Former Dodgers and Blue Jays player torn watching the World Series

On Friday, many fans will be decked out from head to toe in Blue Jays gear as they cheer on their team in the World Series for the first time since 1993.

But Greg Morrison, the Medicine Hat Mavericks’ owner, will be a lot more conflicted than others.

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Morrison, who was born in Saskatchewan before moving to Medicine Hat when he was very  young, was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 71st round of the 1994 Major League Baseball Amateur June draft.

He spent two seasons in the Dodgers organization before being released. Afterwards, the Blue Jays picked him up, and Morrison spent three seasons with that organization.

Now, Morrison finds himself torn watching the two teams where he played Minor League Baseball about to battle it out for the sport’s ultimate prize.

“I am conflicted, and in so much that I don’t think I’m going to wear a specific apparel,” he said. “(I won’t) dig too deep in the old boxes to find any apparel whether it’s Dodgers or Jays.”

But Morrison still found himself celebrating George Springer’s winning home run in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, which he watched with his family.

“It’s a lot different now with me and my son standing there,” he said. “I’m jumping up and down, and my wife and daughter are like ‘oh my gosh’ this excitement that comes out of the old baseball guy watching these guys… when Springer hits that three-run home run it was an amazing feeling.”

Morrison added that watching this year’s Blue Jays team has taken him back to watching the Blue Jays win back to back World Series in 1992 and 1993 with his Dad.

“It’s been a long time from sitting (and) watching them in the early ‘90s,” he said. “Being a high school player when you think about ‘92 (and) ‘93 sitting there watching the games with my dad and eating a bowl of sunflower seeds to 30 years later and we’re kind of like ‘wow these guys look like they’re going to do it again.’”

Morrison said the World Series experience is something very few people get to feel.

“When I was with the Dodgers, Mickey Hatcher was my coach,” he said. “He just played in the 1988 World Series, and he said as an experience it was just amazing. You’re a grown man, but you almost can’t sleep, like those guys probably won’t sleep well for that whole seven to eight days, because they’re really living a childhood dream.”

Morrison added the playoffs find a way to make you feel like a kid once again.

“That little kid comes out and you saw it with those big home runs,” he said. “Ernie (Clement) looking in the crowd and the guys with the hands up when (George) Springer hit the big home run.”

Morrison said the Blue Jays are a very fun team to watch because they “do everything right.”

“Just seeing the style of play, they’re a very gritty team,” he said. “You got (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) who is playing great defence at first and (is) very clutch.”

The Dodgers head into the World Series as heavy favourites, but as Morrison said, it doesn’t matter what people predict: it’s about who comes up clutch and when.

“Baseball is always pitching and defence and both excel at that,” he said. “Timely hitting matters, I think they’re going to be very low scoring baseball games.”

The Blue Jays, who finished with 94 wins in the regular season, will have home field advantage against the Dodgers, but Morrison doesn’t think that’ll make too much of a difference.

“It’s a long series, you’d love to win the first game, every game matters, but I don’t know if that first game is going to be pivotal to winning it all,” he said.

Morrison is going to be in California and Nevada helping out with a Canadian College Baseball team and is hoping to make his way to Los Angeles to attend one of the games.

“I’ve looked at changing my flight from flying from Vegas to Calgary, maybe Vegas to LA,” he said. “It would be quite a moment, I wouldn’t mind even going to that game by myself, being drafted by the Dodger and never being to Dodger Stadium and the potential to see what that would be like and experience 30 years later.”

Game 1 of the World Series kicks off at 6 p.m. Saskatchewan time on Friday.