Loose Creek native playing for Toronto Blue Jays

Whatever baseball brings, I still have my family, I still have my faith.”

Will Robertson

Toronto Blue Jays leftfielder 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,” said Mrs. Robertson, who grew up in Westphalia.

Mr. Robertson — a graduate of Immaculate Conception School in Loose Creek, Fatima High School in Westphalia and Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska — played for minor-league teams before being called up to the Blue Jays on June 11.

It was while his team was in St. Louis playing the Cardinals.

“I wasn’t in the game, but I was on the active roster,” he said. “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 Major League hit in the less-than-friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park.

His favorite player, first-baseman Brice Harper, plays for the Phillies.

“He was injured, so I didn’t get to play against him,” Mr. Robertson noted. “I’ve always liked him, and that would have been pretty cool.”

He said a bat hitting a ball sounds different when big-league hitters make contact in big-league stadiums.

“It’s one of the only sounds in sports you can hear and be able to almost dictate the outcome,” he said. “If you hear a thud, it’s probably not hit that hard. But when you hear that hard crack, that gets your attention. It’s unique.”

In this together

Mr. Robertson’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 Mrs. Robertson.

“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.”

Notwithstanding, the couple’s Osage County roots run deep.

“We’re very proud to be Catholics from mid-Missouri,” said Mr. Robertson.

“Fr. Tony has been a huge part of our lives,” he said of his pastor, Father Tony Rinaldo, adding that the priest baptized their daughter earlier this year.

Mr. Robertson said his faith is paramount: “I wouldn’t be here without it.”

Mr. and Mrs. Robertson both grew up in large Catholic families.

“Morgan and I, our parents brought us up very traditionally,” said Mr. Robertson. “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 couple first met while they were in kindergarten.

“At the time, Immaculate Conception in Loose Creek didn’t have kindergarten,” Mr. Robertson noted. “So we both went to Fatima public school for kindergarten, then to our respective Catholic schools after that.”

The lesson: “Teach your children to be nice to other children,” he said. “Sometimes, your kindergarten crush might turn out to be your wife!”

Mr. Robertson 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.”

Mr. Robertson, his siblings and his friends all played for the fun of it.

“Growing up, I think what my favorite sport was depended on the season,” he said. “When it was winter, my favorite sport was basketball. In the spring, it was baseball.”

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.

“In school, you always have the dream of playing professionally, but I don’t think I had the sight of it until high school,” he said.

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.”

The adults in his life went out of their way not to inflate his ego.

“I wouldn’t say anyone in particular ever came out and said, ‘Hey, you’re good at this,’” he recalled. “It was always just, ‘Keep working on it and follow your passion.’”

He’s convinced that children learn invaluable lessons and forge lifelong friendships while participating in sports together.

“Special relationships, and you can learn a lot with them,” he said. “I still have long connections with guys I played ball with since I was 10 years old.”

“God has a plan”

Mr. Robertson went to Creighton on a baseball scholarship, learning to navigate the challenges of balancing school, faith and the Great American sport.

“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.

Mrs. Roberson 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 stated.

She called to mind something Mr. Robertson’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.”

Red-blooded

Mr. Robertson doesn’t mind telling people that he’s a huge Cardinals fan.

“It runs in my family,” he said. “My great-grandfather was a hard-core fan. My father-in-law is a huge Cardinals fan. We went to a game during the 2011 World Series.”

Future Hall of Fame power-hitting first-baseman Albert Pujols was his favorite player when he was younger.

“Then, as you get older, you start having your attention drawn to players you can relate to more,” he said.

For Mr. Robertson, they included outfielder Randal Grichuk and left-fielder Matt Holliday during their time with the Cardinals. 

Staying focused

Having a daughter has helped reinforce for Mr. Robertson 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.

That understanding has given him confidence through every step of his career.

“It’s really helped me not to put as much pressure on myself with baseball and has allowed me to grow in my faith, as well,” he said.

He called to mind some good advice he received from Taos native and fellow Catholic Tom Henke, who was a devastating relief pitcher for the Blue Jays in the 1980s and later for the Cardinals.

“He reached out to me when I was first drafted in 2019,” Mr. Robertson recalled. “He said: ‘It’s your journey, make it your own.’

“Very simple advice, but something I took to heart,” he said.

Mr. Robertson 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.

“I think that’s helped out a ton with how unique our situation is,” said Mr. Robertson.

“Normal people”

Mrs. Robertson said they don’t want people, especially the friends they grew up with, to treat them differently.

“It does so happen that Will plays baseball and you can watch him on TV,” she said. “But we want people to treat us just as normal people.”

At the same time, Mr. Robertson 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,” he said.

He and his Toronto teammates recently talked about: “If your career ended today, what would you want your teammates and coaches to remember about you?”

“Most of the answers came back: ‘be a good team leader,’ ‘handle failure well,’ ‘contribute to a positive team attitude,’” he said.

Mrs. Robertson 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.

It was 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.”

Where the heart is

Mr. Robertson 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 Mr. Robertson.

“Especially now with the picnics going on and all the parishes getting together and celebrating this time of year, that’s something we really miss,” he stated.

Mrs. Robertson 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.”