Mauer steps into the Florida sun -- and the spotlight

FORT MYERS, FLA. -- "Grandpa Jake" stood in the walkway between practice fields at Lee County Sports Complex, watching grandson Joe, the last Twins player in sight, sign dozens of autographs beneath a cloudless Florida sky.

Joe Mauer had just completed the first official workout of the Twins' 2004 spring training, which will serve as his transition from renowned prospect to the most celebrated 20-year-old catcher since Ivan Rodriguez.

Grandpa Jake beamed. "You know, Ted Williams was my idol," he said. "I've always predicted Joe will be the next to hit .400."

A few feet away, Joe shakes his head and says, "Grandpa Jake is something else, isn't he?"

So, the Twins think, is Joe.

Mauer won't be able to legally celebrate Opening Day with a beer, yet the Twins plan to have his metronomic swing in the starting lineup at the Metrodome, where he'll play before an extended family that could double the team's season-ticket base.

"In the short time I've been around him, what I've noticed is that very few players I've seen recognize pitches like him, right out of the pitcher's hand," Twins hitting coach Scott Ullger said. "I know Paul Molitor could do it. And I remember Cecil Cooper could do it. But you don't see many.

"With a swing like that, you just let him play. He's got to learn what pitchers will try to do to him at this level, and the developmental process will take care of hitting for power. Right now, he's a natural .300 hitter.

"I'd like to have his future."

Ullger laughed. "Heck," he said, "I have a daughter I'd like him to meet."

Mauer isn't under a microscope so much as the Hubble telescope. He was the first player chosen in a draft that produced a potential Hall of Fame pitcher in Mark Prior, who already has begun dominating big-league hitters. Mauer is a St. Paul native who will make his big-league debut in the same season fellow Cretin alum Molitor will be inducted in the Hall of Fame.

And he's being asked to replace a former All-Star catcher, A.J. Pierzynski, who was traded in one of the cost-saving moves that frustrated Twins fans this winter.

So all Mauer will be asked to do is hit big-league pitching, handle a pitching staff of his elders, and help the Twins win a third consecutive division title.

"I think Joe will be fine," said Pierzynski, who worked out with Mauer in Fort Myers before leaving for the Giants' camp in Arizona. "He's a great guy, and he's going to be a very good player. We all knew he'd be replacing me someday, and he always handled the situation with a lot of class."

Mauer was typically understated Monday. "He treated this like it was just another day," said his brother, infielder Jake Mauer, a non-roster invitee to the Twins' big-league camp. "But last night I could tell he was getting pretty excited. Believe it or not, when he gets excited, he gets pretty talkative -- for him.

"Everybody says how much pressure he's under. I guarantee the most pressure he'll get is from his family. He used to come home from grade school games and we'd all sit and talk about what he could have done differently. Now he'll come home from Twins games, and it will be aunts and uncles -- and the entire state -- critiquing him.

"It sounded like half of Minnesota was out there today."

Monday morning, manager Ron Gardenhire met with Joe, encouraging him to "learn to say no, to concentrate on what happens on the field, because everybody's going to want a piece of him."

Ullger said the most important part of Mauer's game is his glove. "That's what has really stood out to me when I've seen him play," Ullger said. "Yes, it's important to see him get hit after hit, like he did for us last spring. But what's more important is to see him handling pitchers and working behind the plate. Sheesh, he's good."

Twins starter Johan Santana remembers pitching to Mauer last spring. "He's way ahead of the game," Santana said. "People will think of him as the new guy, but I don't think he cares.

"You've seen him swing the bat. He doesn't look like a 20-year-old at the plate -- or behind it. He looks like he's been here forever."

Early Monday afternoon, the small crowd got what it wanted -- Mauer taking batting practice. Terry Steinbach, former Twins catcher, threw a fastball to the future Twins catcher and watched Mauer redirect it through the highest branches of the palm tree beyond the right-field fence.

"Was that for the cameras?" Steinbach yelled. "If I hit them that good, I wouldn't have had to be a catcher."

After practicing blocking pitches, Mauer packed his bag, attracting minicams.

"I'm pretty excited," he said. "It seemed the offseason took too long. I'm just like any other guy here trying to make the team. I don't believe in stuff until it happens, and nothing has happened yet."

And yet on the first day of spring training, Mauer did what big-league baseball players are supposed to do.

He offered hope -- to the two Jakes, and a bunch of sunburned Minnesotans.