By Jay Nies / The Catholic Missourian, OSV News
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (OSV News) — Left fielder Will Robertson takes home field advantage wherever he goes.
The Loose Creek native’s wife, Morgan, and their baby daughter, Jonnie, travel with him from city to city to see him play. “We’re living the dream with him,” she said.
On June 11, after playing minor league baseball, Will was called up to the Toronto Blue Jays, but almost a month later Toronto traded him to the Chicago White Sox, according to a July 10 story by Sportsnet, a Canadian news outlet.
Will is a graduate of Immaculate Conception School in Loose Creek, Fatima High School in Westphalia and Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the fourth round of the 2019 MLB draft. For the past two seasons, he played for the Buffalo Bisons, Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. He got the call “to the bigs” while the Blue Jays were in St. Louis playing the Cardinals.
“I wasn’t in the game, but I was on the active roster,” he said in a late June interview with The Catholic Missourian, Jefferson City’s diocesan news outlet. “It was a very special moment to be at Busch Stadium.
“I’ve been to my share of games in Busch,” he noted. “But, experiencing that from the opposing dugout is quite a different feeling.”
He made his big league debut two days later against the Philadelphia Phillies, garnering his first hit in the majors in the less-than-friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park.
Will’s wife and daughter were in the stands in Philly when he took to the field.
“When we started doing long-distance, we said, ‘No matter where, we’re bringing our family with us to these wonderful places we’d never get to go to without baseball,'” said Morgan.
“We choose to make it all about family,” she said. “So, home isn’t just a place for us. It’s wherever we are when we’re together.”
“We’re very proud to be Catholics from mid-Missouri,” added Will.
Will said his faith is paramount: “I wouldn’t be here without it.”
The couple both grew up in large Catholic families.
“Morgan and I, our parents brought us up very traditionally,” said Will. “The small German towns in mid-Missouri. Very traditional.
“And with us both belonging to very large extended families — grandparents, aunts and uncles that have grown up in the church — they’ve all played a part in our upbringing throughout the years,” he said.
The two first met while they were in kindergarten.
The lesson: “Teach your children to be nice to other children,” he said. “Sometimes, your kindergarten crush might turn out to be your wife!”
Will has “something like 18 cousins on my dad’s side and like 12 on mom’s.”
“We all played sports,” he said. “Baseball and sports in general definitely run deep in our families.”
He believes his very first homerun came during a family wiffleball game in his grandparents’ backyard.
“Growing up with bunch of cousins, we played a lot of wiffleball,” he recalled. “Even on the field behind church in Loose Creek. It was definitely a family affair. That’s where it all started.”
They all played for the fun of it.
Only while playing varsity baseball in high school did he start thinking that it could help him advance his education and maybe become a career. His mom and dad were nearby to encourage him.
“Growing up, your parents are always in your ear,” he said. “They’re the ones helping you to achieve your goals.”
He’s convinced that children learn invaluable lessons and forge lifelong friendships while participating in sports together. “I still have long connections with guys I played ball with since I was 10 years old.”
Will went to Creighton on a baseball scholarship, learning to navigate the challenges of balancing school, faith and America’s pastime.
“You have the whole thing of being on your own for the first time,” he said. “A big part of your maturing comes with going out on your own and figuring things out for yourself.”
Later on, he faced serious injuries after embarking on his professional baseball career.
“That was certainly a setback, and I wasn’t sure what the future was going to hold,” he recalled.
He chose to trust God and keep working at it.
Morgan said her husband’s mental and emotional strength are among the things that attracted her to him.
“Baseball is not for the weak,” she noted, herself having played softball and basketball. “Until I started traveling with Will, I didn’t really understand the magnitude of what he does every day.
“Baseball is such a game of failure and a mental game,” she continued. “More times than not, you strike out. And you have to go out there and deal with it. It’s hard for me just to watch, let alone be the one to have to go through it. But Will always leaves the field with his head held high.”
She called to mind something Will’s dad often says to him: “God has a plan.”
“I think Will takes that to heart,” she said. “It’s made him the guy he is. How mentally strong he is. That’s why I’m with him.”
Having a daughter has helped reinforce for Will that God does have a plan, and it’s much bigger than the present moment.
“Some days, you can go 5-for-5 or go 0-for-5,” he stated. “You just have to keep doing your best while staying focused on the things that matter.”
“Whatever baseball brings, I still have my family, I still have my faith,” he said.
Will noted that participating in the sacramental life of the church can be challenging with all the traveling and a 162-game season.
“Sometimes, you have a Saturday night game at 6:30 followed by a day game at noon, and you have to be at the ballpark at 9,” he said.
Technology helps the couple find the closest weekend Masses they can attend. When it absolutely doesn’t work, the couple finds a Mass to livestream and they make a point of getting to Mass the next day. Being in the car gives them time to pray their daily rosary together.
Morgan said they don’t want people, especially the friends they grew up with, to treat them differently.
At the same time, Will does believe strongly that people in the public eye need to set a good example.
“I think you have a definite responsibility to the next generation,” he stated. “You have a responsibility as an athlete to project yourself in a positive light.”
He said baseball has given him so much — “a chance to meet so many incredible people and experience stuff I wouldn’t ever get to experience. So, you have to give back.”
Morgan said her proudest moment so far in her husband’s career was an award that fellow ballplayers on the Blue Jays’ minor league teams voted to bestow on him: for being a good all-around teammate.
“That says a lot to me about him,” she stated. “And at the end of the day, what people are going to remember is your character and how you treat others and how you hold yourself on the field.”
Will wears his gratitude on his sleeve.
“I wouldn’t be here without my parents, without Morgan, without my grandpa — certainly not without God,” he said.
From all people of faith, he asks for prayers for health and safety on the road, and also for people back in central Missouri who are “fighting some tough battles” with hardships and illness.
One thing the couple loves about home is that the big league ballplayer is just Will to everybody who knows him.
“We’re regular people and that’s what we love the most — coming home and having time with family and friends, and having stability with our parishes, going to Mass in our church on Sundays,” said Will.
Morgan said it’s nice to know that whenever her husband’s career winds down, they have so much waiting for them back home.
Her husband agrees.
“We have a family who loves us, a great community, a great parish,” he stated. “So, if the worst-case scenario means the end of my baseball career, our worst day could actually be our best day.”
This story was originally published by The Catholic Missourian, news outlet of the Diocese of Jefferson City, and distributed through a partnership with OSV News. Jay Nies is editor of The Catholic Missourian.
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