5 September 2024
A month ago, Joe Mauer was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The legendary Minnesota Twins’ player’s induction capped a stellar Major League Baseball career — a career that included six All-Star nominations, three consecutive Gold Glove Awards, and one American League MVP Award.
On Thursday, Mauer, who grew up on Lexington Parkway in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood, added another honor to his roster: His St. Paul Parks and Recreation jersey — No. 7 — was retired during a ceremony at Toni Stone Field in the Dunning Sports Complex in St. Paul.
The retirement of Mauer’s maroon Griggs Recreation Center jersey marked the first time a number has been retired by the city’s Parks and Rec department, Mayor Melvin Carter said.
“This is a reminder to all of our young people of the incredible heights that they can aspire to and of the incredible heights that people have achieved from our St. Paul community,” Carter said. “Every teammate on every team in our city is going to know that number seven is not just retired from active play, but that they’ve got a teammate in number seven who is kind of the invisible man on the field, playing along and cheering us on.”
St. Paul produced four MLB Hall of Famers: Mauer, Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor and Jack Morris.
“That’s a big deal for us,” Carter said. “But we know that a tree just doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It’s got to have some roots. And this is the space. This is sort of, like, sacred baseball ground in St. Paul because this is the space where generations of young folks have learned how to play the sport and generations of young folks have learned how to adopt the life lessons that the sport is involved in and all of those are successes.
“You don’t have to go to the Major League or be a Hall of Famer to be a success. You’ve got to know how to play with the team. You’ve got to know how to handle defeat. You’ve got to know how to accept coaching. You’ve got to be able to meet friends and all the things that our young people are able to do through sport.”
Mauer: ‘It starts with the community’
Mauer said he would not have had a Hall of Fame career if not for the people in St. Paul who helped him along the way.
Joe Mauer, right, and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, left, talk with Minnesota Twins head groundskeeper Larry DeVito at Billy Peterson Field, part of the Dunning Sports Complex in St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
“It starts with leadership here in St. Paul,” Mauer said. “It starts with the community and all the volunteers here today. Everyone. I guess it’s an individual award at the end of the day, but I couldn’t have done it without so many. I’m proud to be from this community. This community has lifted me up and has given me so many things and taught me so many valuable lessons right here on this field.”
Mauer said he and his brothers used to ride their bikes to the baseball fields just west of Central High School.
“This was the first stadium that I played in,” he said. “I loved to pitch in this stadium because you could hear the glove pop a little louder with the stands behind. I have so many great memories from here. I’m proud to be from St. Paul, I’m proud to be from the Midway community, and I’m happy to be here.”
Youth league coach remembers
Watching from the crowd gathered along first base line was Travis Logan, one of Mauer’s baseball coaches in the Midway youth league. The league had four teams back then, and Logan, who coached the green team, drafted Billy Mauer, Joe Mauer’s older brother.
Travis Logan, left, one of Joe Mauer’s Midway youth baseball league coaches, is photographed with Mauer outside Toni Stone Field on Thursday. (Mary Divine / Pioneer Press)
“Because I had Billy, they made me take the younger brother, too,” Logan said. “They wanted to keep brothers together, and, you know, you knew he was something. … He didn’t strike out in the two years I had him. It was just amazing.”
Logan, who had just graduated from Central and was starting his freshman year at the University of St. Thomas that fall, said the Mauer boys never wanted a day off.
“We went seven days a week,” he said. “I was young, I had the time, so we didn’t take any days off. Once the season got going, they wanted to be here. His dad and mom, Jake and Teresa, would sit up on the hill with some of the other parents. It was summer. This was before video games and everything like that. It was just a different day and age. It was great.”
Joe Mauer, who was 9 and 10 at the time, played catcher and shortstop, and he pitched, Logan said. “There was no fence back then, so when he hit over the hill, he just had to run,” he said.
Volunteer field work
Joe Mauer drives a utility vehicle from Billy Peterson Field to another field as he makes the rounds at the Dunning Sports Complex in St. Paul on Thursday. Volunteers with the Minnesota Twins, The Toro Company and the city of St. Paul gathered Thursday to refurbish and add improvements to the five baseball and softball diamonds at the Dunning Sports Complex. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
The Mauer jersey-retirement ceremony came during a break in a volunteer-service project at the multiple baseball and softball fields at the Dunning Sports Complex.
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Volunteers from the Minnesota Twins’ front office, including the club’s grounds crew, and volunteers from The Toro Co. spent the day regrading fields, installing base anchors, new pitching blocks and new home plates, aerating grass, building a retaining wall, weeding and cleaning up baselines, bullpens and backstops, repainting bleachers, updating fencing and weeding and mulching landscape areas around fields.
The project was supported by $20,000 in donations from the Minnesota Twins Community Fund and The Toro Co. Foundation.
The city of St. Paul contributed more than $100,000 in Common Cent Sales Tax funding to assist with the improvements, said Andy Rodriguez, director of parks and recreation. In addition, Toro provided the use of $250,000 in equipment, he said.
“I cannot stress enough how important this park has been for the game of baseball,” Rodriguez said. “Four MLB Hall of Famers have played here. It has just such a storied history. It’s really the epicenter for St. Paul in the game of baseball.”