Number 7 may forever belong to Mickey Mantle, and “Super Joe” might always be Joe Montana’s handle, but don’t be shocked if Joe Mauer’s sideburns grow into the stuff of legend. Right now in the Twin Cities, his signature style is definitely de rigueur—small surprise after making mutton chops out of major league fastballs and distinguishing himself as the finest young hitter in the American League. The top prep prospect just a few years ago, Joe has survived a career-threatening injury and his own press clippings to become a superstar in his hometown. This is his story…

GROWING UP

Joseph Patrick Mauer was born April 19, 1983 in St. Paul, Minnesota to Teresa and Jake Mauer Jr. (Click here for today's sports birthdays.) Jake was a baseball coach by profession, and Joe and his brothers—Jake III and Bill—seemed destined to star in the sport. The Mauer clan had hardball in its genes. Joe’s dad and three uncles played professionally. Joe’s grandfather, Jake Sr., also played pro ball, and was most similar to Joe in terms of skills and makeup.

And, of course Joe’s parents met on a baseball diamond. Teresa’s softball teammates dragged her on the field to meet he future husband. They raised their sons in a home less than 20 minutes from the Metrodome.

Among Joe’s earliest memories was being handed a toy baseball bat by his dad and swinging it. The family joke was that he had a major-league stroke while he was still in diapers, and it’s not far from the truth. There is actually videotape of Joe—diapers visibly peeking out of his shorts—at the opening of some local batting cages.

Naturally, Joe grew up a Twins fan. In 1987, his father got three tickets to a World Series game against the St. Louis Cardinals, and told the four-year-old he had to stay home. Joe locked himself in a closet until the two Jakes and Bill returned. He went wild when Minnesota won it all that season, and did again in 1991.

Every year the Mauer boys could be found outside throwing, hitting, running and fielding until the Minnesota winters drove them indoors. Then they would simply move their fun to the basement, where Joe delighted in being the runner in games of Pickle, or as they called it, Hot Box.

Their dad gave them as much baseball tutoring as they could handle. When they had mastered ordinary pitching machines, Jake Jr. invented a new one, which dropped balls right into the strike zone. Joe’s quick, compact left-handed swing can be traced back to this homemade item.

The Mauers excelled at four sports in all—baseball, football, basketball and hockey (and later became cut-throat tennis players and golfers). As they grew and joined youth leagues, they were in-season virtually all year long. In pick-up games, Joe was almost always the youngest player, yet often the first kid picked. He would soon tower over both brothers, standing 6-4.

When Jake, Billy and Joe weren’t playing or practicing, they headed to nearby Griggs Playground, where they often played all four sports during the course of a day. Joe liked to be in the action at all times, so on the diamond he gravitated toward pitching and catching.

One of Joe’s most exciting baseball moments as a fan came in 1996, when the Twins acquired veteran Paul Molitor. Like Joe, Molitor was a product of the St. Paul baseball youth leagues, and an alumnus of Cretin-Derham Hall High School, where Joe was preparing to go. Although Molitor turned 40 that season, he led the AL with 225 hits and a.341 average.

Joe’s real hero in baseball—and everything else, for that matter—was Jake. He walked, talked and dressed like his big brother, who was a high-school baseball star and later a two-time Division III All-American at second base for St. Thomas College in Minnesota. Jake chose St. Thomas so he could be near his little brother.

Joe enrolled at Cretin-Derham in September of 1997 and began working his way up the depth charts to the starting quarterback position. In the spring of 1998, he made the varsity baseball team under coach Jim O’Neill. Joe was a power-hitting catcher who threw darts around the infield and never seemed to get rattled by game situations. Over the next few years, he would become the star of the football, baseball and basketball teams.

In 1999, as a 16-year-old, Joe was selected for an 18-and-under international team, and helped them win a gold medal in Taiwan. He returned to St. Paul as a junior and led Cretin-Derham to the state championship in football.
In the fall of 2000, Joe put together another spectacular year as a senior quarterback. In the playoffs, he tossed seven touchdowns in one game. In the state championship, however, Joe failed to win a second straight title, completing just 14 passes and throwing a pair of ill-timed interceptions in a 24-14 loss to Eden Prairie.

ON THE RISE

After his senior football season, Joe was named National Player of the Year. He signed a letter of intent with Florida State pending the 2001 baseball draft. At FSU, he would have followed in the footsteps of another two-sport star at Cretin-Derham, Chris Weinke, who had just won the Heisman Trophy after dabbling in baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays for several years.

Joe’s senior baseball season was simply magnificent. He batted an even .600 with 15 homers and 53 RBIs. In a game against Washburn played in the Metrodome, Joe hit for the cycle (plus an extra triple) in a 20-0 blowout. most of his offense came in the spring's first 11 games, when he slammed 10 homers. After that, teams wised up and stopped giving him anything to hit.

Joe’s team was in the midst of the postseason when the baseball draft was held. The gem was USC hurler Mark Prior, whom most scouts deemed major league-ready. The Twins wanted Prior, but could not determine what it would take to sign him. Having been burned by other high-profile first-rounders—including Tim Belcher, Travis Lee and Jason Varitek—Minnesota set its sights on high school talent instead, and decided to take Joe, the hometown kid, on the advice of scout Mark Wilson. In the 23rd round, Minnesota also selected Joe’s brother Jake, a star at St. Thomas College.

Meanwhile, with Joe leading the way, Cretin-Derham zeroed in on the state championship. Down 4-1 in the semifinals against Brainerd, Joe blasted a three-run homer to tie the game in the fifth inning, then peeled off his catching gear and took the mound, holding Brainerd scoreless for five innings (and striking out nine batters) until his team manufactured the winning run in the ninth inning. In the final, Joe went 3-for-3 against Mayo High in a 13-2 victory. The Mauers were doubly happy when Jake led St. Thomas to the NCAA’s Division III title.

After Joe inked a $5 million deal with the Twins, the Mauer boys made the journey to Elizabethton of the Rookie-level Appalachian League, where they played under Rudy Hernandez. Joe hit .400 in 32 games, while Jake struggled with a .155 average.

Joe attended his first spring training in 2002 and impressed all of the major leaguers on the big club with his skills. First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz took a ribbing every time Joe did something well, because he wore the same uniform number (16) Joe did in high school. Before Joe was reassigned, Mientkiewicz joked that he would not only put his uniform in Joe’s locker when he was called up, but his house keys and cell phone, too.

For the moment, though, Joe needed to get a couple of full seasons under his belt. He spent the entire '02 campaign playing for the Quad City River Bandits of the Class-A Midwest League. Joe hit .302 to finish in the circuit's Top 10, and was named Prospect of the Year. His numbers would have been better were it not for a hernia that required season-ending surgery in late August.

In 2003, Joe was promoted to Fort Myers of the High-A Florida State League. He tore up FSL pitching, batting .335 in 62 games, and earned a promotion to Double-A New Britain, where he hit .341 in the season’s final 73 contests. In all, Joe logged a .339 average with five homers and 85 RBIs, and threw out half the runners who tried to steal. He led both of his teams to half-season titles, and was named Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year.

MAKING HIS MARK

There was no sense in keeping Joe in the minors any longer. The Twins were coming off two Central Division championships and had a great young pitching staff that included Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, Kyle Lohse and Juan Rincon, as well as veteran Brad Radke. GM Terry Ryan and manager Ron Gardenhire believed Joe could handle these hurlers and traded away incumbent AJ Pierzynski over the winter for three more young arms—Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser.

Starting Joe as a 20-year-old went against baseball wisdom. Since the mid 1960s, only four catchers that young had been handed starting jobs—Ivan Rodriguez, Butch Wynegar, Bob Didier and Johnny Bench.

With a balanced offense anchored by Torii Hunter, Jacque Jones and Justin Morneau, all Joe had to do was stay healthy in 2004. This proved problematic when, on April 7, Joe tore up his left knee going after a foul pop. He returned to the lineup in June but the Twins shut him down in mid-July after swelling returned to the damaged joint. Henry Blanco kept Joe’s spot warm as the Twins won the Central again, but fell to the New York Yankees in the playoffs. Joe finished with a .308 average and six home runs in his lost season—his first coming off Estaban Yan.

Joe returned to full health in 2005 and hit well enough to occupy the third slot in the order for most of the year. He hit .294 with 26 doubles and nine home runs in 489 at-bats, and proved his legs were 100 percent by swiping 13 bases in 14 tries. Joe helped the pitching staff to a respectable 3.71 ERA, but they did not always get the support they needed, and Minnesota finished third in the division behind the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians, with an 83-79 record.

In 2006, the Detroit Tigers surprised everyone by sprinting to a big lead in the Central, and the Twins found themselves in an eight-way scuffle for the Wild Card. Where they would have been without Joe is hard to imagine. Two months into the campaign, Joe had the highest batting average in the majors, hitting above .350. On June 26, Joe had his first five-RBI game. The next day, he postd his first five-hit effort. Earlier in the year, he had reached based four times in five straight games.

Instead of cooling off, Joe continued his torrid pace, flirting with .400 heading into the All-Star break. As the September stretch run began, his average was still hovering around .350, and he remained in the league lead in front of Derek Jeter and Miguel Tejada.

For all the excitement Joe has created in the Twin Cities, he remains a remarkably level-headed guy. What you see on the field is what you get off the field. He hangs out with his family and high school friends, and likes to bowl, play video games and watch DVDs. In other words, he’s boring. Joe's teammates love him, but he is not exactly their first choice for wingman on a boys’ night out.

That’s fine with the Twins. In the crowded and competitive Central, a hard-hitting catcher with his head in the game 24-7 is a godsend—and could easily make the difference between fourth place and first.

JOE THE PLAYER

Though he has drawn comparisons to Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez as a hitter, Joe is different from both. He looks for pitches to drive the other way, but can yank the ball down the rightfield line if worked inside. He stays on the ball a long time, making him a threat to hit .300 every season, and helping him stay out of prolonged slumps.

Joe often recognizes pitches as soon as they leave a pitcher’s hand. As a young hitter, he still gets fooled, but rarely by the same pitch twice. He knows the strike zone, he’ll take a hittable pitch to wait for a better one, and he’s not overly aggressive.

Behind the plate, Joe is a good handler of pitchers and frames pitches well. He gets low behind the plate and moves easily from side to side, which enables to block deliveries in the dirt easier than other catchers. And even as a 20-year-old, he was not afraid to trot out to the mound when he was crossed up on a sign. Joe’s arm and accuracy are already above average, and his quickness and overall athleticism make him hard to bunt on.

On the basepaths, Joe can steal a bag or go first to third, although he sometimes gets a little too adventurous. He is an accomplished bunter, and legged out several hits in 2006 when the defense was playing too deep.

Joe has an advantage as an American League hitter. In the NL, a catcher has to rest on the bench. In the AL, he can get his at bats as a DH. With everyone keeping an eye on the knee—and envisioning a future move to first base—the more rest Joe can get at this early stage of his career, the better.

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