Justin Morneau

The Twins have told first baseman Justin Morneau to stay away from the Twins fan fest this weekend as he continues his recovery from a concussion suffered last season.
Morneau was concussed sliding into second base on July 7th and hasn't played since.
When you think of a player getting a concussion, you think football or hockey first. Then you figure the guy may be out a week or two.
Obviously Morneau's concussion was more serious than anybody figured. He hasn't even started to swing a bat in preparation for 2011.
Ive been thinking about this since Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler was roundly criticized for not playing much of the second half of the Green Bay-Chicago NFC championship game on Sunday. It was found out that Cutler suffered a sprained MCL in his knee. That's a real injury that would have certainly hampered his performance and could have hurt his career down the line. The Bears decided not to let him play. Yet all these armchair doctors were saying he was soft and if you can stand you should play. Even current and former players were saying they would have played and Cutler was soft. Unless a guy has a history of faking or milking injuries then you should give him the benefit of the doubt. Idiots like Mike Ditka, Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin were spouting off about how they would have played in that sitiuation. I haven't seen their medical degrees.
Back to Morneau. It is hard to imagine a concussion keeping a guy out this long but I would find it very difficult to criticize Morneau. The guy was having a monster year last season, hitting .345 at the time of his injury.
I remember when people were critical of J.R. Richard of the Astros in 1980. The guy was mowing batters down. He was 10-4 with an ERA of 1.90 yet he was complaining of a "dead arm" and that he didn't feel right. The critics said, "J.R. is soft. He's a hypochondriac. He's faking." Whatever. Then when he suffered a stroke because of a blood clot in his neck, then people said, "Well, I guess J.R. wasn't jaking it afterall." That was the end of Richard's dynamic, yet short career.
From that time on, I've always given an athlete the benefit of the doubt when it comes to injuries or illnesses.
With Morneau, while it is hard to believe a concussion could cause so much damage, you have to feel the guy is just as frustrated as Twins fans are. But we are learning that head injuries are a very mysterious ailment. I hope Morneau continues his recovery and that he's back to playing baseball when he is ready and the doctors have cleared him. You also have to hope that he can get back to the player he was. It would be a shame if that didn't happen.