Joe Mauer and Me

Sioux Falls doesn't have many exciting things happen to it... for example, people here are really worked up over the fact that some comedians who are frequently on "Bob and Tom in the Morning" will be performing here next weekend.

However, one cool thing did in fact happen today: some Minnesota Twins dropped by the Children's Care Center where I have been taking data for a project with which I am involved.

Now the first two guys out of the bus were Jesse Crain (some random reliever) and Terry Tiffel (an even more obscure and random infielder). However, the last guy was the motherlode (well, at least close to it since it wasn't Johan Santana):

Joe Mauer.

For those of my readers who don't know who this is, he is the former #1 pick of the 2001 draft (although he would have been #2 if Mark Prior had not threatened the Twins in order to fall to the Cubs at #2). He is a rising stud... even though injuries limited his play in his rookie season last year to 35 games, he still hit .308 and smacked 6 homers in 107 at bats. Not bad, especially for a catcher.

Anyway, I was able to snag Joe's autograph and get a picture with him:

Yeah, the dude is quite large... and very nice. I pixelated my face to preserve my semi-annonymous status (it wasn't a good picture of me anyways).