Mauer gets back in swing

His name was announced over the Lee County Sports Complex loud speaker and the crowd stood up and cheered.

As Joe Mauer walked to the batter’s box, fans wished him good luck with every step. The catcher stepped into the box and looked to his left. There was arguably the Fort Myers Miracle’s biggest fan — Kenny from Long Island.

It felt like old times again.

Mauer, who hit .335 for Fort Myers during the first half of the Florida State League season last year, played for the Miracle in a rehabilitation start Wednesday. The Minnesota Twins rookie catcher, who is recovering from left knee surgery, went 3-for-4 with an RBI in Fort Myers’4-3 loss to the Daytona Cubs.

“It felt good to come back here,” said Mauer, who was the team’s designated hitter. “I saw a couple of old faces in the stands. I saw Kenny. I saw a bunch of fans I remembered. It felt good to put on a uniform again.”

Mauer will play for the Miracle again tonight against Daytona and for a few more days, Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan said. Depending on how he feels this morning, Mauer could catch tonight.

“(The left knee) is a little sore,” said Mauer, who had a large bag of ice on his left knee afterward. “But it felt good running the bases. When I sit down for a while that’s when it hurts. This is what all this ice is for.”

Ryan, who is in town as part of his annual trip to evaluate the Miracle, admitted the organization is concerned by Mauer’s soreness.

“It’s a little concern to us but it’s natural,” Ryan said. “It’s something that’s going to happen when you come back from an injury like this.”

The injury didn’t seem to bother the No. 1 overall pick of the 2001 draft at the plate. Mauer slapped an RBI single down the left-field line to stake the Miracle to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

He hit a weak blooper down the left-field line in his second at-bat and singled through the right side in his final at-bat. Daytona left-hander Andy Sisco struck out Mauer on three pitches in the fifth.

“He looks about 95 percent to me, only because his legs are not as strong as they should be,” Miracle manager Jose Marzan said. “And it’s obvious. You can see that. Everybody can see that.”

Mauer tore cartilage in his left knee diving for a foul ball against the Cleveland Indians on April 6. It was the second big-league game for Mauer, who received some Rookie of the Year hype during the preseason.

The Twins put him on the disabled list two days later and estimated he would be out 4-6 weeks. It’s been seven weeks since the injury.

“It’s (taken longer than expected) because he’s a catcher,” Ryan said. “If he wasn’t a catcher he probably would be back by now. That constant crouching is when he has problems. He has to get in the crouch 150 pitches a game.”

After Mauer shows he can play catcher without any pain, he will be moved to Triple-A Rochester. After a few games there, he will return to the Twins.

“Around early June is when we’d like to have him back,” Ryan said.

The current injury is the 21-year-old’s first major setback of his career.

Like the Twins, Mauer wants to take his rehab slow.

“I want to make sure I’m right before I go back up,” he said. “The team is doing OK. They’re battling for the AL Central lead. It’s still early in the season. I don’t want to go up there and play hurt. If it was later in the year, it would be a different story.”