Jake Mauer has suggested to his grandson Joe that he change positions, move from catcher to third base. The conversation came up because of Joe’s inflammation in the sacroiliac joint and weeks of suffering that sidelined him during spring training.
No position is physically more demanding than catcher. Crouching and contorting the body at different angles isn’t easy, particularly so for a big body like the 6-5 Mauer. Then, too, Mauer has a history of ailments with the Twins that have kept the 25-year-old out of the lineup. His All-Star career has been defined by two American League batting championships, but also physical problems like a quadriceps injury and the painful back that forced the Twins to place him on the 15 day disabled list last week.
Jake looks at Joe’s athleticism, including his strong arm, and sees a fit at third base. “He said, ‘Oh,Grandpa, if I can’t play catcher I don’t want to play baseball.’ I said, ‘You’re kidding me.’ He said, ‘That’s it.’ ”
Jake predicts Joe will return to the Twins by the third week of the season, after readying himself in the minors. He said Joe hit the ball off a tee for the first time in a long while late last week.
Medicine prescribed by Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has lessened Joe’s pain and his flexibility has improved. “It’s done a miracle for him,” Jake said.
Even last week Joe couldn’t run but that’s an improvement over what Jake saw in late February before his grandson went to Johns Hopkins to meet with doctors. “He was just like an old man of 85, just shuffling along,” Jake said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Joe has been through physical aches and pain, but there’s additional hurt and that’s the emotional side of missing spring training and the start of the season. “He’s going out of his mind,” Jake said. “He’s a low key guy anyhow but he can’t believe that he can see all the ball players and he can’t do nothing about it. He would like to join right in. He said ‘Grandpa, it’s just murder with me. It eats my inside out. …”
No one believes more in Joe, nor perhaps knows him better, than his grandfather who helped groom him even as a pre-schooler. Jake was asked if Joe, who missed almost two months of the 2004 season and about one month in 2007, is injury prone. “I don’t know,” Jake said. “I really don’t know. …”