Minnesota Twins player Joe Mauer former acknowledges the crowd during Mauer's number retirement ceremony before the start of a game against the Kansas City Royals at Target Field in 2019. David Berding-Imagn Images

Vice Presidential Candidate Makes Interesting Claim About Minnesota Twins Legend in Interview

Originally posted on Fastball on SI | By Brady Farkas | Last updated Oct 29, 2024 12:45 PM ET

With one week to go until Election Day, Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates are making their last rounds on the campaign trail.

On the Democratic side, Vice Presidential selection Tim Walz of Minnesota recently appeared on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stu Gotz.

And in a clip that was shared by the show on Tuesday, Walz ended up talking a little baseball with regards to his hometown Minnesota Twins.

"He's a Hall of Famer at catcher. He's a Hall of Famer at first base. Can they put him in twice?"

@Tim_Walz bites on @StuGotz790s's Joe Mauer take about not being a first ballot Hall of Famer.

"He's a Hall of Famer at catcher. He's a Hall of Famer at first base. Can they put him in twice?" @Tim_Walz bites on @stugotz790's Joe Mauer take about not being a first ballot Hall of Famer.

WATCH: https://t.co/JclBS8PeA9 pic.twitter.com/4CoRCSQb8V
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) October 29, 2024

Alright, so let's break this down piece-by-piece. Stu Gotz says that he thinks Mauer is a Hall of Famer, but he disagrees with him being voted in on the first ballot. That's not an unpopular take, as several people around election time last year felt the same way.

Mauer was a very productive player, hitting .306 for his career, and he played 15 years. However, only about nine of them were truly Hall of Fame worthy (2005-2013).

As a catcher, Walz is right. Mauer was among the top players at the position for the entirety of those nine years. He made the All-Star team six times in that run, won three Gold Glove Awards and three batting titles. He also won the MVP Award in 2009.

However, for Walz to insinuate that Mauer is ALSO a Hall of Famer at first base? That's not correct. Mauer played 603 career games at first base, and was mostly a first baseman between 2014-2018. In those five seasons, he never won a Gold Glove Award, never made an All-Star team and never received an MVP vote.

In those years, he hit .278 and only had 38 home runs.

Now, the whole conversation was probably more fun than serious, but we take all baseball claims serious, so we had to investigate.

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