"Our Boy": St. Paul's Joe Mauer

April 30, 12:13 PMSouth St. Paul ExaminerRob Shirk

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"Our Boy" Joe Mauer

Every once in a blue moon a kid from the neighborhood in St. Paul makes it big.

Joe Mauer, all-star catcher for the Minnesota Twins, falls into that category. He gives those of us in St. Paul a particular kind of boisterous pride. Joe Mauer was selected number one one in the country in 2001, making his major league debut in 2004. He became "Our Boy" instantly.

Minneapolis and St. Paul have a long standing rivalry going back to God's creation and many local kids have made it big. There was Jack Morris, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, Kent Hrbek and more I can't remember of whom I'm sure I'll hear about in the comments section. All of them but Hrbek played elsewhere except for a year or two at home in a desperate move by the Twins to sell tickets. Morris won Game 7 of the 1991 World Series and will always be remembered for that but he played mostly in Detroit, then Toronto. We had him for that one year, only.

Kent Hrbek is from Bloominton, a Minneapolis suburb. We all were proud of him and over in Minneapolis he became the Minneapolis "Our Boy". Hrbek was drafted by our Twins and never played anywhere else. He was the reason my wife fell in love with baseball, for gosh sakes. But he never was "Our Boy" in my eyes. Hrbek loves fishing and bowling. Minneapolis has always been his nirvana and he lives around there to this day.

He is clean cut, gracious, from St. Paul, and the best catcher in major leagues. That's "Our Boy". He's about the best hitter in baseball, too. Heck, I can almost walk to his house he grew up in and the school, Cretin-Durham Hall, he went to. He's "Our Boy" all the way. No one around here, listening to a game, needs to know the name of the player when asking who's up next. If the reply is "Our Boy" we know. They probably do, as well, in Minneapolis, but there's always a hesitation, kind of a "Wha...oh yeah," type of response.

The neighborhood hums with pride during the warm months. It is not that we don't when it's cold outside, but you know what I mean. "Our Boy", maybe the best there ever will be, plays all summer. It allows us to walk with dignity and self-regard on this side of the river in St. Paul.

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