Tuesday unofficially became Joe Mauer Day for Minnesota Twins fans, as we finally got to learn that one of the greatest players in franchise history was headed to the Hall of Fame.
Mauer was elected to Cooperstown in his first year of eligibility, securing just over the 75 percent of the vote he needed to get inducted. We'll have to wait until July for his bust to be inveiled, but when it is he'll become just the seventh player in baseball history to enter the Hall of Fame representing the Twins.
He also becomes the 60th player ever to get in on the first ballot, joined by Adrian Beltre who also earned that honor this year. While only 17 percent of players in Cooperstown got in on their first try, Mauer is the third Twins player to have joined that club.
Both Rod Carew and Kirby Puckett were inducted in their first year of eligibilty too, which is iconic Minnesota company for Mauer to keep.
There was already a fair amount of lore around Mauer's legacy, we were gifted to another incredble story right before the official announcement was made.
Joe Mauer forced Max Scherzer to invent a pitch to strike him out
MLB Network teased some of the candidates ahead of the announcement, and Tom Verducci gave an absolutely incredible anecdote.
According to Verducci, Max Scherzer was so frustrated by not being able to get Mauer to strike out swinging that in 2014 he invented a brand new pitch to try and get something past him.
"In 2014, Scherzer has two strikes on Mauer who he has never struck out swinging. was a cut fastball that Max Scherzer invented specifically to try and get Joe Mauer to miss," Verducci said. "He's still throwing that pitch today."
As if Mauer needed to add any cherries on top of his Hall of Fame case.
Tom Verducci says that Joe Mauer was so good Max Scherzer created a cut fastball just to strike Mauer out pic.twitter.com/gvxs2E2ykM
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) January 23, 2024
Reaching the Hall of Fame has allowed fans to revisit just how incredible Mauer's career was, both at the plate and in the field. We're reminded of his insane tag on Brett Gardner back in 2010, his three straight Gold Gloves, and his five Silver Slugger Awards.
That's all on the macro, but Verducci's story is a reminder of how the Hall of Famer's more granual battles wore his opponents down and pushed them to insane levels to try and beat him.
Mauer ended up with a career slashline of .270/.308/.378 against Scherzer with six RBI and a home run. He only struck out four times against Scherzer -- and it took the Cy Young winner inventing a pitch to get him to do it looking once.