Content provided in partnership with

Brilliant or brittle? Twins catcher Joe Mauer is young, talented and driven. To realize his potential, he'll need to be healthy, too

Sporting News, The, July 1, 2005 by Jim Souhan

It's late on a June Wednesday, and the sunbaked night spots of Phoenix beckon. The bar outside the gates of Bank One Ballpark thumps with vertigo-inducing R&B bass, seemingly making the roof of the BOB bob.

This is a wonderful time and place to be a promising ballplayer with young Elvis' sideburns and old Elvis' bank account, but by the time Twins catcher Joe Mauer hits the streets, they're almost as cool and quiet as he is.

After exercising his surgically repaired knee and sore groin, dousing himself in a whirlpool and icing his body parts, he was the last guy out of the training room and clubhouse. "On the road, the routine is shortened a little bit," Mauer says. "I take longer at home."

Most Popular Articles in Sports: The first family: Archie, Peyton and Eli are incredibly famous, immensely ...; The growing gap: driving distances are skyrocketing on the PGA Tour. So why ...; Which pistol caliber for self defense? Four different people come to four ...; Drag racing - National Hot Rod Association; The world's most popular .22: the Marlin Model 60 just keeps on ticking; More »

Not that it matters. There are guys under house arrest with wilder social lives. Mauer, 22, never has attended a concert. "I'd like to someday," he says. He has gone out once in Minnesota this season, not realizing he'd get mobbed. If Mauer were an amusement park ride, he'd be the monorail.

His idea of a good time is mashing a fat slider, crushing his baseball-playing brothers in Madden 2004 and escaping the training room. Only the latter has provided him much of a challenge.

His swing is the Metrodome Metronome, a motion so efficient and sweet that the 6-4, 226-pounder struck out only once in high school.

But the pause button has been hit on Mauer's fast-forward career, leaving the Twins with this realization: He can't become the next Bench while sitting on one.

"The kid has been pretty well pampered the majority of his career," says bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek, a former big-league catcher. "At that position, if you're going to play 125, 135, 140 games, if you think you're going to be 100 percent every single day, you're crazy. I think we'll have to see how he responds to these nagging injuries, and if they keep up, then he doesn't help us out as a catcher.

"You'd think that a young, strapping body wouldn't have these types of injuries, but they seem to keep creeping up on him."

Stelmaszek has been one of Mauer's biggest admirers, but he and other occupants of the Twins' clubhouse also have tried to prod their prized possession. No one, though, really ever has questioned Mauer's work ethic or attitude.

When Mauer doesn't play, the club loses its No. 3 hitter. Backup Mike Redmond, a capable player who is limited offensively, takes over behind the plate and bats at the bottom of the order.

Mauer's hometown Twins made him the first pick in the 2001 draft, ahead of the Cubs' Mark Prior. That made Mauer the perfect storm of baseball marketing--a local hero with a pristine reputation and skills on loan from Cooperstown playing for baseball's model small-market franchise.

Mauer is so thrilled, he cracks the occasional smile just thinking about his job. "It's a pretty good situation I got into," he says as if he just found a prime parking spot at Applebee's.

Mauer played his first big-league game before he drank his first legal beer. He hails from a section of St. Paul that has produced three Hall of Fame-caliber players--Dave Winfield, Jack Morris and fellow Cretin-Derham Hall High alum Paul Molitor.

Mauer so impressed his teammates in spring training as a teen that outfielder Jacque Jones spliced a couple of nicknames together, dubbing him "SuperJoeTheNatural." Hitting coach Scott Ullger kept joking that he wanted Mauer to date his daughter. Well, we think he was joking.

If he had stayed healthy, Mauer would have been the American League Rookie of the Year in 2004 and probably would be on track for an American League All-Star berth this year. Instead, he has been a fixture in the training room since injuring his left knee in his second big-league game last season.

The Twins believe there is greatness lurking beneath the ice packs. And Mauer's health is essential to a team that, for all of its success this decade, perpetually seems one or two professional hitters away from scaring the big-money clubs.

Entering the week, Mauer was hitting .293 with six homers and 25 RBIs in 184 at-bats--impressive for a 22-year-old but not what the Twins expected when they moved him to the No. 3 spot last summer. He has made rapid progress in calling games, he blocks pitches well, and he has one of the best throwing arms in the majors. But Mauer played in just 35 games in 2004 and was in 51 of the Twins' first 66 games this season, making 44 starts behind the plate.

"At home, I usually get to the park at about 2, 2:30," Mauer says as he reviews his routine for a night game. "Usually I get in the hot tub to get loose, then ride the bike for a little bit, then go in for treatment on the knee, then maybe go down for early hitting. Then we stretch, take regular B.P. Then we play the game, and then afterward, I do more work."

Mauer has started using a "slide board," a platform that encourages a hockey-style leg action, to strengthen his knee and groin. No Twin spends more time in the training room preparing himself to play--which worries Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.

Brilliant or brittle? Twins catcher Joe Mauer is young, talented and driven. To realize his potential, he'll need to be healthy, too

Sporting News, The, July 1, 2005 by Jim Souhan

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Sports

Most Popular Articles in Sports

Most Popular Publications in Sports