Joe Mauer’s induction into Hall of Fame another feather in St. Paul’s cap

Start just north of St. Paul’s Highland Park Golf Course on Saratoga Street.

Drive south on Saratoga, then turn east on Randolph Avenue; continue before heading north on Lexington Parkway. Cross I-94 and finish at Lexington between Blair and Van Buren streets.

The journey takes less than 15 minutes and covers roughly 3½ miles.

For baseball fans, the route is St. Paul’s Cooperstown Corridor.

Jack Morris grew up in Highland Park off Saratoga, after his family moved from Mendota Heights. Heading up Lexington will take you past the boyhood homes of Paul Molitor, who lived near the corner of Portland and Oxford, and Dave Winfield, who grew up eight blocks north on Carroll Avenue.

Now the route is being extended by the next St. Paul member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, one Joseph Patrick Mauer, who grew up between Blair and Van Buren off Lexington.

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Mauer, the only catcher in history to win three batting titles, will be inducted into the Hall on Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y. Morris, Molitor and Winfield will be seated behind him as he becomes the fourth son of St. Paul to join the Hall of Fame family.

Winfield was enshrined in 2001. Molitor was part of the 2004 class. Morris joined in 2018.

“It’s a mark of pride,” said St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, who received a Dave Winfield scholarship during his younger days to help with college costs. “And it’s exciting for me. And it’s incredible.

“It’s one level that these Hall of Famers were amazing athletes, right? But they’re not just amazing athletes. They are really good people who give back and are part of the community.”

The Hall of Fame doesn’t track cities with the most Hall of Famers. It is known that Mobile, Ala., has five — Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Ozzie Smith and Billy Williams. But having four grow up within four miles of each other in St. Paul is remarkable and a result of opportunity, infrastructure, youth coaching and kids with God-given talent.

“It’s great for the city, the state, the Minnesota Twins, the schools we went to,” Winfield said. “Everything runs in cycles. And we have had a good run. To have a platform, organization or institutions in place and coaches for a period of time, we were fortunate. I don’t know if that exists anymore.”

Sunday will be an unforgettable day for Twins fans, Minnesotans and Mauer as they celebrate a storied career. But it will be a celebration of St. Paul baseball and the people who set the stage for Mauer to achieve his dreams.

“We like the fact that St. Paul is represented the way it has been in baseball lore and with Joe getting in there,” Molitor said. “It will be four players. The All-Star Game in Minnesota in 1985 when Jack, Dave and I were able to don American League uniforms to represent the team in the Twin Cities, it was prideful and it doesn’t happen every day.”

Mauer has about 10 minutes to deliver his speech on Sunday. He spent recent weeks perfecting it, practicing it and, most importantly, timing it. Honorees often forget to factor in pauses for emotion. Frank Thomas pledged before his induction speech in 2014 that he would not cry. As soon as he stepped to the podium and saw his mother in the front row, the tears began.

Just like he anticipated how pitchers were going to work him, Mauer will try to be prepared.

“It’s hard to simulate those emotions when you’re in that setting,” Mauer said. “The crowd. The way it is out there. The Hall of Famers behind you. Your family members right in front of you. You try to think of what you’re gonna feel, but I’m sure that it will be a little different.”

Mainly because he has so many people to thank, particularly the three other St. Paul Hall of Famers.

Mauer spent hours upon hours at the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center and the Oxford playground in St. Paul, across Lexington Avenue from St. Paul Central High School, where Winfield starred. Steve Winfield, Dave’s older brother, refereed Mauer’s youth baseball and basketball games.

When Mauer was 10, basketball was his favorite sport. He was very good, playing a key role on Cretin-Derham Hall’s varsity team, but baseball won out.

When someone suggested to a young Mauer that he concentrate on baseball, he thought about Dave Winfield, who grew up about a block from the Oxford playground and starred in multiple sports. That motivated Mauer to continue being a multisport athlete, so good at football that legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden offered him a scholarship. Besides, specializing didn’t match with the ethos of his father, the late Jake Mauer, and his mother, Teresa.

“I try to reiterate that to kids today,” Mauer said. “If you enjoy ’em, play ’em. Playing the other sports made me a better baseball player.”

Mauer said he was “7, 8 or 9” years old when Molitor, another Oxford/Jimmy Lee alum, appeared at a kids camp held by Cretin-Derham Hall. He talked about how he liked to spray the ball all around the field during batting practice.

“At that age, I was really infatuated by that,” Mauer said. “That also helped me to develop going the other way and using the whole field.”

And Morris provided a young Mauer with the ultimate thrill when he led the 1991 Twins to a World Series title, pitching a 10-inning shutout in Game 7.

It’s a given that Mauer single out that special trio during his speech. All three are St. Paul-raised, won World Series titles with Toronto and played for the Twins. Winfield was on the Blue Jays’ 1992 title team, and Molitor replaced him as the DH on Toronto’s 1993 champion. Morris won three consecutive championships — with the Twins in ’91, then two with the Blue Jays.

Molitor’s connection with Winfield runs deeper and is mind-blowing. Both played for the Attucks-Brooks American Legion team. Both played at the University of Minnesota before enjoying lengthy major league careers. Both got their 3,000th career hit with the Twins — and both occurred on the same date. Winfield got his on Sept. 16, 1993, and Molitor on Sept. 16, 1996.

Winfield got his 3,000th hit in the ninth inning, a single off Oakland closer Dennis Eckersley at the Metrodome. Molitor, then with the Blue Jays, was in town to start a series with the Twins the next night. Molitor was dining with some teammates at J.D. Hoyt’s when Winfield singled in the seventh for career hit 2,999. The players wolfed down the rest of their meal and raced to the Dome in time to watch Winfield’s historic moment.

Mauer will recognize the many coaches who shaped his career, proving clues as to what was in St. Paul’s secret sauce that raised so many Hall of Famers.

Youth coaches drove St. Paul athletics, particularly baseball. Billy Peterson is a legendary coach who helped Winfield and Molitor learn the game. Wally Wescott coached Morris in American Legion ball and Molitor in grade school. The late Dennis Denning won six state championships at Cretin-Derham Hall and is in the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. Mauer has always spoken highly of his coach at Cretin, Jim O’Neill, and drafted him to be his pitcher in the 2009 Home Run Derby.

Mauer will walk to the podium Sunday and look out at tens of thousands of baseball fans and will have just 10 minutes to sum up a 15-year career while patting St. Paul on the back.

“That’s what has been so much fun,” Mauer said. “Especially since receiving the call in January. Just how proud a lot of the coaches and people in general have mentioned that very same thing. I know I’ll be mentioning those guys in my speech and the uniqueness of St. Paul, Minnesota, having four members of the Hall of Fame, which is pretty crazy.

“Just proud that we all played on the same fields growing up. While I was a kid, they were going through their Hall of Fame careers. It gives kids the opportunity to be like, ‘Hey, that can be done.’ Those guys played on the same fields that I did. Hopefully I can give someone that inspiration, like they were for me, to some kid right now. St. Paul is definitely a proud baseball town.”

Could there be another from-St.-Paul-to-the-Hall moment one day? Currently, there are no viable candidates. But keep one thing in mind: Teresa Mauer has 10 grandchildren, including six boys.