Joe Mauer is Retiring and Twins Baseball Will Never be the Same

By Eric Strack |

Updated: Nov 9, 2018

PHOTO: Brace Hemmelgarn/Getty Images

PHOTO: Brace Hemmelgarn/Getty Images

Well, it looks like the end has officially come for our hometown baseball hero:

BREAKING: Joe Mauer will officially retire from @MLB and #MNTwins after 15 seasons. Story up from @LaVelleNeal and @MillerStrib https://t.co/sXzo3xkegF pic.twitter.com/cvBTf0E6tY

— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) November 9, 2018

The Star Tribune broke the story minutes ago. Here are a couple of quotes taken from Joe’s retirement announcement:

“After much consideration I have decided to retire from playing baseball,” he wrote in his retirement announcement. “The decision came down to my health and my family. The risk of concussion is always there, and I was reminded of that this season after missing over 30 games as a result of diving for a foul ball.

“Thank you, Minnesota Twins, and thank you, fans, for making my career as special and memorable as it was. Because of you I can leave the game I love with a full and grateful heart.”

There were some other interesting little tidbits mentioned in the above article. Joe said he entered last season planning to play until at least 2020. Maybe he had mentioned that somewhere before but that’s the first time I had seen it. However, concussion symptoms springing up again last season put an end to those plans and he’s deciding to hang it up now.

It’s a bitter-sweet moment. Joe Mauer’s professional career has run parallel with my own coming of age. He hit the major league scene in 2004, when I was just getting my driver’s license. He came into his prime as I was graduating high school in 2007. He won his MVP in 2009 when I was in the middle of my college shit show of a career. I’ll never forget his fair ball that was called foul. The one that brought the replay to MLB for good.

When Joe Mauer was going through his contract negotiations after his MVP season, I set my first push notifications on Twitter. He helped bring me into the modern age.

I’ve never been one of the Joe Mauer haters. The guy earned all of the money we paid him before he even made the money. He won an MVP. It’s too bad we couldn’t put a legitimate team behind him enough. He would’ve made for a lot of hits that we would never have forgotten. Unfortunately, we can blame the Twins organization and ownership for the downfalls there…again.

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But, Joe never complained. I can’t even imagine him complaining about anything. He’s a classic good guy. Almost too much so.

We’ll never forget your sweet swing, Joe. Now that you’re retired, you can come up with another hitting device that can help turn my 7-month-old son into you. Get on that.