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.
Transforming the heart of both downtowns, which have much larger buildings than old warehouses, is going to take a lot more money, creativity and time. Josh Talberg, managing director at downtown Minneapolis brokerage JLL, said with no major apartment buildings on the drawing board in either downtown, the fleet of empty office buildings present a golden opportunity to create more housing and lead both cities in a new direction.
“You can can certainly see the fundamentals improving, and you can feel that vibrancy, and that’s ultimately the foundation that’s needed to get investors to reinvest in the city,” he said. “But it’s not as if these 18-wheelers can turn on a dime.”
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.
