Morneau has his head on straight, even if others (myself included) simply don't

Among the things that make my blood boil in our comments section are insinuations that Justin Morneau is somehow soft for missing nearly three months now with a concussion.

Morneau started all 163 games in 2008. What more do you need to know about his heart?

Right now he is recovering from a brain injury. Does that register for some of you? I'll admit it doesn't always register for me, but concussions are brain injuries. And Morneau's overwhelming desire to return with this team, in this special season, is probably part of the reason it's taken him so long to recover.

Listen to the way he compared Thursday's hitting session at Target Field to the ones he was having in August.

"Early on, I was trying to convince myself I felt normal," he said. "Now that I look back, how I felt then compared to how I feel now -- it's not even close. I thought I felt good because I wanted to be out there so bad."

I spoke to Blue Jays 2B Aaron Hill about his own concussion ordeal from 2008 and wrote about that in this story. I also spoke to John McDonald, the classy veteran infielder who accidentally kneed Morneau in the head on July 7. Those two were thrilled to hear about Morneau's recent progress.

"He's one of the better players in the game," McDonald said. "He plays the game hard. He plays the game the way you would teach somebody to play. This is a big guy who hits home runs, he's an excellent defensive first baseman -- and he breaks up double plays.

Those who've written off Morneau for the postseason would have been surprised to see him get after it Thursday. His green Army T-shirt was sweaty before he stepped into the batting cage to unleash a series of ferocious swings.

Asked if he felt like it was the first day of spring training, he said, "I think I'm ahead of that. I've been running for a while out here. The baseball stuff was the last thing we added [to the rehab plan], so I've been out there, building up endurance, building up my legs. ... I'm pretty close. I'm obviously not in game shape, but I'm ahead of where I would be at the start of spring training."

Morneau, 29, will continue working his way back, being careful to slow down immediately if things start getting foggy again.

The best part of this story is that Morneau has his head on straight, even if legions of sports fans still have their heads buried in the sand. I'll include myself in that sandy-headed group, since there have been times I've wondered whether these athletes could push themselves through their haze a little quicker.

When Morneau returns, he'll be wearing a different helmet than most players. The helmet was on display during the All-Star Game. I'd call it oversizedoversized -- in fact, I regrettably made a Great Gazoo reference to a pre-modified version in this story in mid-July -- but perhaps it's the perfect size and the other helmets are too skimpy.

I'm not sure if Morneau will come back this year. I'm not sure if the Twins will advance far enough in the postseason to make it a relevant question.