New Hall of Famer Mauer receives lots of love from Canada

January 27, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Joe Mauer is practically Canadian.

He grew up in Minnesota, a hockey-loving state that borders Canada.

His best friend is Justin Morneau (New Westminster, B.C.).

And these days, he plays hockey regularly with Morneau on his best buddy’s home rink near Minneapolis.

So, it seems fitting that one of the most memorable texts Mauer received after he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday came from Wayne Gretzky, the NHL’s all-time leading scorer and the greatest player ever to emerge from the Great White North.

“It was really nice to see a text from him,” said Mauer at the 2024 inductees press conference in Cooperstown on Thursday.

The longtime Minnesota Twins catcher was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, alongside four-time Gold Glove Award-winning third baseman Adrian Beltre and longtime Colorado Rockies slugger Todd Helton.

Mauer suited up for 15 major-league seasons with the Twins and won three American League batting titles (2006, 2008, 2009), which is the most by a catcher. In 2009, he batted .365 and set career-highs in home runs (28) and RBIs (96) and became the first catcher to top the majors in on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) (1.031).

Mauer is the only catcher in big league history to record at least 2,000 hits (2,123), a .300 batting average (.306) and a .380 on-base percentage (.388).

Buy a Minnesota Twins hat to celebrate Mauer here

He will be officially inducted into the Cooperstown shrine on July 21.

Gretzky, of course, was not the only Canadian to congratulate Mauer after his election. Here’s a rundown of some of the others.

Video essay narrated by Morneau

If you haven’t watched the video essay called “Joe” about Mauer narrated by Morneau that ran on the MLB Network on Tuesday, please take three minutes to watch it here. It’s funny and moving and provides insight into Mauer, both as a player and a person.

In it, Morneau describes Mauer as the best athlete he has ever seen and spoke about what it was like to be Mauer’s roommate early in his career.

“We were roommates at the start of that run and I thought you’d show me all the great spots around town,” said Morneau. “Instead, you mostly just slept and watched The Office . . . a routine that made a ton of sense because I saw how hard you worked when you arrived at the dome.”

Morneau also talked about Mauer’s textbook swing.

“You had that swing: sweet, direct, beautiful and precise – over and over and over again,” Morneau said. “Hitting is so hard and you never stopped making it look simple.”

Twins team video

Morneau also led off the congratulatory video the Twins released for Mauer on Thursday. That video also featured messages from ex-teammates Corey Koskie (Anola, Man.) and Jesse Crain (Toronto, Ont.).

“Congratulations from the Koskie family to the Mauer family,” said Koskie in the video. “Joe, you deserve this, this is a great acknowledgement of your great career. I’m really excited for you and your whole supporting cast. Big Jake (Joe’s father) is smiling down from heaven right now having a cold one. Congrats brother!”

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Votto shares respect for Mauer

Fellow left-handed slugger Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) wrote this message to Mauer on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.

Other Fun Facts and Canadian connections

-Mauer played one series in Montreal at Olympic Stadium. It took place from June 15 to June 17, 2004. The Twins swept the three-game series, but the Expos pitchers did a good job at keeping Mauer’s bat in check. He started at catcher in each of the games and went a combined 2-for-10. Both of his hits (a single and a double) came in the first game, a Twins’ 8-2 win in front of 4,557 fans.

-In 75 games against the Toronto Blue Jays, Mauer had 78 hits and batted .275 with a .339 on-base percentage. He had three home runs, 18 doubles and 30 RBIs. The three-time batting champ fared better against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre where he hit .303 with a home run and 16 RBIs in 39 games.

-His sole home run at Rogers Centre was a solo shot off Blue Jays left-hander Brian Tallet in the seventh inning of a 5-5 game on July 6, 2010. The Twins ended up winning 7-6. Morneau also clubbed a solo homer for the Twins and Crain pitched a scoreless eighth inning to record a hold.

-Mauer homered off two Canadian pitchers. He took Oakland A’s right-hander Rich Harden (Victoria, B.C.) deep for a solo shot in the first inning on June 4, 2006 to account for the Twins’ only run in their 5-1 loss to the A’s at Oakland’s McAfee Coliseum. That same season, on September 24, 2006, Mauer homered off Baltimore Orioles left-hander Adam Loewen (Surrey, B.C.). It was a two-run home run in the top of the first inning to propel the Twins to a 6-3 victory at Camden Yards.

-By my count, Mauer faced eight Canadian pitchers during his big league career. He enjoyed his most success against right-hander John Axford (Port Dover, Ont.), whom he went 4-for-8 (.500 batting average) against. He also hit .500 against Georgetown, Ont., native Shawn Hill (2-for-4) and against Loewen (3-for-6). He had his least success against Gibsons, B.C., native Ryan Dempster (2-for-13) and Harden (2-for-13).

-What Canadian pitcher did Mauer face the most? That would be left-hander Erik Bedard (Navan, Ont.). Mauer went 7-for-24 (.292 batting average) off Bedard. Mauer also faced southpaws Jeff Francis (North Delta, B.C.) and James Paxton (Ladner, B.C.). He went 2-for-7 (.286 batting average) off each of them.

-According to research by Scott Crawford, of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, Mauer had six Canadian big league teammates over the years: Morneau (2004 to 2013), Koskie (2004), Crain (2004 to 2010), Scott Diamond (Guelph, Ont.), 2011-12), Rene Tosoni (Toronto, Ont., 2011) and Andrew Albers (North Battleford, Sask., 2013, 2016).

–Alberta Dugout Stories has also identified some Canadian connections to Mauer, including sharing that Mauer played in the International Baseball Federation’s World Junior Championship tournament in Edmonton in August 2000. Read more about it here.

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