Patrick Reusse: Wife, child cheered up slugger during time away

FORT MYERS, FLA. — Evelyn Morneau was in her mother's arms and sleeping as they strolled along the sidewalk that connects Hammond Stadium to the adjacent minor league fields. The 5-month-old looked pretty in her pink and cool behind her sunglasses.

"So, she slept through her dad's return to action," someone said to Krista Morneau.

Mom said that wasn't the case -- that Evelyn had been awake for most of the 3 1/2 innings that her father, Justin, played in Tuesday morning's B-game.

"She saw her dad and smiled," Krista said. "She fell asleep when we started to leave."

Krista, Evelyn and their friend, a young lady named Thenedra, were in the crowd of a couple hundred fans that made the way to Field 3 to watch the Twins play a collection of Pittsburgh Pirates.

Delmon Young was due to be the main attraction, playing for the first time this spring after his turf toe injury. Then word spread among the early arrivers that Morneau could be playing first base, so they headed across the parking lot to greet the prodigal MVP.

It was exactly eight months ago Monday that Morneau suffered his concussion. And late in the afternoon, Krista noticed that her husband was smiling goofily, even by Canadian standards.

On Tuesday, the Morneau delegation found seats in the shaded, small set of bleachers on the first base side. There are no formalities with a B-game, so fans were not certain until they saw him jogging to first base that Morneau would play.

What occurred over the next hour was eventful:

Twins shortstop Chase Lambin fed a throw that arrived on a long, wicked hop, and Morneau knocked it down with his chest. He bounced out weakly in the first, came up again in the third and drilled a bases-loaded double off righthander Bryan Morris to score three runs. And then he came home with a slide on Trevor Plouffe's bloop single.

There were baseball things happening -- a bad throw, a two-base hit, a slide into an unobstructed plate -- and Morneau came away with no issues.

"It was very encouraging," Krista said. "I just didn't want a play to happen at the plate. I'm relieved it wasn't close. I saw him for a minute after he left the game. He was feeling good."

Later, Morneau said it was "pretty cool" to have his daughter in attendance, then said of his wife: "I had been pretty frustrated through the process, and she's been great. ... I think it's been as rough on her as it's been on me. To have them here today was special."

Evelyn was born Sept. 23. Krista said her husband made it clear that he didn't see himself as a diaper changer, but that changed the moment he saw his daughter.

"First time she needed a change, Justin said, 'You stay in bed; I got this,' " Krista said. "He's pretty good at it."

She said the presence of Evelyn when he came home from workouts -- first offseason, now spring training -- was a wonderful distraction from the uncertainty in this recovery from a concussion.

"Justin's a very low-key guy, but baseball has been his life for a long time," Krista said. "When he would get down, frustrated, he could hold his daughter and start smiling."

The Morneaus spent most of the winter in "hibernation," Krista said, including several weeks at their home in Arizona. That's where Justin worked out daily, and gained optimism that he would be back in a ballgame sooner rather than much later.

Sooner arrived Tuesday, and after watching her husband make it through those 3 1/2 innings in robust fashion, Krista Morneau summarized her emotions thusly:

"I let out a breath that had been building since last July, and I didn't even know it."