Minnesota Twins top prospect living out a boyhood dream

BINGHAMTON -- Growing up in St. Paul, Minn., just 10 miles from the Metrodome, Joe Mauer played backyard baseball against his two older brothers, all the while pretending he played for the Minnesota Twins.

"My brothers were always Kirby Puckett," Mauer said Tuesday, "But I had to be Kent Hrbek because I'm a left-handed hitter. I was about 8 or 9 years old, but I loved those guys."

Twelve years later, Mauer's on the verge of becoming one of the Twins.

In a classic case of fantasy becoming reality, the Twins took Mauer with the first overall pick in the 2001 amateur draft, gave him a $5.15 million signing bonus, and anointed him as their catcher of the future.

He's climbed the Twins' minor league chain at warp speed ever since, and two weeks ago, at 20 years and 57 days young, Mauer was promoted to the Double-A New Britain Rock Cats, in town this week to face the Binghamton Mets at NYSEG Stadium.

"Catching-wise, he can play right now in the major leagues with the way he sets up, throws and handles our pitchers," said Rock Cats manager Stan Cliburn, himself a catcher for the California Angels in 1980. "You watch him play, and you have to remind yourself he's only 20 years old and a couple years removed from high school."

High school is when Mauer realized he had the ability to play on the same Metrodome field that Puckett and Hrbek made famous.

Also an all-state basketball and football player, Mauer had barely turned 16 when he was invited to audition for the 18-and-under U.S. Junior National team. Naturally, he was picked to play.

"Nobody expected very much from a kid from Minnesota," Mauer said. "It was then that I realized I had a good shot of doing something in baseball."

But waiting for him after graduation was also a football scholarship to be the next quarterback at Florida State. Mauer tossed a Minnesota-record 41 touchdown passes as a senior at Cretin-Durham Hall, the same school that produced former Seminoles quarterback Chris Weinke.

Mauer's allegiance was always to baseball -- "I was never real serious about football, but I've played baseball ever since I could walk," he said -- and that $5.15 million strengthened his loyalty to the national pastime.

His rapid progress has been a target of the Minnesota media since draft day. From the moment he began his career in 2001 (he batted .400 that season for rookie-level Elizabethton), Mauer estimates he has conducted at least one interview per day.

Yet he remains unfailingly polite, almost shy, and fields the same questions over and over with even greater ease than he uses his 6-foot-4, 220-pound body to block pitches in the dirt.

"There's been so much media attention everywhere he goes," Cliburn said. "There are so many cameras and reporters, and he handles himself very professionally."

Mauer has a fluid left-handed swing, which he displayed Tuesday night by lacing an RBI single through the left side of the infield in the fourth inning. He has hit only five home runs in 754 professional at-bats and has gone 1-for-11 against lefties since joining the Rock Cats on June 16.

The best tribute to Mauer's defensive ability came in spring training when veteran major league right-handers Brad Radke and Rick Reed raved about him, and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire announced he'd feel comfortable calling up Mauer if anything happened to all-star catcher A.J. Pierzynski.

The Mets found out how good Mauer is Monday night when he dove like a football receiver to catch Chris Basak's popped-up bunt to the right of home plate in foul territory, then rose to his feet and threw a strike to second to double-up speedy Jeff Duncan.

"I think back to Butch Wynegar at 18 or 19 years old when he came up with the Twins, and I compare him to that," said Cliburn, who has tried to ease the pressure on Mauer by batting him sixth. "I was a big leaguer at 23, and he's two or three years ahead of where I was at that age."

Publicly, the Twins insist they won't rush Mauer to the majors. But with Pierzynski's contract up at the end of this season, there's a good chance Mauer could be in Minnesota -- on his personal field of dreams -- next year.

That would more than make amends for that day in 1991 when his aunt and uncle had two extra tickets to Game 6 of the World Series and gave them to Mauer's brothers, leaving Joe to watch the Twins and Atlanta Braves from a seat on his couch.

"I'm still kind of bitter about that," Mauer said. "But what I've been able to do is pretty neat. Not too many guys can say they got drafted for the team they grew up rooting for. Hopefully I can keep going and get to play there."