Joe Mauer Retires...

The news just came across MLB Trade Rumors that Joe Mauer has retired.

Which kind of stopped me in my tracks. 

That chapter of Twins history has ended. 

And I guess I haven't been fair to Joe Mauer over the years...

That Mauer announced his retirement is hardly a shock. Twins fans knew it was coming, with how he wrapped up the final game of the Twins season. Much to everyone's surprise, Mauer came out in full catchers gear to start the 9th inning. After catching 1 pitch from Matt Belisle, Mauer left the game. Likely the final appearance for Mauer as a player.

A dusty Mauer McFarlane sits between stacks of Twins Albums. The final layout of New Baseballcardland, has yet to determine plastic Mauer's permanent home...

Just as I had collected nearly every #1 Overall Pick, since the late 1980's, collecting the Twins shot at #1 Overall was a no brainer. I started buying Mauer cards as soon as they hit the market after his drafting...

A 2002 Bowman Chrome Joe Mauer autograph was determined to be a key need for my collection, back in late 2005. I picked this one up at Twins Fest, in January 2006. Which set me back $80, with no home town discount. Much like a certain contract in Mauer's future...

This scan is awful, but the real card is quite nice...

Topps was putting Mauer in a prominent role in advertising their Bowman line in 2002. And the collector in me was excited. I couldn't recall any Twins prospect gaining this sort of publicity, (Not even David McCarty!) and from the numbers he put up in the low levels of the minor leagues, Mauer was justifying that hype...

So much that I even dropped a significant chunk of change for that advertised box of 2002 Bowman's Best, in hopes of getting that flavor of Mauer autographed draft pick card.

Which I didn't...

The Becketts even shined a spotlight on Mauer, who was already being picked to carry the next wave of Twins teams into all kinds of playoff success and world titles. Those should come streaming in during the course of Mauer's career. Any minute now...

Over those years, Mauer would become the featured Twins player in all the big insert sets. I actually had pretty good luck pulling Mauer cards as the "box hit"...

I pulled this Future Fibers card out of a box of 2003 Bowman, right after the set was released.

Mauer always had high expectations in my book, and likely could have never lived up to what the press, the hobby and myself had attached to him.

In his second game with the Twins, in April 2004, Mauer injured his knee and missed almost two months. He came back and played for another month before missing the rest of the season with a torn meniscus.

Questions were immediately raised weather the (then) 21 year old catcher would be able to play the position, or would the demands on his body force a move elsewhere on the diamond...

For a while, Mauer proved the doubters wrong, and quickly became the best catcher in baseball. Mauer's years at catcher were awesome and I figured he'd be an all time great...

I still remember picking up this issue of Sports Illustrated with cover boy Mauer, at the 7-11 in Englewood, on my way home from work one morning in 2009. They foisted the lofty prediction of Mauer becoming the next player to hit .400. Realistically, he couldn't even help lead the Twins past the first round of the playoffs...

Then, there was the contract...

In order to keep Mauer in Minnesota, away from the dastardly Yankees and Red Sox (both of whom were drooling at the chances of signing Mauer to a massive contract), the Twins signed him to an 8 year, $184 million deal. Pretty much ensuring that Mauer could spend his entire career with the Twins if he wanted to.

But he couldn't live up to the expectations of that contract. A series of concussions and other injuries took away much of the promise Mauer showed over the first six years of his career. And that's where my criticisms of Joe really took off. I was very critical as how the results of committing to that kind of obligation affected the Twins organization over it's life. Though realistically, I point a finger more at years of overall mismanagement, than solely blaming Mauer for this current stretch of poor quality baseball coming out of Target Field...

For years, I've felt that Mauer stubbornly played the game his way, refusing to adapt to add more power to his game. What he did accomplish was great (once you stack all of the numbers together), but my opinion was that he became complacent in his hitting style, and wasn't developing the rest of his game. Add that viewpoint to the school of thought that his $23 million a year contract was hampering the Twins for spending money in other areas to improve the team.

You know, I'd like to see an occasional home run instead of a weak dribbler to shortstop for the money he was getting paid.

But that's just my opinion.

It's not like the Twins were going to trade him... 

Like MLB The Show for PS3 did, sending Mauer to the Toronto Blue Jays after the simulated 2013 season...

As for me, I will still collect Mauer cards. 

Even terrible Topps ideas like Photoshopping Snoopy -of all things- on Mauer's 2014 Topps card. I get it, Topps loves it's gimmicks. But couldn't they have found a higher resolution Snoopy that was at least sharp and clear?

So that's that... 

I hadn't intended on writing a Mauer post at this point, so I hadn't prepared new scans and images. I just went with what I already had set aside.

I am anxious to see what the Twins do next season once they are free of that yearly $23 million obligation.

I also will miss Mauer on the Twins. For all the jabs I've taken at him over the years, his place in the lineup has been a constant for the last 15 seasons.

Now who will hit all of those infuriating weak dribblers to an infielder that will drive me insane during games?

Who will be my next overrated scapegoat to blame for the team's failed expectations due to poor production and laziness?

I may have a new target...