Fastball

Joe Mauer Becomes First Player in the History of the Four Major Sports to Accomplish this Specific Feat

Former Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday night, officially making him the only player in the history of MLB/NHL/NFL/NBA to accomplish this very specific feat.

Brady Farkas

Joe Mauer Becomes First Player in the History of the Four Major Sports to Accomplish this Specific Feat
Joe Mauer Becomes First Player in the History of the Four Major Sports to Accomplish this Specific Feat /
In this story:

Former Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday night as he earned 76.1 percent of the vote.

Mauer joins Adrian Beltre in this year's class as guys who are going into the Hall on the first ballot. They will be going into Cooperstown alongside manager Jim Leyland and former Colorado Rockies' first baseman Todd Helton. For Helton, it was his sixth year on the ballot.

In Mauer's case, his election into the Baseball Hall of Fame puts him into a very specific class of sports history.

Per @OptaSTATS on social media:

Joe Mauer of the @Twins is the first player in MLB/NBA/NFL/NHL history to be drafted No. 1 overall by a team from his birth state/province, play 15+ seasons for that team and reach the Hall of Fame.

Mauer, who was born in St. Paul, played for the Twins from 2004-2018. It's been a banner calendar year for Mauer, as was also elected into the Twins' Hall of Fame this past summer.

He was a lifetime .306 hitter with 143 home runs. He was named an All-Star six times, won three Gold Gloves, three batting titles and an MVP award. He paired with Justin Morneau and Johan Santana to make one of the best trios in organizational history.

He also got to the playoffs four times with the Twins, appearing in postseasons in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2017. The Twins were knocked out by the Yankees in three of those four years, losing to Oakland in the other.

Follow Fastball on FanNation on social media

Continue to follow our Fastball on FanNation coverage on social media by LIKING us on Facebook and by following us on Twitter @FastballFN.You can also subscribe to "The Payoff Pitch" podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Published
Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

Home/History