Jake Mauer worked at Awards by Hammond, a St. Paul trophy shop of long standing on University Avenue, just west of Snelling Avenue. Teresa Mauer worked at St. Patrick’s Guild, a shop for Catholic gifts, on Randolph Avenue, just east of Snelling.
Joe Mauer’s road to Cooperstown began in a small house on St. Paul’s Lexington Pkwy.
If you picked up the impression that Joe Mauer grew up with a silver bat in his hands, you weren’t around the St. Paul playgrounds in the 1990s.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 24, 2024 at 12:33AM
The Mauer residence was next to Lexington Parkway, and the family lived there with Grandpa Jake: Teresa, husband Big Jake, and sons Little Jake, Bill and Joe.
The three sons shared a bedroom in the house for several years, before Big Jake did some work in the basement and created a homemade sleeping area.
“I think Joe might have gotten that new spot,” oldest brother Jake said Tuesday morning in a phone call. “We had ballgames all over as kids, and needed rides. Grandpa could drive us, and Scotty Hammond or the Dorans at St. Patrick’s Guild also would give Dad or Mom time off to do that.”
When Jake reached driving age, Grandpa came through with a Buick Regal to take over transportation. “That Regal must’ve been 10, 12 years old, but it had a rebuilt engine,” Jake said.
Grandpa Jake died in 2020 in age 89. He was the last survivor among the four Mauer brothers — the others being Johnny, Hank and Ken, a legendary collection of St. Paul athletes.
The Mauer name has been around St. Paul so long in connection to athletic excellence that I’ve had this feeling that a solid share of Minnesota sports fandom has felt that somehow Joe Mauer, a Baseball Hall of Famer as of Tuesday evening, came from privilege.
Certainly, he was grateful to have Teresa as a mother (”A saint,’’ her son Jake agreed Tuesday) and Jake as a devoted dad until his death at 66 last January. But privilege?
The Mauers of midtown St. Paul were as blue-collar as was possible for a family of five — plus Grandpa Jake. Joe Mauer was not born at third base in his pursuit of greatness; he earned it from behind home plate.
Jim O’Neill, Mauer’s baseball coach at Cretin-Derham Hall, said this week: “People were contacting us about having Joe on this summer team or in that program, and his dad, Jakey, said to me: ‘If it costs, don’t talk to me. If it’s free, we’ll talk about it.’”
This wasn’t selfishness. This was financial reality.
And one can imagine the joy that it brought to Joe when the wealth he earned was able to change that reality for Mom and Dad.
Joe was soft, you’re sure to read from select Star Tribune commenters on all Mauer articles. Which makes it surprising that he chose the toughest position in baseball, catching, and stayed there from the start of high school until concussions drove him from behind the mask permanently in Year 11 in the major leagues.
“I’ve seen what concussions can do over time with others,” O’Neill said. “And those last few years, he would miss a pitch that was in his hitting zone, and I’d seen enough of his at-bats to read him — going back to the dugout, saying to himself, ‘How did I ever miss that pitch?’
“That’s because, for years and years, he never had missed that pitch.”
As for catching, Mauer was ready to take over as a freshman at Cretin-Derham Hall, but Nick Birk was a senior who had done well at the position.
“I went to his dad and said, ‘Joe should be on this team, but as long as Nick is good to go, he has to play,’” O’Neill said. “And his dad looked at me and said, ‘Joe can play on the freshmen team with his buddies.’ ”
Joe was not a leader, we’ll be assured by other commenters. Which makes it surprising that he was the No. 1 recruit in the nation while playing football’s No. 1 leadership position, quarterback, and the catcher in baseball, and a 6-3, growing to 6-5, guard in basketball.
OK, but how about that $184 million contract extension in 2010? The Twins didn’t get their money’s worth. Not unless you take into account that he’d already earned half of it by what the Twins got away with paying him in the previous six full seasons.
“Watching the 2009 All-Star Game … Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter and Mauer,” O’Neill said. “They were the faces of baseball. That was the company Joe was keeping at age 26.”
Now the company is Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield and Jack Morris, the other Hall of Famers from the heart of St. Paul. We need a plaque room at CHS Field.
The eight Twins headed for arbitration are Royce Lewis, Joe Ryan, Jhoan Duran, Bailey Ober, Ryan Jeffers, Willi Castro, Griffin Jax and Trevor Larnach.
