The Minnesota Twins unveiled a statue of Minnesota’s own Joe Mauer by Gate 34 at Target Field on Sunday.
Mauer joins Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, Carl and Eloise Pohlad and Tom Kelly as Minnesota Twins legends enshrined in statues outside of the stadium.
Mauer, who grew up and played high school baseball in St. Paul, played his entire 15-season career with the Twins. While not every Twins player gets a statue, Mauer’s play on the field earned him a place in not only Twins history but the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Justin Morneau, a former Twin and Mauer’s old teammate, spoke at the unveiling about how Mauer inspired kids all over Minnesota to keep playing baseball, even in the offseason.
“’It’s one thing to go up there and play for your team and be a guy that, ‘Hey, he’s from Minnesota and a cool story,’ but the fact that he was the best player in the league really inspired so many kids and let them see, ‘Hey, even though it’s seasonal baseball in this state, you can be a Major League Baseball player, you can play for the Minnesota Twins, and you can be a Hall of Famer,’” Morneau said. “I think Joe showed everyone that in Twins territory.”
Morneau made his MLB debut a year prior to Mauer in 2003, leading to them becoming one of the best duos in baseball.
Two years prior to Mauer winning the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, Moreneau brought the hardware to Minneapolis. He finished his MVP season batting .321, hitting career highs with 34 home runs and 130 RBI.
Throughout his career, Morneau was named an All-Star four times, finished top-2 in MVP voting twice and was named a Silver Slugger twice.
In their about 10 seasons together, Mauer and Morneau combined for over 2,700 hits, 300 home runs and 1,400 RBI.
They were named All-Stars together in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Alongside being All-Stars, they appeared in the playoffs four times.
In high school, Mauer was a number one prospect for both football and baseball, as he had the opportunity to play for Bobby Bowden and the Florida State Seminoles. He instead opted for the MLB draft straight out of high school.
When asked if he ever thought about playing football after he was drafted, he said at first, yes.
“It was an opportunity and an avenue I could have taken. But in my heart, I always wanted to play in the big leagues. So when I got drafted by Minnesota number one back in 2001, I was focused on trying to be the best baseball player I could be,” Mauer said. “Playing at Florida State for Bobby Bowden would have been a great route, but I’m definitely happy I made the decision.”
After being drafted first overall by the Twins in 2001, Mauer made his MLB debut during the 2004 season.
Mauer broke out in year three, making his All-Star debut and finishing the season leading the American League (AL) in BA. In what would end as the second-best batting season of his career, he hit .347, alongside adding 13 home runs and 84 RBI.
After missing the All-Star game in his fourth season, Mauer spent the next three years batting tremendously while being one of the best catchers in the league.
Mauer won the 2009 MVP award, leading the AL in BA, OBS, OPS and SLG. During this three-year stretch, Mauer had a BA of .340, 534 hits, 46 home runs and 256 RBI.
He won an MVP, three Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers and was named an All-Star three times from ages 25-27.
Mauer played his whole 15-year career with the Twins, finishing with 2,123 hits, 143 home runs, 923 RBI and a career BA of .306. He was named an All-Star six times, received MVP votes five times and won Silver Slugger five times and Gold Glove three times.
Bill Mack, the artist who crafted each Target Field statue, said the process of creating Mauer’s statue took a lot of time. Mack, who makes each statue 125% of life-size, had to model the statue off of the 6’5” larger-than-life Mauer, meaning the statue is 8 feet tall. Mack based Mauer’s statue on his MVP-winning 2009 self.
“I just learned from Minnesota’s longtime curator, Clyde Doepner, what you’re seeing here. This is Joe in 2009,” Mack said. “To model this, Joe literally put on his chest protector from that 2009 season, his mitt, his skull cap, his uniform. Everything from 2009 that Clyde had in his archive here at Target Field. So this is truly what Joe looked like in 2009, the statue that he selected during that MVP season.”
Correction: The Florida State University football team is the Seminoles, not the Gators.
