Cooperstown Blog: Hello (from) Wisconsin!
This weekend is going to be a very fun weekend for Twins fans: Joe Mauer is going into the Hall of Fame. Hundreds of Twins fans are descending upon the village of Cooperstown to celebrate with the Mauer family and the Twins organization.
At 40, Mauer will be the youngest member of the Hall of Fame, and is the first guy born in the 1980s to get in. He also didn’t have to wait long to get in to the Hall: he’s the third catcher to get into the Hall on his first ballot, joining Johnny Bench and Pudge Rodriguez.
Joe is a pretty special player for a lot of Millennials like me. When he debuted with the Twins in 2004, I was a junior in high school and I “grew up” with him as a Twin. As newly-weds, my wife and I went to Opening Day at the Metrodome in 2009 with Joe behind the plate. Eventually, we’d bring both of our kids to a Mauer game (although they were too young to remember it).
I was in Cooperstown for Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat’s induction in 2022, and it was a huge Twins fan party for those two guys who had waited way too long for their Cooperstown recognition. Joe’s party, I think, will be much bigger. That could be because I’m at the age now where the guys I watched growing up are now on the Hall of Fame ballot, as is the case with Joe’s induction class of Adrian Beltre and Todd Helton.
Me, my younger brother, a buddy and his cousin are all driving out to Cooperstown this week to celebrate together. My brother and I watched countless Mauer games together growing up, and this feels like a great closing chapter to watching Mauer’s career to experience together.
We left town around 6:00 on Tuesday night with the hope to get to Cooperstown by lunchtime on Friday (it’s a 19-hour drive non-stop) to take in Induction Weekend.
We could have flown, but who wouldn’t want to spend nearly 40 hours in a car with your brother? We were able to cruise to the Dells on Tuesday night before calling it a night.
Wednesday is a day full of driving and midwestern tourism. Of course we picked a sixer of Spotted Cow from a dinosaur-shaped Sinclair station. Yes, we’re getting pizza at Lou Malnati’s near Chicago. We’re taking a driving break and sneaking in a nine-hole round of golf in Indiana. Yes, we’re reminiscing about those Joe Mauer Twins teams that were so much fun to watch.
We’ll check in again tomorrow!