Mauers want normalcy as they raise twins in shadow of his celebrity

A touch more than a year into parenting, Minnesota Twin Joe Mauer says that he and his wife, Maddie, find dealing with his celebrity as the biggest challenge raising their twin daughters in a community where he is so well known.

In an interview with Cretin-Derham Hall's alumni magazine, Traditions, the two 2001 graduates of the Catholic high school in St. Paul also reminisced about their days as Raiders athletes, and Joe pondered what the future may hold for him once his playing days are over.

The interview, being posted later Tuesday on the school's website, www.cretin-derhamhall.org, includes a photograph of the casually dressed Mauers sitting for a portrait along a low landscape wall, with fall colors as a backdrop. The twins, Maren and Emily, are identically dressed.

Joe Mauer told the magazine that he and Maddie, who make their home in Mendota Heights, "want our children to be treated the same as everyone else and not be categorized or labeled a certain way because of what I do for a living."

"I'm used to being a public figure and everything that comes with that role, but my wife and daughters are not. We will have to learn together as a family how to navigate through a very public world that Maddie and I did not have to face when we were young."

Thinking ahead to when his playing career ends, the 31-year-old Mauer said he sees himself staying involved in the game, maybe "opening a year-round baseball facility where kids of all ages and skill levels can practice and learn more about the game. I know I will want to stay involved in baseball in some capacity."

And what if he never played baseball? Joe was asked. "I really enjoy building things," he said. "So I may have done something in the construction field."

The Mauers both said their days as athletes at Cretin-Derham Hall were among their favorite memories. Joe starred in football and basketball, as well as baseball. Maddie was a swimmer and recalled how the "friendly and welcoming" treatment she received from her older teammates "definitely started my high school experience off in a positive way."

Both parents said the girls are growing up quickly and having fun interacting with each other.

"We will find them standing at the corners of their cribs babbling back and forth," Joe said, "and we wonder if the two of them have their own secret language."

Maddie said that "Joe and I joke that one of the girls took after me and the other after him; one is very social, and the other likes to sit back and observe, or as Joe says, 'assess the situation.' "

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482