Catcher Mauer on a tear at the plate

Fort Myers Miracle catcher Joe Mauer started the Florida State League season in a slump, hitting more like the last pick in the 2001 draft and not the first.

On April 17, two weeks into the season, he was hitting .186. He didn’t have any extra-base hits.

This was the guy who received a $5.1 million bonus from the Minnesota Twins to pass up a football scholarship offer to play quarterback at Florida State University?

Relax. It just took time to warm up.

“Everybody goes into a slump,” Mauer said. “It’s just a matter of how fast you get out of it. I was lucky to get out of it.”

Going into play Thursday, he was hitting .320, the sixth highest average in the league. He was second on the team in RBI with 25.

A .320 batting average combined with a powerful arm makes Mauer a likely candidate for promotion to the New Britain Rock Cats of the Double-A Eastern League. Or someplace higher. At some point.

Mauer isn’t focused on that right now, only six weeks into the FSL season.

“It’s not really in my hands,” Mauer said.

Although Mauer’s batting average is one of the league’s highest, the 6-foot-4, 220-pounder has yet to homer in 128 at-bats. He’s not worried about that. He hit only four homers in 411 at-bats last year for the Quad City River Bandits of the Class A Midwest League.

“Just go up there and make good contact,” Mauer said of homers. “They’ll come.”

When that happens, it’ll be a sign that Mauer could soon be going.

The Miracle begin an eight-game homestand tonight. A four-game series against the Daytona Cubs will be followed by a four-game series against the Vero Beach Dodgers.

There will be a fireworks show following the Friday, May 23, game against Vero Beach.

Former Miracle first baseman Justin Morneau, now with the Rochester Red Wings of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, is rated No. 1 on Baseball America’s prospect hot sheet.

All-star game reminder: The Florida State League all-star game will be played Saturday, June 14, at the Lee County Sports Complex. Tickets cost $7 for box seats and $5 for upper reserved seats.

Art and baseball: The Miracle will have an Arts in the Park contest Sunday, June 22. The contest is open to artists 12 and under. The theme of the show will be what baseball and America means.

Minor-league baseball set an April attendance record with 5.7 millions fans, an average of 3,358 fans per game. That’s the highest April total in the 102 years of record keeping. The Memphis Redbirds of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League had the highest average, 9,880. The lowest April average was 243 by the South Georgia Waves of the South Atlantic League.

The Miracle have three players in the FSL’s Top 10 in batting average. Infielder Luis Maza is third at .333 and right fielder Jason Kubel is fourth at .331. Mauer is sixth.

Fort Myers has the league’s third-highest team batting average, .268.

Maza is fourth in the league with a .415 on-base percentage.

Miracle center fielder James Tomlin is third in the league in runs scored with 34.

Pitcher Colby Miller is 2-2 with a 2.08 ERA, third-best in the league.