In 2001, the Minnesota Twins drafted Joe Mauer. Joe Mauer has had such a great career with the Twins since then. So many awards and amazing records that one could consider him a Hall of Famer one day. Some of these awards include 15-year career hitting of .306/.388/.439 with 428 doubles, 143 homers, 923 RBI, and 1018 runs. He won the All-Star MVP six times, five Silver Sluggers and finally three Gold Gloves. He is also the only AL catcher to ever win a batting title and he actually won three.
During Joe Mauer’s final game, his twin daughters, Maren and Emily, met him out at first base before the game started. As they were running into their dad’s arms, there wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium. During the game, Joe received a rousing standing ovation before his first at-bat.
The eighth inning came rolling around and Joe was up to bat again. He pitched an outside corner pitch and hit a double into left field. This was just another amazing double added to his incredible double record. Finally, in the ninth inning of the game, Joe suited up again. This time in his catching gear. Joe was a catcher for the Twins until he switched over to first base because of concussion issues. This was such a great thing for Mauer to do again before he ends his baseball career. He caught one pitch in the ninth inning and never wanted to take off his catching gear after that.
“I’ve got a lot of emotions going on today, and I don’t think it could have gone any better,” Mauer said after the Twins closed their season — and he closed his 15-year major league career, perhaps — with a 5-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox. “You guys saw how important that moment was to me, just to have a chance to put the gear back on.”