Joe Mauer is inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame in front of thousands of Twins fans

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Joe Mauer began to realize the enormity of the moment Saturday during the Hall of Fame legends parade when he rode in the back of a truck with his family and looked out at a crowd that was predominantly Twins fans.

“To see that many Twins fans out there, I just felt the love,” he said. “And I was just hoping that I could deliver the speech I wrote down.”

Mauer forged his career on keeping composure when jousting with opposing pitchers. Where many sped up the game, Mauer slowed it down to something manageable. And he did so for most of the most important moment of his life Sunday as he entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The pressure was amplified by an estimated crowd of 28,000 that mostly were Twins fans wearing various styles of Mauer gear. One fan even wore Joe Mauer sideburns from a 2006 giveaway. Mauer strode to the podium to receive his Hall of Fame ring and hear MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred read from his new plaque. The phrase “precise lefthanded swing” summed up what fans watched from him for 15 seasons as he accumulated 2,123 career hits while winning three American League batting titles.

Mauer then proceeded to blow past the request to keep his speech around 10 minutes long. But part of that was because he paused for applause 22 times.

It took about 40 seconds for the first round of applause, when he spoke about his roots and the remarkable feat of being one of four St. Paul natives who lived within a 3½-mile radius of each other and now have plaques in Cooperstown.

He choked up near the three-minute mark, when he spoke about his grandfather, Jake Mauer Sr., standing next to the television while watching him play, mimicking his swing. He provided some insight into his hitting approach, crediting former Cretin-Derham Hall coach Jim O’Neill for teaching him patience.

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For the most part, Mauer remained composed. He was thorough. He achieved his goal of conveying how he felt about the many people who contributed to his journey.

“It wasn’t as easy as Joe made it look like,” fellow inductee Adrian Beltré said when asked about his speech.

Was it as easy as Beltré thought it was, Joe?

“No. No chance,” Mauer said. “It was tough. It was a lot of emotions leading up to this. It was very emotional getting the call.

“Back home, a lot of people know I lost my dad recently and my grandpa in the last few years, both grandpas. They were able to watch my whole career, and I think they were with me today making sure that I could articulate the speech that I had, and I knew they were here, and it was definitely a lot harder than what Adrian says.”

Twins fans Samantha and Jon Trebesch drove up from the Tampa, Fla., area for the ceremony. She’s from the Twin Cities, he’s from Duluth and they met as teachers at Princeton High School. Now living in Florida for seven years, they made plans to attend the ceremony the day after the voting results were announced in January.

“We found out very early on that we both like baseball,” Samantha said. “And a lot of our first dates were watching the Twins on TV.”

That suggests that the impasse between Diamond Sports, the parent company of Bally Sports Network, and Comcast might be keeping some Twins fans from falling in love with each other.

It didn’t matter to them on Sunday, as Samantha and Jon brought their two children and asked the grandparents, Chuck Sell and Liz Leitch-Sell, to drive over from South Haven, Minn., to play with and watch the children while they attended the ceremony.

South Haven is near Annandale. The drive from Annandale is 18 hours. Someone from Annandale overheard the conversation and confirmed the travel time.

It shows how the state of Minnesota was well-represented here Sunday.

“I think Mauer’s speech just showed his humility,” Samantha said. “He showed exactly why we all love him and why two of every three fans here, I swear, were Minnesotan.”

They weren’t the only ones to travel in from afar. Former Twins coach Gene Glynn drove in from Waseca. And the funniest travel story came from former Twins pitcher J.D. Durbin, who goes back to rookie ball with Mauer. Now living in Gilbert, Ariz., he decided on Thursday to attend the ceremony, flew to the Twin Cities, caught a flight to Syracuse on Sunday morning and rode into Cooperstown just in time.

“I spent the night in the Minneapolis airport,” said Durbin, who was nicknamed the “Real Deal” during his playing days and made four appearances for the Twins in 2004.

So fans and former teammates arrived from all directions and in various modes of transportation as the book on Mauer’s career was closed shut on Sunday. The only catcher with three batting titles. The AL MVP in 2009. The first player born in the 1980s and first who began his career in the 2000′s to reach baseball’s Valhalla. The fifth Minnesotan.

And he did it while TwinsFest took place in Cooperstown.

Well played, Mauer.