Craig and Marilyn Monroe: She gave up her dreams to raise a major leaguer

By JOE CHRISTENSEN, Star Tribune

Last update: May 10, 2008 - 11:41 PM

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PERFECT TEAMS

Professional or amateur, athletes know deep down that they’re involvement and successes are linked directly to the support and sacrifice of mothers (and grandmothers) along the way. Here are four stories of some familiar local sports figures at the upper reaches of their sports and the special people who helped get them there.

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Marilyn Monroe was a basketball, softball and track star growing up in Texarkana, Texas. But she gave up the chance at a college scholarship when she had a son at age 17 and raised him as a single parent.

That son is Craig Monroe, an outfielder with the Twins.

"I would just say, 'Thank you, Mom, really for giving up your hopes and your dreams so I could fulfill mine,' " he said. "I feel like my success is our success because she was my biggest supporter."

In July 2006, Monroe invited his mother to watch his Tigers play at Yankee Stadium. It was too perfect: Marilyn Monroe in New York City.

The first day, the Tigers were rained out, so they took in their first Broadway show, "The Lion King."

The next day, Craig came up with the Tigers trailing 3-2 in the ninth inning and hit a three-run homer. He capped it off by blowing Marilyn a kiss.

"Even when things were bad, she told me to keep working hard, keep trying," he said. "Her big thing is, 'I can do all things through Christ.' So that's always stuck with me."

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