Baby Jesus at the Bat

There's a tongue-in-cheek nickname for Joe Mauer, presumably started by someone at KFAN radio: "Baby Jesus." It was, I think, meant originally as a jab at the local homers who praised Joe Mauer rabidly before he truly proved himself.

The rabid homers may get the last laugh.

I have no dislike for homers, as long as they recognize their own homerism and can separate their own rooting for a player v. actual logical argument. In that regard, I am one myself.

Anyway, young as the season may be, even moreso for Mauer, who missed April due to injury, it is becoming much like the summer of 1977 was for me.

That year, although the Twins contended early, I spent most of the season cheering for one Rodney Cline Carew as he chased a .400 batting average (alas, he finished the season at .388).

Back then, you got 50 televised games, all but about four being road games, and there were no Internets (at least not that everyday folk could use to get everyday information, for all you dweebs who were about to correct me).

A key tool to follow Sir Rodney, then, was the morning newspaper boxscores. Now, with virtually all of the games televised, and the Internet on my lap to provide me more complete boxscores, plus game logs, pitch-by-pitch action, etc., the dynamics of following Mauer's quest to .400 are different, but fun nevertheless.

I admit the Messiah's chase for .400 is likely to end up much the same as Carew in 1977, George Brett in 1980, and Carew again with the Angels in 1983. Below .400, that is. (And yes, Carew had a chase at .400 in 1983, which lasted even longer into the year than '77. You can look it up.)

Tonight, as the Twins try to hold on to their 10-0 lead, Mauer is 2-for-4 with a walk, making him 54-for-130, and bringing his average to .415.

You know the Magic Number the media use to indicate how close a team is to winning their division? I have come up with a Mauer Number.

The Mauer Number is a positive number, a negative number, or zero. Right now it is a plus-five. That means Baby J is batting over .400, and can go hitless in his next five at bats and still be batting .400. A negative number would mean he is batting below .400, and needs to have that number of consecutive hits to get his average back up to .400.

If you need me to explain what a Mauer Number of zero means, please seek remedial reading and/or math coursework as soon as possible.