Morneau, Jays greats to enter shrine

Just weeks after seeing his idol receive baseball’s highest honour, Justin Morneau is celebrating one of his own.

Morneau, a big-hitting first baseman from New Westminster, B.C., leads the 2020 class of inductees into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall announced on Tuesday that Morneau will be joined at the June 20 induction ceremony at the St. Marys, Ont. shrine by former Blue Jays first baseman John Olerud and his teammate, reliever Duane Ward, as well as Quebec-based broadcaster Jacques Doucet.

Morneau, who was mentored by new Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Larry Walker, captured the AL MVP award in 2006, the only Canadian-born player to capture that title.

Morneau played in parts of 14 big league seasons, amassing the second most RBIS (985) among Canadian-born major league players. In 2008, Morneau became the first and only Canuck to capture the Home Run Derby.

His career was highlighted by four 100 RBI seasons, including 130 in 2006 to tie Walker for the most among Canadian players.

Olerud, the sweet swinging first baseman, was a key part of the Jays two World Series championship teams. He was particularly lethal in 1993 when he flirted with a .400 batting average for much of the season before finishing at .363. Olerud won the AL batting title that season, still the only Jays player to do so.

In total, Olerud played in 920 regular season contests over parts of eight seasons with the Jays and ranks first all-time in franchise history in OBP (. 395), fourth in walks (514) and sixth in batting average (. 293). His .363 batting average in 1993 remains the single-season club record.

Ward led the league in saves in 1993 with 45, a club record that still stands.