St. Paul-born and raised Twins alumnus Joe Mauer inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

COOPERSTOWN, New York – He’s known as a man of few words, but on Sunday Joe Mauer shared his lifelong gratitude and memories when he was officially inducted into the Major League Hall of Fame.

Mauer was a high school phenom in both football and baseball at St. Paul. He was named USA Today’s High School Player of the Year in football in 2000 and baseball in 2001.

He was selected first overall in the 2001 MLB Draft by his hometown Twins.

“It was really an honor to be (Minnesota Twin) and represent my hometown team,” Mauer said.

The future six-time All-Star catcher played only three years in the minor leagues before spending his entire 15-year major league career with the Twins.

Mauer finished his career with one Most Valuable Player award, three batting titles and is the only catcher in history with at least 2,000 hits, a .300 batting average and a .380 hitting percentage.

Mauer expressed how touched he was to see so many Minnesota fans all weekend.

“It’s not easy coming to Cooperstown, especially with what’s happened this past week,” he said. “But seeing so many Twins fans there, I felt the love and I just hoped I could give the speech that I wrote down.”

Adrian Beltré, Jim Leyland and Todd Helton were also inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Beltré led this year’s class with 95.1 percent of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote in his first year on the ballot. Helton followed with 79.7 percent of the vote in his sixth year of eligibility, and Mauer received 76.1 percent of the BBWAA vote in his first year.

Other players on the ballot this year who failed to reach the 75% threshold were Billy Wagner (73.8%), Gary Sheffield (63.9%), Andruw Jones (61.6%), Carlos Beltrán (57.1%), Alex Rodriguez (34.8%), Manny Ramirez (32.5%), Chase Utley (28.8%), Omar Vizquel (17.7%), Bobby Abreu (14.8%), Jimmy Rollins (14.8%), Andy Pettitte (13.5%), Mark Buehrle (8.3%), Francisco Rodriguez (7.8%), Torii Hunter (7.3%), David Wright (6.2%), José Bautista (1.6%), Victor Martinez (1.6%), Bartolo Colon (1.3%), Matt Holliday (1%), Adrián González (0.8%), Brandon Phillips (0.3%), Jose Reyes (0%) and James Shields (0%).

Sheffield was on the ballot for the 10th time without reaching 75% and is no longer eligible for BBWAA consideration. Bautista, Martinez, Colon, Holliday, González, Phillips, Reyes and Shields did not receive the minimum required 5% of the vote and are also no longer eligible for BBWAA consideration.

Joe Castiglione and Gerry Fraley were also honored during Hall of Fame weekend. Castiglione, a 42-season Boston Red Sox radio host, received the Ford C. Frick Award. Fraley was posthumously honored with the BBWAA Career Excellence Award for his work as a writer. During his career, Fraley covered the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers and worked as a national baseball reporter for the Dallas Morning News.