Joe Mauer: “I Got This”

After catching all 10 innings of the Minnesota Twins’ 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of their doubleheader, Joe Mauer isn’t about take it easy and be a DH in Game 2.

In a surprising move, Mauer will be catching Game 2 of the doubleheader tonight. According to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Mauer’s words to Manager Ron Gardenhire in regards to catching the second game “I got this.”

Mauer, quite simply is the Chuck Norris of catching.

I love this. In the biggest series of the season, the best player on either team is going beyond expectations in order to win. There is no price on that level of committment

I said surprising move before because it’s very rare that a catcher will catch both games of a doubleheader. But if anyone knows Mauer, there was no way he was going to “just” DH in this series. He knows he has to be out there on defense too in order for the Twins to win this series from the Tigers.

Now I will fully admit I never saw Johnny Bench play and I only saw Carlton Fisk and Gary Carter at the end of their careers. My dad used to call Carter “pop up Gary” back in 1988 when he sucked it up against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.

Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Piazza were great, but Mauer is just on another level right now. We should all appreciate what we are witnessing with Mauer.

When it’s all said and done he might be the greatest all-around catcher we have ever seen.

And by the way, if I were the VP of Marketing for the Twins, this would be my slogan for the rest of the season. I would already have 100,000 shirts made up that say “I got this” and I would have already put that on all the homer hankies that should be given out against the Kansas City Royals this weekend.

This is such a no-brainer. Make it happen Twins. Make it happen!!!