It’s hard to comprehend that 25 years have passed since Joe Mauer became a household name as a high school athlete at Cretin-Derham Hall.
Mauer played football, basketball, and baseball at Cretin. Florida State offered him a scholarship to play football before the Minnesota Twins made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 MLB Draft. Mauer had lofty expectations of him since the start. But how frequently can an athlete live up to the hype Mauer had at age 16? Very few.
Mauer is entering the Hall of Fame as the fourth-ever former first overall pick in an MLB draft behind Harold Baines (1977), Ken Griffey Jr. (1987), and Chipper Jones (1991). There’s a possibility more will join this exclusive club because Bryce Harper (2010), Gerrit Cole (2011), and Carlos Correa (2012) appear to be on a Hall of Fame path. Still, Mauer is the only one among the current four Hall of Famers to do so for their hometown team. It’s also incredibly rare across North America’s big four men’s professional sports.
No NFL or NHL player has entered the Hall of Fame as a member of their hometown team. LeBron James will enter the Hall of Fame with the Cleveland Cavaliers once he retires, but he hasn’t spent his entire career with them. Mauer truly is in a category all his own, and it highlights his extraordinary career.
Accolades of the moment aside, a whole generation of kids grew up watching Mauer and only knew him as an athlete. These younger Millennials and older Generation Z-ers watched his entire career from beginning to end while the adults in their lives argued about his injuries, massive contracts, and slumps as cases against his Hall of Fame career. The younger generation Mauer for who he was on and off the field, regardless of what the adults in their lives said around them.
In his career, Mauer has earned a 2009 American League MVP, three batting titles, six all-star appearances, five silver sluggers, three gold gloves, and the second-most games played in franchise history (1,858) behind only Harmon Killebrew. There were too many enjoyable moments to count within Mauer’s 15-year career, but one that will always stand out came on May 17, 2009.
The Twins were in the dreaded Yankee Stadium facing off against the Bronx Bombers. Kevin Slowey provided a strong start, going 7.2 innings, allowing only six hits and two runs, one of which came off Alex Rodriguez, who later admitted to PED use during the 2009 season during the Biogenesis bust of 2013. But Slowey didn’t allow a single walk and struck out eight batters in his lengthy start, keeping the Twins tied at two.
Jose Mijares relieved Slowey in the bottom of the eight to get the Twins out of the jam. He remained on for the bottom of the ninth as the game remained tied at two and walked Nick Swisher to start the inning. Rookie Brett Gardner then pinch-ran for Swisher and advanced to second on Melky Cabrera’s sac bunt. What happened next was unlike anything anyone could have expected, including Mauer, the man of the moment.
On a 1-0 count, Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli hit a ground ball right to Mijares, who knocked it down with his glove. The ball ricocheted back to Mauer, who looked as though he’d still make a throw to Justin Morneau at first; at least, that’s what Gardner saw. But Mauer caught Gardner as he was a third of the way home, lunged out to meet Garnder as he slid into home, and tagged him out perfectly to keep the game tied at two and stun the Yankee faithful.
Mauer had missed the first month of the season and was only playing in his 15th game. For the thousands of kids watching that play at home, that was the moment that solidified him as an MVP candidate. The rest was history from there for Mauer. In only 138 games, he led all of MLB in triple slash categories (AVG, OBP, and SLG) .365/.444 /.587, a career-high 28 home runs, 96 RBI, 191 hits, and 171 OPS+.
The final season at the Metrodome from Mauer was truly one for the ages. While he never reached the peak of 2009 again, Mauer’s career behind the plate was one of the best seen from a catcher in the age of television and the internet. It will be easy for the next generation to find out why he was held in such a high accolade despite the constant setbacks of injuries throughout his career.
Now, he’ll forever be enshrined in Cooperstown as one-of-one, the hometown kid who played his entire career with his childhood team that was the No. 1 pick in any given draft. Barry Larkin played his entire career with his hometown Cincinnati Reds, and Cal Ripken Jr. grew up in Baltimore. But they weren’t drafted No. 1 overall like Mauer, which makes the moment all the more worthwhile to savor for Twins fans.
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