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.
“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 of Toni Stone. “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.”
Carter said he is proud to be the mayor of “the city of baseball,” but noted how ironic it is that he never mastered the sport.
“Baseball wasn’t my ministry growing up,” he said. “I was the only kid on my T-ball team ever to strike out, and we didn’t even have a strikeout rule. At some point, Nick’s dad just kind of put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Come on, son.’”
St. Paul is proud to have so many incredible baseball heroes for young players to look up to, he said.
“When young players are out here, we can say, ‘Listen, when you’re on this field, when you’re at bat on this field, you might be on your way to the Hall of Fame because it’s been done a couple of times,” he said.
Carter told Mauer that “the only thing better than a hero on TV is a hero in our hometown, a hero who we can see in community, a hero who’s dropping his kid off at kindergarten, who has a presence in the community and is an active part of our city and our community. That’s something that you’ve been for us all the way through. We appreciate your partnership. We appreciate your involvement. We appreciate your engagement.”
Said Mauer: “It takes a community to help raise a good human. I’m just proud to be a part of this community and to see what we’re doing here today with the renovations of these ball fields that have, you know, taught so many life lessons over the years to so many people and just to kind of put some life back into it. I think we’re looking good heading into the future. This community has given me so much, and I’m proud to be from here and proud to support it.”
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.
“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.
Steve Winfield, one of the coaches of the Minnesota Twins RBI All-Star team and brother of MLB Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, also came to watch the ceremony. He said he used to referee Mauer’s high-school basketball games.
“I also refereed his mother (Teresa) when she went to Central High School up here, so, you know, I’ve been around a long time,” Winfield said.
“This is great,” he said of Mauer’s jersey retirement. “St. Paul is proud. Minneapolis can’t touch us. They have their stuff going on, but St. Paul has a legacy that, especially with the baseball, that I don’t think any other city in America has. I’m proud to be a part of it.”
Volunteer field work
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.
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.
Among the new features at Billy Peterson Field are two new pitching rubbers – one for younger players and one for older players, said Larry DiVito, head groundskeeper for the Minnesota Twins.
But DiVito said he was most excited about the reconstruction of home plate at Billy Peterson, which had “sunk” through the years.
“In this climate, especially since that’s in morning shade, you get freeze-thaw heaving runoff over many years,” DiVito said. “It probably just settled a lot, so what they’re doing is they’re getting the elevation back up. Now the hitter and catcher are level with the infield grass rather than lower than it.”
The Dunning Sports Complex 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.”
Parks and rec staff are finalizing plans to recognize Molitor, Winfield and Morris in the near future, Rodriguez said.
“It’s important to recognize the history within our park system and those who have made such a strong impact on all of us,” he said. “Having four MLB Hall of Famers residing from the same city, let alone the same neighborhood, is a rarity.”
