7 best moments from Joe Mauer’s Hall of Fame career

Minnesota Twins hometown hero Joe Mauer is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Ahead of the official announcement on Tuesday, it already looked like things were going that way, with Mauer, Adrián Beltré, Todd Helton, and Billy Wagner seemingly the closest to glory based on publicly revealed votes. Only Mauer, Beltré, and Helton eventually got in, the former two joining a club made up of only 58 other players who were elected into Cooperstown on their first ballot.

Mauer is undeniably the Twins hero of the 21st century. Many great players have passed through the Twin cities, but none have so recently captured the collective adoration of Twins fans as much as Mauer did over his 15-year tenure with the club. A St. Paul native, first-round draft pick, No. 1 prospect, All-Star, MVP, and now a Hall of Famer to be, this is the only way that the vote could have shaken out in order to make any sense.

7 best moments from Joe Mauer’s Hall of Fame career

Mauer's long career is filled with highlights, but there are some that stand out among all the others. Hours of video footage can be compiled to exemplify Mauer's greatness, but these five moments should also do the trick.

No. 7: The famous Around-The-Net catch, June 10, 2010

Almost every single game there's at least one batter who pops a ball up and over the backstop net. It's almost as routine as a ground ball but it almost never results in an out. Rather, fans are usually left muttering under their breath that it should have been an out if not for that pesky net.

Joe Mauer made that dream come true back in 2010.

Royals outfielder Mitch Maier stepped to the player in the ninth inning and popped a ball up behind the home plate net. Mauer did what all catchers do: flipped his mask and tracked the ball, expect rather than letting it drift into the crowd he reached around the net to snag it as an out.

It's a play we've seen a million times but one of the only times we'll likely ever see that sort of outcome.

- Hill

No. 6: Joe Mauer hits his only career walk-off against the Red Sox, May 5, 2017

Despite having some of the most otherworldly batting stats in his prime, Mauer was never known as a power hitter. He set his career high in home runs in his 2009 MVP season with 28, but never broke 11 in any of the nine seasons that followed.

In 2017, the second to last year of his career, he hit his first and only walk-off home run, powering up against the Boston Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth at Target Field. It came against Boston reliever Matt Barnes on an 1-2 count, off a fastball up in the zone.

2017 was the best of his last five seasons, coming after three years of still great but more down-to-earth numbers. He continued to be one of the toughest at-bats in the game, though, reemerging with a .305 batting average and .384 OBP. It was the last year he went to the postseason with the team, exiting after a loss in the Wild Card game against the Yankees, before he retired in 2018.

- Stebbins

No. 5: Joe Mauer's diving home plate tag on Brett Gardner, May 17, 2009

So much is made about Mauer's offensive stats in making his case for Cooperstown, but don't overlook how elite his defense was while at the peak of his powers. He ended up winning five Silver Sluggers, but Mauer also collected three straight Gold Gloves and his .9951 fielding percentage ranks in the Top 10 all-time among catchers.

There are a handful of plays that he made throughout his career that display his defensive acumen, but perhaps none represent how elite he was than when he tagged out Brett Gardner back in 2010.

It wasn't just any tag, it was a masterfully athletic play that reminded us that he was a multi-sport athlete while making a name for himself across the state while still in high school. In the ninth inning of a tie game, Mauer fielded a lazy grounder that rolled halfway to the mound, which allowed Garnder to try and take advantage of home plate being undefended.

As Gardner raced down the third base line, Mauer picked up the ball, turned and sprinted toward home plate, diving to apply the tag and block a walk-off. Doing all of this against the Yankees in the Bronx only made the moment even sweeter.

- Hill

No. 4: Joe Mauer gets his 2,000th career hit in front of the hometown crowd, April 12, 2018

With Lucas Giolito and Aaron Bummer pitching for the rival White Sox, Mauer picked up hits Nos. 1,999 and 2,000 in front of an ecstatic home crowd in Minneapolis on a Thursday night in April 2018. He drove in three runs on those two hits, first in the bottom of the third and then bottom of the seventh, and enjoyed a standing ovation and curtain call before the Twins went on to win handily, 4-0, thanks to Mauer's three RBI.

By the time he retired at the end of that season, he'd collected 2,123 hits, 923 RBI, and a career batting line of .306/.388/.439 over a 15-year span. Of Twins players with 1,500+ plate appearances for the team, Mauer falls at the top of multiple leaderboards in offensive categories — third in bWAR, sixth in OBP, fourth in hits, and so on — only behind the likes of fellow Hall of Famers Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, and Sam Rice.

- Stebbins

No. 3: Twins retire Joe Mauer's No. 7, June 15, 2019

The season after Mauer retired, the Twins announced that they would be retiring his No. 7, making him the eighth Twin to receive such an honor. June 15 became "Joe Mauer Day" for the club, and in a ceremony attended by a packed crowd at Target Field, he was honored by former teammates, former opponents, team executives, and members of the front office ahead of a home game against the Royals, which the Twins would go on to win 5-4.

In an emotional speech, Mauer detailed the origins of his love for the game and reminded fans why he's so beloved in Minnesota, not only as a homegrown, career Twin, but a true sports hero. He received a standing ovation from the crowd, as well as the home plate used in his final game as a Twin as a gift from the club.

- Stebbins

No. 2: Joe Mauer makes his MLB debut, April 5, 2004

Mauer was born in St. Paul and was claimed by the Twins as the first overall pick in the 2001 draft after turning down an offer to play college football at Florida State. He remained one of the Twins' top prospects through three years in the minors before making his major league debut at the beginning of April in 2004. Mauer debuted at the eighth spot in the lineup against Cleveland, walked twice, picked up two hits, and represented two runs in the Twins' 7-4 victory that night.

It was a thrilling start to a long career with his hometown team, which endeared fans to him immediately and set a precedent for his performance across his 15 years with the Twins. He never explored free agency, instead signing an eight-year extension with Minnesota that saw him through the end of his career. During that tenure, he collected multiple MLB-wide records (including two set in 2009, which we'll get to in a second), over 2,000 hits, and the 24th-highest fWAR of all players in the 21st century.

- Stebbins