Two of the greatest major leaguers to ever come out of this province, Ryan Dempster and Justin Morneau, squared off for the first time in a big-league regular season game Sunday.
The fact that Chicago Cubs ace Dempster is a National Leaguer and Minnesota Twins masher Morneau suits up for the rival American League circuit is, of course, the main reason why it's taken this long for a duel. Thanks to interleague, though, their teams do have a series once every three years.
Dempster, 35, who made his debut in the bigs in 1998, had faced the Twins twice previously, and Morneau, 31, who played his first game in the majors in 2003, had played eight games versus the Cubs prior to Sunday.
On Sunday, Dempster got Morneau to ground to shortstop for a fielder's choice, strike out swinging and ground out to second. Dempster was replaced by James Russell to start the ninth and Morneau singled to right off him.
For what it's worth, Morneau is 1-for-6 all-time, with a home run, off Jeff Francis and 2-for-13 versus Rich Harden. Jason Bay is 2-for-16 against Dempster while Larry Walker was 5-for-14 with two homers.