Wilson: Morneau appreciates team-first focus of Road to Okotoks national championship

Longtime national team member and 2006 American League MVP Justin Morneau (New Westminster, B.C.) has lent his name to a competition organized by Baseball Canada called “The Road to Okotoks” that will feature teams from elite programs across the country battling it out for a national championship. The winner will receive the Morneau Cup.

*This article was originally published on Alberta Dugout Stories on December 11, 2025. You can read it here.

December 12, 2025

By Ian Wilson

Alberta Dugout Stories

He’s a Canadian baseball legend and a former National League batting champ, but Justin Morneau did a double take when he was asked to be the face of an exciting new national championship tournament.

Greg Hamilton – Baseball Canada’s director of national teams and head coach of the Junior National Team – approached the two-time Silver Slugger Award winner to see if he would lend his name to the top prize being handed out at The Road to Okotoks event.

“My first thought is, did Larry Walker turn it down?” said Morneau in downplaying his own impressive career and giving a nod to fellow British Columbian Walker, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020.

“In all seriousness, once Greg got into what it meant and what the goal is of trying to get the best players in Canada, no matter if they’re playing for their city or their club or anything else, to get them together and have a true best-on-best competition, national championship in Canada, I was honoured to be asked and to be able to jump on board.”

And thus the Morneau Cup was born.

It will be awarded for the first time in the summer of 2026 at Seaman Stadium in Okotoks, Alta.

The Holy Grail of The Road to Okotoks will go to the top team at the tournament, which will see amateur teams – consisting of players who are 19 years old or younger – battle it out while representing their academies and baseball programs from across Canada.

“It sounds like it’s something that has a chance to be really, really exciting for baseball in Canada,” Morneau told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast host Joe McFarland during a recent interview.

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Listen to Alberta Dugout Stories interview Justin Morneau here.

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Hosted by the Okotoks Dawgs – who operate an academy program and a summer collegiate team in the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) – the path to the championship will begin with regional qualifiers, which are set for May 28-31, 2026.

There are eight sites for the qualifying games, including Woodstock, Oakville, Mississauga and Scarborough in Ontario, and White Rock and Langley in British Columbia. The Alberta qualifiers are taking place in Vauxhall and Lethbridge.

Seven teams will advance from Ontario, four will move on from B.C., and three can qualify out of Alberta. In addition, the host Dawgs have punched their ticket and a wild card team will be selected.

From there, the top 16 squads will square off at a championship tournament in Okotoks from July 14th to July 19th.

“You want to play with the best, against the best, and I think this allows everyone to do that, so there’s a few more layers to it that hopefully people will realize as this thing builds,” said Morneau, who was named the American League MVP in 2006.

“The goal now can be making it out of the province and making it to Okotoks and seeing if you can have a chance to compete for that national championship, a true national championship. It’s a great thing and I think that’s why so many people on the Baseball Canada side are so excited about it, and hopefully now we can get the players and coaches and everyone else as excited as we are.”

The native of New Westminster, B.C., who represented Canada at four World Baseball Classics, sees huge upside for The Road to Okotoks in shining a spotlight on Canadian talent and attracting players to international events.

“I think understanding what the national team and junior team program means to baseball, and the opportunities it provides to a lot of players, to be able to get all the players together and then maybe all of a sudden we get a look at some of these younger players to buy in and they want to play with the national team,” said Morneau, who is a member of the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame.

“There will be some competitiveness there. There will be some camaraderie as well, so I think that’s kind of the goal of the whole thing is how do we get the best players in the country, how do we get them together and how do we put them in an environment that’s not a showcase, that’s not about the players themselves? It’s about the team. It’s about the kids you train with all winter or you come together with in the spring and you spend a tonne of time with and then all of a sudden you go on this journey and you get into these qualifiers and you make it a true anybody can beat anybody and you have to play each other.”

Added Morneau: “You’re going to have the best players in the country there to measure yourself against. When it all kind of comes together, it seems like a great concept.”

The former first baseman, who suited up in 1,545 Major League Baseball (MLB) games over 14 seasons, made it clear that the emphasis at The Road to Okotoks will be on team play over individual performance.

“When you get to Okotoks, the only goal, the only thing that matters is that you put the egos aside and the only thing that really matters is, how can I be there for my teammates? How can I help us win this game right now without any thought of, what did I just hit on the radar gun? What was my exit velocity on that hit?” he said.

“When you come into a competition like this, where the only goal is to take home the championship trophy, the Morneau Cup in this case, you kind of get a different sense of what it means to play and to be a baseball player and a teammate. The only thing that matters is being there for your teammates and trying to do whatever you can to win. Hopefully we’re able to get some of the kids in that type of environment where you’re playing with a group of kids, you’re playing with your teammates that you’ve played a bunch of games with. You’re not just getting thrown together for a tournament to show off your skills, and hopefully we can show these kids what it means to be a part of a team and what it means to go out there and chase the championship.”

Morneau spoke positively of the current state of baseball in Canada and said the Toronto Blue Jays’ inspiring run to the World Series this year will only help to generate more interest in the sport in the years ahead.

“I think it’s great to see where baseball is at,” said Morneau, who won the MLB Home Run Derby title in 2008.

“To see where baseball is at, to see the facilities, and to see the interest level and, obviously the Blue Jays going on a World Series run will have a tremendous impact for years to come. That was part of what sparked my love of baseball. I was 12 or 13 years old and the Blue Jays are winning the World Series and I’m looking at it as a kid growing up playing hockey and baseball and saying maybe that’s what I want to do.”

He also sees The Road to Okotoks as another way to spark a love of baseball in Canadian players.

“People get into it for good reasons, love of the game and wanting to coach athletes and pass along lessons they’ve learned, all those things that you get from coaching and you’re able to pass along to these kids,” said Morneau.

Those players who pursue the Morneau Cup this summer can also be thankful for what the former MLB star is passing along to them.