The idea to give Joe Mauer one last moment behind the plate was a popular one. So popular, in fact, that it’s impossible to know in whose head the spark initially appeared.

“I’d like to claim the idea as mine. but I had no part in the origination of that,” said Paul Molitor, the Twins’ manager at the time. “I was part of the initial discussions, but there were a few steps to get to that point.”

Molitor will be part of a large St. Paul contingent in Cooperstown, N.Y., next weekend to celebrate Mauer’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, where on Sunday Mauer will join Molitor (2005), Dave Winfield (2001) and Jack Morris (2018) as St. Paul natives enshrined in the hall.

No one can quite agree on exactly whose idea it really was to give Mauer one last moment behind the plate. Among those playing a role were then-bench coach Derek Shelton, replay coordinator Nate Damman, traveling secretary Mike Herman, public relations chief Dustin Morse and equipment manager Rod McCormick. But it’s hard to pinpoint its inception.

What remains clear, six years after that 5-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox, is that implementing the plan required some convincing.

Certainly, the White Sox — the Twins’ opponent on Sept. 30, 2018 — had to acquiesce to letting Mauer don his catching gear for the first time in five years and take a single pitch in the eighth inning of the season finale at Target Field. They turned out to be the easy part.

“I know I had to make that phone call to include the White Sox, and that they didn’t really balk at all,” Molitor said.

More difficult to convince were Molitor himself, who said Saturday, “I wasn’t on board right away,” and Mauer himself.

“One of the big (hurdles) was Joe’s feelings about it — his concerns for the integrity of the game and the other club,” Molitor recalled. “He didn’t want to take away a moment, even if it was just one pitch.”

During a teleconference facilitated by the hall on Friday evening, Mauer acknowledged his hesitance after being approached about it during a meeting with Molitor, Shelton and Damman in the manager’s office.

“When they brought it up, I started to kind of cry. It was just very emotional,” he said. “I wasn’t really thinking that, and when I first heard it, I didn’t want it to be about me. I wanted to finish the season strong, and we had a lot of young players on that team; I knew that even though we were out of it, I wanted to kind of show them that when you become a major leaguer, you go out there and play every game and you finish the season.”

By then, Molitor had softened to the idea and worked with the others to convince Mauer it was OK.

“Hearing their reasons for it, and hearing from Mollie, it wasn’t about me — it was about a lot of people there who experienced my career and kind of grew up with me — that it was much bigger than me,” Mauer said. “I’m glad I took that opportunity.”

Mauer, 41, produced a stack of highlights on the field over the years, but that last pitch might be his most indelible moment of his career, at least here in the Twin Cities, where he became a three-sport star at Cretin-Derham Hall and played his entire 18-year major league career.

As soon as the 30,144 in attendance noticed that it was Mauer, trademark red-white-and-blue batting helmet on his head, coming out in catcher’s gear, it rose spontaneously into a standing ovation. With Yoan Moncada taking the pitch — he later doubled — Mauer crouched behind the plate one last time and took a pitch from reliever Matt Belisle before taking a moment to soak in what amounted to a communal goodbye hug.

That moment, Mauer said Friday, was the one that finally cemented his decision to retire.

“It was the last year of my contract, and I was 35 years old. I had missed time with a concussion that season,” he said. “Those thoughts kind of come back in, at least for me. ‘Is this gonna be it?’ I really didn’t know. All I knew was I wanted to finish the season strong.”

Minnesota has always loved Mauer, but it also had been hard on him — for not hitting more home runs, for grounding into double plays, for missing 80 games with “bilateral leg weakness” in 2011 and not playing in more games generally. Mostly, Mauer’s critics were mad at him for being a good first baseman, a decision made after he suffered a serious concussion behind the plate in 2013, instead of the best catcher in baseball.

Mauer remains the only catcher to win three batting titles, and his remarkable 2009 season — .365 batting average, 28 home runs, 96 runs batted in, Gold Glove — was one of the best by any major league catcher. He won the American League Most Valuable Player Award that fall, and in the spring he signed an eight-year, $184 million contract extension.

He never had another season like that one. No one did. But it was a disappointment for a segment of Twins fans that expected, or at least hoped for, that to be the norm from the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 amateur draft — especially after he hit .327 with a .408 on-base percentage (!) in his first six seasons.

And they wouldn’t let it go.

But all that melted away in the ninth inning of that last game, when he caught one last pitch after hitting the last of his club-record 428 doubles in his last at-bat. Finally, Mauer felt that unconditional love again, and knew it was time — even if he spent part of his postgame news conference feigning indecision.

“To really think it over, and having some time to process what (had) just happened,” he said Saturday, “all those signs were basically telling me, ‘It’s OK. It’s OK to be done. You had a great run, and it’s time to go and enjoy your family.’ And it’s been great ever since.”

Sunday’s induction ceremony begins at 12:30 p.m. CDT and will be televised by MLB Network.

Minnesota Twins’ Joe Mauer donned catcher’s gear and caught for one pitch against a Chicago White Sox batter in the ninth inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, in Minneapolis. The Twins won 5-4. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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Joe Mauer will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame next Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y. The Pioneer Press, from the Hall of Fame Reference Library, has obtained comments from reports by several major league scouts on Mauer from May 2001, when they watched him as an 18-year-old senior catcher at Cretin-Derham Hall.

Cretin-Derham Hall catcher Joe Mauer keeps his eye on the ball during practice Monday, June 4, 2001 in St. Paul as he prepares for Cretin-Derham Hall’s Section 3AAA title game Tuesday – after the major league draft, where he is expected to go high. Mauer, considered one of the best athletes to come out of the Twin Cities in the last 30 years, could forgo baseball to play quarterback at Florida State. (Joe Rossi / Pioneer Press)

A month later, Mauer was selected No. 1 overall by the Twins in the major league amateur draft.
Among comments from scouts (other than those of the Twins) in their reports after observing the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Mauer: “Long, slender frame, narrow top half, rounded shoulders, big hands, plenty of room for physical development, potential excellent major leaguer, excellent hitting approach, balanced at plate, no known injuries, signed football tender with Florida State as QB, outstanding make-up and poise.”

Other comments: “Easy overall actions, pure stroke to all fields, stays inside ball, good at-bat as I’ve seen, exceptional arm, very fluid, proper mechanics.”
As for weaknesses, “Not many flaws, only speed and quickness; game will be enriched on both sides of the plate with time and experience.”

In summary, “Premium player ability, needs added strength for durability and demands of catching, potential to be a big run producer, one of the top position prospects in the country.”

In the “habits” scouting category, comments were rated “excellent,” as well as his “dedication, aptitude and emotional maturing.” Agility and physical maturity were rated “good.”

Now, 23 years later, Mauer, 41, has earned more than $220 million over 15 years in the major leagues with the Twins.

— If you’re a high school senior baseball player, your chances of making a college baseball roster are fewer than three in 50, roughly 5.6 percent. From college to the minor leagues, about 11 in 100 players (10.5 percent) get drafted.

From the minors to the major leagues? Fewer than one if five make it to the big leagues.

— In the 121-year history of major league baseball, just 20,623 players have made it to the majors. Among those, only 273 have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. And among those, just 60 have been elected in their first year of eligibility.

It’s 1,162 miles from St. Paul to Cooperstown. For Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, Jack Morris and now Mauer, it has been a remarkable journey.

Molitor, Winfield and Mauer are among those 60 players elected on the first ballot. The trio, and Morris, who was elected by a veterans committee, grew up within a four-mile radius in St. Paul.

They will be with Mauer on hallowed ground when he’s inducted into their shrine in Cooperstown. That is extraordinary.

— Among treasured artifacts fans attending Mauer’s induction weekend can see is the actual bat that a frail Babe Ruth, age 53 and dying of throat cancer, used as a cane for support during his final public appearance at Yankee Stadium in 1948.

The bat, the hall points out, belonged to Bob Feller and was grabbed by Ruth for support en route to hobbling to home plate at the retirement of his iconic No. 3 jersey, as seen in the Pulitzer Prize photo by Nathaniel Fein.

— Next Saturday in Cooperstown, Mauer will partake in a 75-minute Parade of Legends beginning at 6 p.m. and streamed live at mlb.com. The July 21 hall induction ceremony will be at 12:30 p.m. CDT and televised nationally on MLB Network, with satellite radio coverage on Sirius XM.

— Some 40,000 spectators could attend Sunday’s inductions on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center, which is one mile south of the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. Mauer’s plaque will be revealed just before his induction speech.

— On May 13 at his Mancini’s St. Paul Sports Hall of Fame induction speech, Mauer gave a glimpse of the speech he’ll give next Sunday in Cooperstown. He’ll thank his parents, brothers and former coaches among others.

“One of the lessons our parents instilled in us (his brothers) is that it’s OK to compete,” he said. “Competition is a good thing — don’t shy away from it. I’m proud to be from St. Paul.”

— The 2024 major league amateur draft is Sunday evening through Tuesday. Gophers with the best chances for selection are Connor Wietgrefe, Will Semb and Brady Counsell, son of Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell. Counsell is transferring to Kansas for his senior season.

— Highest projected Gopher for the 20-round draft is left-handed pitcher Wietgrefe, who could go near the 10th round. Highest projected Minnesota prep is Mounds View pitcher Tyler Guerin, who has committed to Iowa. He also could be in the 10th-round range, depending on his signing bonus demand.

The challenge now for major league organizations signing players to minor league contracts is that colleges can offer, in some cases through NIL, similar deals.

— George Klassen, 22, the former Gophers pitcher with a 99-mph fastball, who was a sixth-round draft pick by Philadelphia last year, this season has 84 strikeouts in 55 innings with a 1.95 earned-run average for two Class A minor league teams. He signed for a $297,500 bonus.

— Scouting remains an imperfect science. Some Baseball Hall of Famers and the rounds in which they were drafted: Mike Piazza, 62nd round; John Smoltz, 22nd; Ryan Sandberg, 20th; Jim Thome, 13th; Nolan Ryan, 12th; Andre Dawson, 11th and Trevor Hoffman, 11th.

— In baseball’s 2012 draft, the Houston Astros, with the No. 1 overall pick, took shortstop Carlos Correa. The Twins, with the No. 2 pick, took center fielder Byron Buxton. Now they’re on the same Twins team.

Correa, 29, has a career .275 batting average. Buxton’s career average is .244. Correa is making $33 million a season; Buxton, 30, is making $15 million a season.

— Hall of Fame former Twin Tony Oliva will turn 86 on Saturday.

— Ex-Gophers guard Cam Christie, who doesn’t turn 19 until July 24, hit three field goals and finished with eight points during 27 minutes in his professional debut for the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday against Denver in the Las Vegas summer league.

The Clippers gave the second-round draft pick a $7.9 million, four- year contract, with $3.1 million guaranteed. When Christie declared for the NCAA portal last May, there was buzz that some other college programs were willing to pay $750,000 a year via NIL. Christie will wear jersey No. 12, the same number brother Max, 21, wears with the Los Angeles Lakers.

— Deephaven’s Tim Herron, 54, a four-time PGA Tour winner, was in Akron, Ohio, playing in the Champions Tour tournament at Firestone when son Carson, 21, won the Minnesota State Open at Rush Creek.

“I’m a very proud dad that he had self belief to do that,” Tim said.

Carson, a junior at his father’s alma mater New Mexico, is 6-4, 200 pounds and flies his drives some 50 yards past Tim, who is a long hitter. During a practice round the other day at Wayzata Country Club, Carson hit driver, then flew over the 526-yard No. 2 hole with a 9-iron. Last week at Wayzata CC, Carson was repeatedly flying 5-irons 230 yards.

Because he’s an amateur, Carson couldn’t accept the $13,500 first prize. That went to low professional Caleb VanArragon. Herron will play in this week’s Minnesota Amateur tournament at Minnesota Valley.

— Former officials Kenny Mauer (NBA), Tim Tschida (MLB) and Fred Bryan (NFL) headline a discussion panel at a Capital Club breakfast on Wednesday at Mendakota Country Club.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell speaks at a Dunkers breakfast on Thursday at Interlachen Country Club.

— Brittany Viola, a 2012 Olympic diver and daughter of former Twins Cy Young Award winner Frank, has developed a delightful eating disorder card game tool, Ferret Flush on Kickstarter, for parents, coaches, teachers and others to deal with mental health communication.

— Murray Rudisill, 61, the sports marketing promotional whiz from North Oaks Country Club, will realize a major bucket list wish this week when he caddies a couple of British Open practice rounds at Royal Troon in Scotland for friend Todd Hamilton, the 2004 Open champion.

“Walking down the Open championship fairways — a dream come true for me,” said Rudisill, a 4.5 handicapper.

— Janel McCarville, the former Gophers basketball star, last season coached her alma mater Stevens Point Area Senior High to the Wisconsin Valley Conference championship and was named the league’s coach of the year.

Don’t print that

— It wouldn’t be surprising if the NBA, in an effort to avoid an arbitration hearing over Timberwolves-Lynx ownership with Glen Taylor, offers the Alex Rodriguez-Mark Lore tandem that initially agreed to buy the teams for $1.5 billion, first chance at an expansion team in Seattle, where Rodriguez was a popular player with the Mariners.

In any deal, it would expected that Taylor buys out Rodriguez-Lore’s 40 percent investment at nearly double what the pair initially paid because of the dramatically increased value of the franchises the past three years, especially after the NBA’s new media deal last week, apparently worth $76 billion (that’s billion, not million) over 11 years.

The reason the value of NBA teams has exploded is because basketball has become a popular international sport. More than a fifth of the league’s recent first-round draft picks were international players; the same for the second round.

— Vikings training camp begins in two weeks. The way it looks now, it will be a redshirt year for rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy, with Sam Darnold the starter and Nick Mullens the backup. It appears the transition plan will be to turn the starting job over to McCarthy in 2025.

— Rookie Khyree Jackson’s death in a car accident last week recalls other tragic Vikings events: 1964, Terry Dillon dies in a drowning accident; 1973, Karl Kassulke becomes paralyzed from a motorcycle accident; 1978, coach Jocko Nelson dies of heart attack; 1999, coach Chip Myers dies of heart attack; 2001, Korey Stringer dies of heat stroke in training camp; 2018, coach Tony Sparano dies of heart attack.

— People who know say former Cretin-Derham Hall and University of St. Thomas star Sean Sweeney was the Pistons’ backup plan if Detroit couldn’t reach agreement with ex-Gopher J.B. Bickerstaff as head coach.

— In the history of major league baseball, only once has an umpire ejected a player from a game, then allowed him to re-enter the game. The episode belongs to Tschida.

It happened in Anaheim, the Angels against the Texas Rangers. Tschida called Orlando Palmeiro of the Angels out on strikes. Palmeiro subsequently laid his bat on home plate and started walking to the dugout.

“I said ‘come back and get that thing or you can just keep on going,’ ” Tschida told Palmeiro. “He turned his shoulder and said, ‘I’m leaving it for the next guy.’ I went, yeah, right, nice line. And I ran him.”

The next batter, Gary DiSarcina, came to home plate with no bat in his hands.

“He goes, ‘Tim, he’s telling the truth. We’re all using the same bat.’ I just looked at him and said, ‘what?’ ”

Because the Angels weren’t hitting well, they had decided to actually use the same bat once throughout the lineup in an effort to break their slump.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tschida said.

Angels manager Terry Collins and Tschida had known each other since their days working in Class A minor league ball.

“Terry looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t think to tell you about this.’ I looked at (Angels hitting coach Carew) Rod and he put his hand on his heart and said, ‘that’s on me, Tim.’ ”

Tschida walked over to Rangers manager Bobby Valentine and said, ‘you’re not going to believe this.’ And he goes, ‘I already know what you’re going to do.’ ”

Tschida told Valentine he was putting Palmeiro back in the game.

“Bobby said, ‘if (Angels) they all do with that bat what Orlando just did with that bat, I’m OK with it.’ ”

— The Gophers have had several players offered at least $40,000 to leave via the NCAA transfer portal. Currently, there are 2,411 college baseball players in the transfer portal. The Gophers have eight players in the portal.

— Due to NIL, throughout college baseball there are some players paid more than their head coaches. More than a few players in the recent College World Series were said to be paid more than $1 million.

— Wally Wescott, who coached hall of famer Paul Molitor as a seventh grader at St. Luke’s grade school and has a sharp eye for talent, said Twins rookie Brooks Lee reminds him of Molitor in terms of ability and poise.

— The Angels have demoted ex-Twin Miguel Sano, who was batting .205 with two home runs and 36 strikeouts in 83 at-bats. Sano, 31, has a $1 million guaranteed contract for this season. During his nine-year career, Sano was paid $36.3 million.

— Tickets for Sunday afternoon’s Indiana Fever (Caitlin Clark) game against the Lynx at Target Center range from $26 to $1,098 on StubHub.

— If the NHL salary cap increases as expected the next two years, it could cost the Wild at least $15 million a season to retain Kirill Kaprizov, 27, who has two seasons remaining on his five-year, $45 million million contract.

— Woodbury’s Jake Guentzel, 29, received a $12 million first-year signing bonus with his recent seven-year, $63 million contract with Tampa Bay.

— If streaming Twins TV games the last two months of this season results from a July 29 Diamond Sports bankruptcy hearing, viewers can expect to pay about $19.95 a month. Platform remains unknown.

— Dennis Evans, the 7-1 center from Riverside, Calif. who initially committed to the Gophers, then left for Louisville, has transferred again, this time to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.

Overheard

— The PGA Tour’s Lee Hodges, the reigning 3M Open champion, asked the other day in Blaine what he would consider a fair distance for a gimme putt for an amateur golfer: “I think you should give anything within the leather (length of grip on putter) — unless you don’t like the guy.”

Minnesota Timberwolves co-owner Glen Taylor answers questions during a news conference to introduce Tim Connelly the team’s new President of Basketball Operations at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square in downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Umpire Tim Tschida during a baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays Saturday, May 12, 2012, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
BLAINE, MINNESOTA – JULY 29: (L-R) Lee Hodges of the United States and Tyler Duncan of the United States shake hands on the 18th green during the third round of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities on July 29, 2023 in Blaine, Minnesota. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

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“The crime of the century!”

So screamed headlines with relative frequency in the century immediately preceding this one. And if you measure impact by number of fictional adaptations, Chicago’s “Leopold and Loeb” case was certainly among the top handful.

In 1924, two prodigious Chicago teenagers who’d recently graduated from college — Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb — murdered a young neighbor in a test of Loeb’s theory that those of their intellectual level were immune to the average human’s issues of morality and conscience.

Five years after the murder, Patrick Hamilton’s play, “Rope,” premiered in London, built upon a Leopold-and-Loeb-like scenario, Alfred Hitchcock later adapting it into a film. “Compulsion” followed in 1959, based upon one of the multiple novels the case inspired.

Gremlin Theatre allows you to crack open the amber and see how the tale was spun in 1929 with a very impressive production, one propelled by intriguing characterizations and imaginative technical elements. It’s by no means a light summer murder mystery, but instead a grippingly tense battle of wits.

Jeffrey Nolan and Jeremy Bode in Gremlin Theatre’s production of “Rope,” a play about two college students who have committed a murder and host a dinner party in a room in which the corpse is hidden, which runs through Aug. 4, 2024 at the St. Paul theater. (Alyssa Kristine / Gremlin Theatre)

Director Peter Christian Hansen has cast mostly college-aged actors, all very talented and all save one adopting a naturalistic approach that makes you feel as if eavesdropping on a casual gathering of old friends.

But Hansen and technical director, set and lighting designer Carl Schoenborn make a fascinating choice that plunges the audience into the tension immediately: The production’s first 15 minutes are performed in virtual darkness, leaving only your ears to ascertain that a murder is being committed and the body locked in a chest.

When curtains are pulled back to reveal the London nightscape, the two young murderers, Brandon and Granillo, are processing what they’ve done and preparing to host a dinner party for five guests, among them the victim’s father, the food served atop the chest.

The production feels remarkably faithful to what London audiences might have experienced in 1929, traditional aristocratic manners feeling the tug of American influences suggested by the effervescent Mira Davis’ flapper dress (among the first-rate costumes of A. Emily Heaney). Sarah Bauer has filled the room with props that place us precisely in the period, while Aaron Newman’s sound design brings us some great vintage jazz and a daunting thunderstorm.

Coleson Eldredge is particularly compelling as Brandon, who clearly seems the brains behind the murder plot. Yes, he’s cocky, but also subtly vulnerable, and the cracks in his calm exterior are believably exposed. Jeremy Bode has the tougher task as Granillo, who’s barely holding himself together and seems to age before our eyes as the play progresses.

It took some time for me to warm to what Jeffrey Nolan does with Rupert, an older poet friend who seems from the get-go the most likely to expose their crime. In a room full of naturalism, his stagy, affected manner feels out of place for much of the first act before his guard is lowered a bit in an engaging second-act monologue.

While it’s an expertly executed production, you may wish that Hansen had found a way to accelerate or cut some of the play’s slower-moving sections, particularly in Rupert’s silent ruminations or a climactic standoff that grows repetitious. But it’s nevertheless the kind of excellent work we’ve come to expect from Gremlin, one of our great little Twin Cities theater companies.

‘Rope’

When: Through Aug. 4

Where: Gremlin Theatre, 550 Vandalia St., St. Paul

Tickets: $42-$19, available at gremlintheatre.org

Capsule: A well-executed drama of murder and hubris.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

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