Hometown Hero

Last night it was announced that Joe Mauer signed an 8-year $184 million contract with the Minnesota Twins. Here’s why it’s interesting (or not).

Mauer has got some major fan love from Minnesota.

• For starters, he’s from the capital, St. Paul and his family lives here.

• My husband played against him a couple times in high school in both football and baseball (Mauer was amazing then too).

• The Twins signed him straight out of high school and has been here ever since.

• 4 years ago he got 10,000 nutty fans to stick sideburns on the side of their face.

Two of those fans are in this photo (and we look creepily alike):

A few more facts* to amaze you:

• He was the 2009 American League MVP

• Won American League batting title which is very rare. No catcher has ever won the batting title  more than once. Mauer’s won it 3 times!

• 3^rd highest signed contract in MLB (behind A-Rod and Jeter) from a team that’s never had a budget more than $65 million a year

• #1 highest paid Twins player ever.

• Kirby Puckett (Twins legend) signed a 6 year, $36 million contract in the early 90s (largest contract in all of baseball at the time). Mauer now signed 8 years for $184 million

• 3 time higher contract than any catcher. EVER.

• This marks the Twins as officially going from a small market club to a mid-market team with Joe Mauer leading the way into our new stadium.

His contract would have been up next year and he would have been a free agent.Both the Yankees and the Red Sox will eventually are looking for a new catcher which could have put the teams up for a bidding war. Translation: Mauer could potentially have been the highest paid player of all time.

But he’s a hometown hero and we love him.

*I love the MN Twins. However, I’m no die hard fan but my husband is. I did zero research in finding these fact, but consulted my husband who knows them by heart. That being said, they may be a bit faulty. Just cheer on the Twins this year in our new fancy stadium with our fancy catcher.

Love,

N