Star Tribune
At St. Paul’s Nook, fans show love for Joe Mauer’s Hall of Fame election
Bar patrons cheered Tuesday at The Nook restaurant in St. Paul as they got word that Joe Mauer — their neighborhood’s homegrown baseball legend — had been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Highland Park bar and restaurant has a few personal connections to the great former Twins catcher and first baseman. Employees said they have chatted with Mauer over the years when he’s dined there and view him as an inspiration for local youth athletes.
Sam Boor, who does maintenance on the basement bowling alley at The Nook, said he thinks Mauer deserves the hall of fame status and sees his quick induction as extra motivation for local athletes.
“It’s especially great for this community in St. Paul to give a lot of kids confidence to reach for something, to reach for their goals,” said Boor, 21.
Boor said he got to meet his idol, Mauer, through youth club baseball, when former Twins pitching coach Erik Lovdahl brought Boor to Target Field to practice.
“He was very friendly, loves talking to people,” Boor said. “He’s not shy.”.
The Nook sits just across the street from Cretin-Derham Hall High School, where Mauer starred in multiple sports. Mauer grew up a Twins fan and was drafted straight out of high school by the local team. He was the first catcher to win an American League batting title and ended up winning it three times. He won the MVP award in 2009 and never played for another franchise.
Boor and the bar managers also admire Mauer for giving back to the St. Paul community over the years. In recent years he has run the Mauer and Friends Kids Classic, which raises money for Gillette Children’s Hospital and Clinics.
Several bar patrons said they didn’t realize he was getting nominated and just happened to be there, but said it’s great for the community to have another St. Paul player join the Hall of Fame alongside Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield and Jack Morris.
“He’s an awesome baseball player, so it’s great to see someone from this neighborhood actually make it, plus he’s got a huge presence in this neighborhood,” said Stacey Brown, 52, as she sat with a friend at the bar.
Outside The Nook, a plastic target with a baseball is pinned on the building’s second floor, indicating where Mauer once hit a home run from the field across the street, smacking the bar.
Mauer was an acclaimed hitter in the league, and local batting instructors said Tuesday they were thrilled with the award for Mauer. Mike Santi, owner and founder of Hit Club baseball training center in Arden Hills, said batters often look to Mauer’s form to try and perfect their swings.
“People try to emulate what he did, for sure,” he said.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
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Halloween haunted houses are a scary business proposition, operators say
Dentists are pulling healthy and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn