Off the TePoel: My what a May for Mauer

Posted by Dain on May 27, 2009 under Dain | Be the First to Comment

Joe Mauer has been on some kind of run. Mr. Souhan did some digging and apparently found that Mauer’s first 21 games to start a season, and the numbers he put up in terms of batting average, homeruns, rbi, and runs scored, can only be placed in the same category as Willie Mays’ start to the 1954 season.

Mind you, we aren’t talking about any 21 games, we’re talking the first 21 games of a season. Sure, players have been on these kinds of streaks before at various points of the season. Last night I did catch a glimpse on Baseball Tonight where they showed the best months of May of all time, and it included some greats like Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, but also some other guys whose names aren’t memorable at all.

Mauer will likely fall somewhere in between those two spectrums, but of course, if he keeps this up, he will be well to the side that includes the Hall of Famers in which his breath is mentioned now. And not one of them played Catcher.

Of course, Mauer’s statistics when hitting as a DH won’t contribute to his overall Catcher batting numbers, but he will (and already is, with his two batting titles) be considered one of the greatest catchers to ever play this game.

And Morneau is absolutely ridiculous by the way. Still. No matter how great he does, when Mauer is healthy and playing well, Morneau will always take a back seat in the media and in everyday conversation.

These guys need to be inseparable. They love each other. They used to live together. I’ve been hearing some say it’s inevitable they will break up. How awful that would be. And although we’ve heard it before with Hunter and Santana not wanting to leave, maybe the M&M boys will stay in M(n), just like Hrbie and Kirby did. Because they want to, and they want to win…here. Sure, they might have better odds winning it all elsewhere, but their careers and their homes, and maybe their pride, is here in Minnesota. So even just the chance to do it all here, is what it’s all about. That’s what made baseball great in the first place – hometown teams, in their cities, passed down from generation to generation, nestled in the neighborhoods of the eastern cities.

Sure times have changed and baseball is more suburban than urban and faces on teams change as much as well, people change their own jobs. But if these two guys are paid what they deserve, maybe even just a little less because it’s what this market can afford, they’ll stay. And this whole happy affair will continue.

Are the odds in the fan’s favor that we will see both these guys in MN uniforms till 2020? Probably not, but we can hope. We can hope Joe stays healthy long enough to be a catcher, so that Justin can stay a first basemen. Because once people say Joe has to play first and Justin becomes a DH, I don’t like where that takes this team. And Justin is an excellent fielder to go with his MVP offensive credentials.

Sit back and enjoy, because while both these guys will slump eventually, and the nay sayers will return, they are wrong. Whether they’re slumping or sweet-swinging, they are Minnesota’s growing heroes and when do you boo a hero?