Transcript from Morneau interview

Justin Morneau met with reporters before the game tonight. The transcription is below. Enjoy.

How are you feeling?
“I’m feeling better. We’ve got to talk to the doctors at six o’clock. On the scan this morning there was still something there, but they said it showed improvement, so it’s getting better. We just have to figure out how we’re going to go after it. Pretty simple.”

When would you like to return?
“As soon as possible, but I don’t want to put a date on it. It should be, who knows, hopefully in the next couple days, but you don’t want to push it too much and then have something come back and all of the sudden I’m out for two or three weeks. You may as well take the extra day or two to make sure everything’s better and then we’ll be ready to go the rest of the way.”

Do you feel like you’ll be ready to come back this homestand?
“I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Who knows. We’ve got to see how it goes, and then I’ve got to run around a little bit and see how it goes, see it makes anything worse or anything like that, and then we’ll go from there. Right now we’re just going to wait to talk to the doctors when they come in at 6, and then see what our plan is.”

You said the test showed there is still something there, what does that mean?
“Just the bruise, the contusion on the lung is still (there). You could still see it on the CT scan I had this morning. They said it’s still there, but they said it showed improvement like it’s supposed to, and it looked good.”

Is that something that’s supposed to clear up before they clear you?
“I don’t know. I guess we’re going to find out when they come in. That’s all I heard from the doctors so far. When they come in they said we’re going to get together with the trainers and figure out what our plan is and go from there.”

How scary was this for you?
“It was pretty scary, especially after. After it happened I thought I just got the wind knocked out of me, and then you know I get up and get back to the dugout and all of the sudden I start coughing and then I’m coughing spitting and there’s blood. Anytime that happens that’s real scary. I wasn’t too sore and then once we got back in the clubhouse I started to get real sore. I started to get a little bit worried, and that probably didn’t help anything. We get over to the hospital, they take the scan and everything looked to be all right. It was kind of a lot of waiting around just to get the tests done, just to make sure everything was OK. It was a little frustrating, but I managed to find the game on TV. The game Sunday wasn’t on TV. I had to watch that little pitch-by-pitch thing on the computer. That was a long day, but it was good.”

Are you in any kind of pain?
“Right now, yeah a little bit but not too much, not anything I’m on any crazy painkillers for or anything like that. It’s tough because you walk around, you feel all right, but swinging or if I had to dive for a ball, or something, who knows what would happen there. That’s where it would get a little dicey. It’s a reaction in the game. If you’re going to dive, you’re going to dive, and you don’t want to re-injure yourself or anything like that, so I think that’s what we’re kind of waiting for.”

Did you see the replay? What did you think?
“It was a little embarrassing. You run the catcher, the catcher is supposed to fall over not you. I got a few messages for that one. (Corey) Koskie asked me if I wanted to come over, he could teach me how to run the catcher. He said he could set his kids up. He said we’d start with the youngest one who’s one and a half or whatever, so I told him that was real good. The (Wild winger Mark) Parrish asked me if (former Wild defenseman) Willie Mitchell taught me how to hit. They love that stuff. That was after I got out of the hospital. They waited a couple days before they started to get one me. It was one of those things, just kind of a reaction play, kind of got me just in the wrong spot. It’s just part of the game. (Marlins catcher Miguel Olivo) made sure I was all right.”

What’s the most physical activity you’ve done in the last few days?
“I just walked on a treadmill for 10 minutes. That was pretty strenuous. No, it was fine. They said they just want to wait and see what our plan is before I do anything. You don’t want to take a step back and do anything backwards.”

Is it strange to see someone else playing first?
“I remember the last time Cuddy played first was the last time I took a day off over there. It was June, I think it was June 7. I didn’t ever want to see that again. Well, not against Cuddy, but just because I want to play everyday. You never want to miss a game, and how good Cuddy is in right field, but Cuddy can handle it. He’s played everywhere, and we’re doing what we can to fill all the holes right now with a lot of guys banged up. Hopefully I can get back sooner than later and help us win.”

People find out how tough first base can be?
“It’s a little different. Guys that play third, they say it’s easy to move over there, but if you don’t go for that ball, you still have to get to the bag and cover the bag. It takes a little while. You just have to get used to it. It’s not as hard as I make it look sometimes. It’s something you have to learn. It’s a different feel, but those guys, Cirillo’s been in the league forever, so he knows how to play, and Cuddy’s been over there a bit, so you have faith in those guys.”

This couldn’t have happened at a worse time, could it have?
“Yeah, definitely. We have 11 games in 10 days or whatever it is. We’ve got four in New York, which will be tough, and Chicago and Detroit, which are tough places to play. We always have good games against them. You want to be there, but at the same time you want to be smart. There’s a fine line between toughness and stupidity. You want to be out there, you want to be tough, but at the same you don’t want to do anything to hurt yourself.”

Was this a freak accident? If you’re in the same position again, will you hesitate a little bit coming down the third baseline?
“It’s just kind of a reaction play. When you’re going in, you know rounding third, you know if the play is going to be close, if you’re going to have to run the catcher. You kind of read the catcher, and if you think he’s going to get the ball before you get there and it’s a close game, tight situation, you try to knock the ball lose, that’s what you try to do. It’s hard to stop yourself from doing that reaction … Right now I don’t think I’d feel comfortable if I had to go run the catcher tonight, but it’s something that will hopefully clear up and we’ll be good in a couple days.”

When you said you’re in pain, what type of pain? Where?
“Just my chest. Just if I move around quick or do anything like that. Kind of soreness, nothing too bad.”

Is breathing tough?
“I haven’t really gotten my heart rate up too much, but first it was if I took any kind of breath it was sore, and then after they’d come in and check your lungs, they’d tell you to take a deep breath and that would hurt. Now it’s starting to clear up a little bit. That kind of pain with breathing is mostly gone.”

What are the doctors main concerns?
“Just not doing anything to make it worse. You don’t want to take a step back. You don’t want it to start bleeding in there or anything like that … Anytime you have fluid in your lungs it can turn into pneumonia or things like that. We haven’t really discussed that, so I’m not too worried about that. You just want it to clear up, go away.”