster Little League pledge that is said before every game.
Many local politicians were there, most wearing a baseball cap.
NWLL vice-president Ed Zacharuk, Markus’ father, recalled the time shortly after Morneau was named MVP he came to a clinic in Queensborough and told them he’d practise hitting until his hands bled. Now when the kids get into the batting cage they tell Zacharuk they want to keep going until their hands bleed, just like Justin Morneau. That may be tough to do because one of the eight boxes of equipment Morneau donated to the little league Saturday contained batting gloves for every one of the expected 300 kids who register.
“I just want to say how proud we are to be able to say the next game or practice is going to be at Justin Morneau Field,” said Zacharuk.
A path was cleared through the crowd on the street so Morneau could throw out the ceremonial first pitch to Markus with his full catcher’s gear on.
It was a tidbit he had to keep secret from his mom and his friends, but that didn’t bother him too much.
“I was more nervous about catching the ball,” he said afterward, clutching the ball Morneau autographed for him.
“He’s a really good role model.”
NWLL president Ron Suffron then gave Morneau, who recently signed a six-year, $80 million contract with the Minnesota Twins, a New West cap and jacket.
As he put it on Suffron quipped, “I’ve never stood beside somebody who could pay off the Canadian national debt before.”
Morneau said, “This is a pretty amazing day” before recalling going to Maple Ridge to play at Larry Walker Field, named after the former Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals star that grew up there.
Morneau met Walker a few years ago and told him he’d played on his field as a kid and Walker replied, “That makes me feel old.”
Morneau said he spent many an hour at the Moody Park diamond. He couldn’t wait for school to end so he could go out and play on the field. He recalled hitting foul balls into the Kiwanis Pool next door.
“It was kind of bad because there were actually people in the pool.”
“It’s just amazing to be able to drive by and see my name up there.”
After the ceremony, a line a block long formed to collect autographs before Morneau headed off to Florida to begin spring training for the 2008 season.
ggranger@burnabynewsleader.com
© Copyright 2007 Burnaby NewsLeader