Justin Morneau – I plan on being a father a lot longer than a baseball player.
JM – You want your kids to know who their father is when they grow up and they don’t want to have any resentment towards you or towards baseball.
JM – Hopefully, I get to play long enough where they have good memories of coming to the ballpark and having fun.
JM – The Rockies do a pretty good job here with the family room for the kids. They have the daycare, so they get to play with the other kids. My daughter gets excited for that. I think my son would rather be hanging out with mom. They have fun. She watches out for her little brother, so they’re pretty close, which is good.
JM – They get excited now when they see (the games) on TV when they’re home. Sometimes, it’s hard to figure out what daddy’s doing on TV.
JM – I think they know that I’m gone because of baseball, (but) I don’t think they understand beyond that. They understand it’s what takes me away from them.
JM – I’m also fortunate because I get to spend a lot more time in the winter at home, taking them to school and doing all that kind of stuff as opposed to someone who works year-round and leaves the house at 7:00 a.m. and doesn’t get to see their kids until they get home. Being away for weeks at a time is difficult, but you try to make up for it in the winter.
JM – They’re still young enough where they will take three swings and just run around and go down the slide in the backyard. Keeping them on task is a little difficult. When they do it, it’s fun to watch.
JM – When I get to go Christmas shopping for them, I always buy them sports stuff. They have enough toys, so I try and get them baseball gloves – something that will get them excited and drawn to it.
JM – I’m not of the belief that playing one sport is good for kids until they get to at least high school.
JM – Everything Marty picks up, he treats it like a hockey stick; that’s fun for me. If there’s a ball on the ground and he’s got something in his hand he can hit it with, he just winds up and tries to hit it like he’s hitting a slap shot. That’s fun to see.
JM – They have a chance to be (good athletes). Part of that’s genetic and part of it’s up to the person. If they enjoy doing that stuff, I think you can train some of that.
JM – They seem to be athletic so far. Evelyn does really well. Part of it is his her strong will and her stubbornness. If she falls, she’ll get back up and she doesn’t cry a whole lot when she gets hurt. It will be interesting to see how he does once he gets a little more focused and a little more coordinated.
JM – I’ve always been someone that really cares about the game and cares about the team. I seem to take every loss home with me and have a hard time letting that stuff go. When you walk through the door, they run up and don’t care if you won or lost; they just want to give you a hug. That helps the perspective of what’s important.
JM – Obviously our jobs are important and we take a lot pride in being successful and representing our team and our organization. But at the same time, you’re a father a lot longer than you’re a baseball player, so you have to remember what’s important and try to balance that.
JM – Some of my favorite baseball and kids memories? Fireworks after the games when they let the families come down on the field, just sitting there watching that. They love it. They cover their ears. It’s pretty fun to be able to do that because I’m pretty set in my routine and the things I do; that kind of breaks it up every once in awhile.
JM – We took them to Disneyland for New Year’s; we drove over there and took them on the rides that they were old enough to go on. We watched the parade at the end of the day. Just seeing that excitement. Just seeing them be kids. To take a normal family vacation was nice.
JM – I’m getting Evelyn into (the number 33). She’s learning her numbers and she’s in the beginning stages of learning how to read. When she sees the number 33, she knows what number that is. Hopefully, she won’t be as crazy about it as I am.
JM – The third child is coming in July – due during the All-Star break. It would be too perfect for it to work out that way, but we’ll see.
JM – With both of them, I got to tell her what we (were having), so it was pretty cool. There’s not really many surprises left in this life. You usually know what you’re getting for Christmas, so that’s about the last surprise we have, so it’s exciting.