Do You Know This Man?

As you may know, I'm not Ozzie Guilen's biggest fan. The loud mouthed Chicago White Sox manager says what he wants when he wants. However, I do agree with one statement that Ozzie made last year. Justin Morneau battered and bruised the White Sox in a three game series at the end of July. Ozzie was asked about what he thought of Morneau. His answer?

"If [Morneau] played in New York or Boston, he'd be the @#$%ing king. But because he's in Minnesota, nobody has any idea who he is."

This has skyrocketed to epic proportions where my homer views just can't take it anymore. Sure, he happens to play for the Twins, but Justin Morneau is like a Three Six Mafia album right now, Most Known Unknown.

Justin Morneau's stats have been consistant and at one point of the season were comparable to Albert Pujols. Maybe you've heard of that guy. Perhaps you've heard of Mark Teixeria and Kevin Youkilis. Well Justin trails those two in the AL all-star voting right now.  Time to compare.

Youkilis: .317 avg, 13 HR, 45 RBI

Teixeria: .275 avg, 20 HR, 60 RBI

Morneau: .313 avg, 19 HR, 64 RBI

So, that looks interesting. Let's also remember that Tex plays behind some guy named A-Rod and plays in a hitters ballpark. Youkilis does as well and missed time with an injury. Morneau has missed one game this season, plays in a pitchers dome (I won't call the Dome a ballpark), and his team is reliant upon him. So what else would you like ESPN?

I even saw a commercial for this year's home run derby on ESPN. They showed home run derby winners from the past couple of seasons. They got to last years and Josh Hamilton's name flashed across the screen. Um...WRONG!!! Justin Morneau beat Josh Hamilton in the finals. Yeah, what Hamilton did was awesome (30 bombs in the first round or something like that) but he LOST. Sure, Hamilton recovered from being addicted to every drug on the planet, but guess what? HE LOST!!! It was so bad that the man who congratulated Morneau called him "Jason Morneau".

I'm sure Morneau likes being off the radar, but what does Morneau have to do to become a household name? Morneau is a different player who should be recognized. Yeah, he plays in a small market, and yeah he's not running around drunk on ESPN saying how the Red Sox rule the world, but when you think about it Morneau is not your typical power hitting first baseman. A guy like Ryan Howard drools all over the place and just thinks about home runs. Morneau can get on base other ways, such as a single the other way or taking a walk. Not only can he score 100 runs, but he can also take 100 walks in a season. His on base percentage will be towards .400 by the end of the season. He's a true superstar.

Instead he plays in Minnesota, the land that nobody wants a part of. Just ask Ricky Rubio.