Twins' Morneau, Mauer are a big hit

Mel Antonen
USA Today

BALTIMORE -- The hottest young hitters in baseball are also best of friends.

Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins are former roommates who barbecue, play golf and organize the team's ping-pong tournaments. They are also both former Rochester Red Wings.

And Sunday night, after the Twins' home game against Texas, Mauer has plans to host Morneau's 24th birthday party at "Hotel Joe," his St. Paul condo.

"We have a couple of gift certificates, so we are going to go out for dinner," Mauer says. "We will probably embarrass him somehow at the restaurant."

Mauer, 22, a catcher, and first baseman Morneau are examples of how the Twins have combined player development with a restrictive payroll and turned into a contender.

Mauer, a first-round draft pick in 2001, is the reason the Twins could trade catcher A.J. Pierzynski last season to San Francisco for closer Joe Nathan, who turned out to be an All-Star.

Morneau, a third-round pick in 1999, hit .306 with 22 home runs for Rochester last season and became Minnesota's regular first baseman after the Twins traded Doug Mientkiewicz to Boston. That allowed them to re-sign free agent Brad Radke, one of their aces.

The Twins (20-13), trailing the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central by 4 1/2 games entering Thursday's games, have the fourth-best record in the AL. It's fair to say the Twins aren't going to contend for a fourth consecutive division title without production from Mauer and Morneau, who hit No. 3 and No. 4 in the lineup.

Repeating the past

Twins fans hope the future looks like the past with Mauer-Morneau invoking memories of Harmon Killebrew-Tony Oliva in the 1960s and Kirby Puckett-Kent Hrbek in the 1980s. "It's no secret that in this market we have to develop players," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays found that out. Last weekend in the Twins' three-game sweep at Tampa Bay, Mauer and Morneau were 12-for-19 (.639).

Mauer, a left-handed batter, went into Tuesday night at Baltimore 12-for-25 with five RBI in his last six games.

Morneau, also a left-hander, went 23-for-53 with six home runs and 19 RBI in his first 14 games since being hit in the head with a 90 mph fastball by Seattle Mariners lefty Ron Villone on April 6.

Morneau went to the disabled list and then to Florida to rehabilitate and get used to standing in against lefties.

"I'm thinking about getting hit in the head and then going to Florida," Mauer says.

It's unusual for a team that has won three consecutive division titles to be counting on two young players to carry them.

"They are amazing to watch," DH Matthew LeCroy says. "They don't swing at many bad pitches, and they crush a pitcher's mistake."

Outfielder Shannon Stewart said that the Twins, because of their laid-back approach, is the ideal situation for Mauer and Morneau to learn the league and play for a contender.

"They don't have anything to be nervous about. If you make a mistake, we know we are going to be all right.

"Sometimes, we laugh and have fun with mistakes. Sometimes, you see young flashy players with style and say, 'Here we go, this cat wears sunglasses,' but these guys just play and fit it. They're comfortable."

Early developer

Mauer was a Twins fan growing up in St. Paul. He was 8 when the Twins won the World Series in 1991, and when his family got four tickets to Game 6 at the Metrodome, his parents said that he was too young to go. His two brothers went with an aunt and uncle, and he watched on TV.

"But I missed the first couple of innings because I was so worked up," Mauer said.

A three-sport athlete at Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Mauer was All-State in basketball and was USA Today Player of the Year in both baseball and football. He signed with Florida State as a quarterback.

Mauer played three minor-league seasons and became the Twins' starting catcher last season.

He hit a single in his first big-league game, but then injured his left knee and finished playing 35 games. He hit .316 in a five-game rehabilitation stint with Rochester.

He knew his injury was history after he caught back-to-back games in spring training. Mauer does a few daily exercises with his knee, and he ices it after games.

"It feels normal," he says.

Playing hurt

Morneau grew up in New Westminster, British Columbia, and began playing backyard baseball with his older brother, Geordie, and his father, George, who used to work with disturbed children and now loads beer in delivery trucks. By age 3, Morneau was hitting plastic balls over the roof of the house.

Justin played hockey, basketball and baseball and followed the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners. He likes to hunt moose and deer and fish for trout. He was on the same high school team as Colorado pitcher Jeff Francis.

The Twins drafted Morneau as a catcher. After he signed at age 18, he came to the Metrodome and took batting practice with a wooden bat and showed explosive power, driving pitches into the upper deck in right field. The Twins switched Morneau to the outfield and then first base. Manager Ron Gardenhire says he's making big strides defensively, in learning hitters and scooping balls. "He's not a day-dreamer out there," Gardenhire says.

Last season, after joining the Twins in a division race, Morneau hit 17 home runs in the final 2 1/2 months. In the off-season, he had a list of medical problems.

First, he had his appendix removed. Then, he had chicken pox, a lung infection and two weeks of pneumonia before coming to spring training.

Then, in the third game of the season at Seattle, he got drilled with Villone's fastball. He's had previous head injuries that have landed him in the hospital.

As a 13-year-old hockey goalie, he got hit with a skate. Later, in a high school basketball game, he wound up having a head examination after taking a hard knee. And, as a baseball player in 2000, his legs got tangled, and he injured his head when it slammed into the ground.

After the Villone incident, Morneau was dizzy with headaches for a week, but eventually, they went away. Morneau, who is 6-foot-4 with big arms and curly blonde hair, made his return in Detroit against Tigers lefty Mike Maroth. He popped up in his first at-bat and hit a double in his second. In the ninth, he hit a game-tying home run against closer Troy Percival.

Morneau has a .411 batting average. He doesn't like to talk about his success and doesn't worry about where the Twins are in the standings.

"I learned last year that it's a long season and things can turn around quickly," he says. "Look at Cleveland. They were a game out (in mid-August) and how many games out did they finish? All I want to do is make the playoffs."