Editor’s note: On Sunday, Joe Mauer will become the fourth St. Paulite inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., building on a legacy begun by Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor and Jack Morris.
The Pioneer Press has chronicled the remarkable careers of these local legends since they were little leaguers.
And as we count down the days to the induction ceremony, we’re revisiting our coverage of the Saintly City’s Hall of Famers, publishing an article from our archive on each one. Today is Joe Mauer.
Our new book, From St. Paul to the Hall, digs even deeper into the careers of these four special ballplayers. You can pre-order your copy at store.twincities.com.
This article appeared May 6, 2001.
They gather in small huddles down the right-field line 20 minutes before Joe Mauer emerges from the Cretin-Derham Hall locker room to take batting practice. For the moment, the scouts outnumber the Raiders on the field, which makes them easier to spot than chaperones at a prom.
On this balmy, blustery Tuesday afternoon, there are about a dozen of them wearing polo shirts and sunglasses with notebooks and stopwatches in their pockets. Some will see one of the top catching prospects in the country for the first time; other veteran observers will scour for the intangibles that could determine whether Mauer ever dons their team’s uniform.
Stepping into the batter’s box, Mauer doesn’t seem to notice as the scouts cease the idle chatter, unsnap their pens and watch him casually spray line drives across the field in an exhibition that would foreshadow his monstrous day at the plate against visiting Humboldt.
Cretin-Derham Hall catcher Joe Mauer keeps his eye on the ball during batting practice in St. Paul on June 4, 2001, as he prepares for Cretin-Derham Hall’s Section 3A title game the next day. (Joe Rossi / Pioneer Press)
Afterward, Mauer turns to shagging fly balls with his teammates while the gatekeepers to the major leagues wander around looking for a good vantage point from which to scrutinize him during the game. They are there for every Cretin-Derham home and road game, eyeing Mauer’s every move.
He tries not to be bothered by the whole spectacle.
“They don’t say a whole lot, which is kind of nice,” Mauer said after belting a pair of opposite-field home runs onto Hamline Avenue and driving in four runs in a blowout victory. “I’m not the kind of guy who needs everyone to look at him. I’d be fine if they knew about me but didn’t make a whole big deal about it.”
They’re making a big deal about it because Mauer is projected to go in the top 10 in the June 5 amateur draft and could command a $2 million to $3 million signing bonus.
They’re making a big deal about it because earlier this season, 26 scouts came to watch Mauer in one game, along with Twins general manager Terry Ryan. Minnesota has the first overall pick, and Mauer is reportedly on a working list of about 10 prospects for that No.1 slot.
And they’re making a big deal about it because Mauer has signed a letter of intent to play quarterback at Florida State, mirroring the path that former Cretin-Derham baseball and football star Chris Weinke chose a decade ago.
Weinke was at Florida State for a week before signing a pro baseball contract that kept him out of football for several years until he returned to the Seminole football team and won the HeismanTrophy at age 28.
Mauer said he will not decide his athletic future until after graduation and the draft, which has scouts and their bosses at the 30 major league teams scurrying to lock in the other 1,500 prospects in the final month.
“He’s the most talented high school catcher in the country, and one of the best hitters,” Allan Simpson, editor of Baseball America, said of Mauer. “The wild card in all this is his commitment to play football at Florida State. I don’t think a team will spend $2 to $3 million as a signing bonus and have access to Joe for only a few months each year.
“My feeling is if he goes in the first half of the first round, he will have come to an understanding with the team that picks him that he won’t be allowed to play football,” he continued. “The lower he’s drafted, the more likely he is to play football.”
As Mauer continues to put up impressive numbers – .520, three home runs, 11 RBI through Thursday – supervising scouts such as Joel Lepel of the Twins and Dave Alexander of the Seattle Mariners scribble notes at opposite ends of the field that may affect the future of their organizations.
It’s no secret where the teams draft, but in the competitive world of securing amateur talent, information is closely guarded, even among the affable scouts. Trying to gauge which player a team covets can be like trying to get a nuclear submarine commander to reveal his launch codes.
“We like Joe. But you can see that everyone likes Joe,” said Lepel, the Twins’ Midwest scouting supervisor, who has watched Mauer play since his sophomore year. “When I go in a house and talk to somebody, you have feelings about where that player’s going to go. But you can’t really say because you don’t know who else is across the country.”
Cretin-Derham Hall catcher Joe Mauer, center, is sprayed by teammate Daren Richardson while being interviewed after the Raiders’ 13-2 win over Rochester Mayo in the Class 3A high school baseball championship game at Midway Stadium in St. Paul on June 15, 2001. (Chris Polydoroff / Pioneer Press)
Mauer isn’t the only player Lepel is monitoring. There are dozens of others in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky his associate scouts are watching. Lepel will take those reports and his intelligence on Mauer to Mike Radcliff, the Twins’ director of scouting.
That’s when the real debate will heat up.
“We look at players all over the country, and when it comes down to decision-time, we sit down in a room and discuss it and whoever comes out on top, you go with,” Lepel said. “We may be hiding it, but otherwise it would be unfair to the players. That’s scouting.”
The Mariners’ Alexander is also a Midwest supervisor and has five associates working for him. He describes himself as a hunter-gatherer, someone who tries to look beyond the box score and peek behind the social curtain to give his club the clearest picture of a prospect.
“That might mean talking to the guy that drags the field or the janitor in the school or the mailman,” Alexander said. “We’re looking for athletes, first and foremost. But we’re also looking for someone who has the makeup to be in professional baseball.”
Baseball has the largest draft of the four professional sports. With 30 teams choosing players in 15 rounds, officials have to make 1,500 personnel decisions, many of which can turn into mush.
The Twins’ draft record in the first round includes busts such as David McCarty (1991) and Dan Serafini (1992) and breakouts like Torii Hunter (‘93) and Mark Redman (‘95), who are starters this season.
“You’ve got to understand we’re wrong a lot more than we’re right,” Alexander said.
Privately, several scouts said the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Mauer is a physically and mentally gifted athlete with can’t-miss potential.
His 4.5-second speed to first base is slower than the average left-handed hitter (4.2), and he needs to improve his footwork behind the plate. But his hitting is rivaled by few his age, and he has a cannon for a right arm that makes life miserable for base stealers.
“For a kid who just turned 18, you don’t see too many better behind the plate — if at all,” said one National League scout.
Besides playing guard/forward in basketball, Mauer virtually rewrote the Cretin-Derham record book in football. He led the Raiders to the Class AAAAA state title in 1999 and a return to the championship game last year, capping off a career in which he threw for 5,528 yards and 73 touchdowns and compiled a 25-2 record as a starter. He was selected Gatorade national player of the year.
On the diamond, Mauer has already caught, pitched and played first, second and third base for coach Jim O’Neill, and he is among the toughest outs in Minnesota. Last season, Mauer hit .565 for the Raiders followed by a .550 tour of duty with Team USA in the world junior championship.
Cretin-Derham Hall senior Joe Mauer before the start of high school baseball playoff game against Woodbury at Midway Stadium in St. Paul on June 5, 2001. (Chris Polydoroff / Pioneer Press)
Scouts took notice, and they have been noticed at Cretin-Derham ever since. Asked whether Mauer gets bothered by all the attention, O’Neill chuckled.
“In every sport, opponents gear up to stop Joe through blitzes, double teams or pitching around him. Nothing fazes him,” O’Neill said. “I’ve seen him strike out once in three years, and he rarely hits foul balls. He doesn’t do anything to try to impress anyone. He’ll do what needs to be done for the team, no matter who’s watching.”
After Mauer hits his second homer against Humboldt, the scouts decide they have seen enough on this day. They tuck away their notebooks, head toward their cars and melt into rush-hour traffic.
There are no one-on-one conversations, only indirect observations. At this point, there are few secrets left — only the one Mauer is guarding with his parents, Jake and Teresa, until summer.
He finishes the game playing first base, and after the postgame handshakes, helps his teammates put away the equipment and tend to the infield.
No one’s watching anymore, and that’s the way Mauer said it felt like all day. He talks about swimming in the fishbowl like someone who was prepared for it and someone who isn’t going to change because of it.
Two years ago, Mauer watched Team USA roommate Scott Heard field phone call after phone call from scouts in hotel rooms. One day, 55 scouts came out to watch Heard catch. Last year, the Texas Rangers drafted him in the first round.
“He warned me all about it, and he got through it. Hopefully, I will too,” Mauer said. “They’re out here because I must have done something right, so I just try to do the same things that have been successful for me — nothing more. When I’m up to bat, I’m just concentrating on the pitcher. Same when I’m behind the plate.
“Whoever’s there is there, I guess. I don’t really pay much attention.”
Oh, but they do.
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“From St. Paul to the Hall”: the Pioneer Press chronicled the careers of Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Jack Morris and Joe Mauer, and we’ve compiled the best of our coverage into a new hardcover book that celebrates the legendary baseball legacy of Minnesota’s capital city. Order your copy of “From St. Paul to the Hall.”
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