It had been 20 years since Joe Mauer had visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Back then, he was a young catcher looking to make his mark in the big leagues. On Thursday, he was there as an equal among baseball’s immortals.
“This is the first time I’ve been back in this room since my rookie year in ’04,” he said.
“It was a different feeling.”
Mauer, Adrian Beltré and Todd Helton received a formal introduction to the place that will bear their likenesses for the rest of time, speaking to members of the media while accompanied by their families.
“I can’t believe I’m here. I don’t even know if I belong here,” Beltré said. “There’s so much history, so many players that you idolized when you were a kid, and even guys that you played against that you couldn’t even imagine how good they were.”
The trio learned on Tuesday that they were heading to Cooperstown, with Beltré and Mauer clearing the necessary 75% voting threshold from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on their first ballot and Helton making it on his sixth try.
Even two days later, the reality of being a Hall-of-Famer has taken some getting used to.
“When we saw the caller ID say ‘Cooperstown,’ I said, ‘This is it. This is real. It’s happening.’ It was a surreal moment,” Beltré said. “It’s been so crazy the last 40 hours that it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
“I don’t think it’s sunk in to me, either,” Helton said. “It’s such a huge honor. I think I’ll totally feel it when I see some of the older guys that I really looked up to and dreamt someday that I would be like them.”
“I’d say right now, it’s starting to sink in, in this room,” Mauer said with a smile. “But I don’t think I’ll fully grasp that until time goes on.”
One of the finest third basemen of all time, Beltré was a slam-dunk first ballot selection, receiving more than 95% of votes cast.
A four-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glove winner and four-time Silver Slugger, Beltré is one of only 12 players with at least 400 home runs (477) and 3,000 hits (3,166).
He played 21 seasons for the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox. Beltré helped lead the Rangers to the 2011 American League pennant and was an MVP finalist in 2004 with the Dodgers and 2012 with the Rangers.
Beltré is also the fifth Dominican player to be elected to the Hall of Fame, following in the footsteps of countrymen Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero and David Ortiz.
Beltré singled out Marichal as the one name that stood out when visiting the plaque gallery.
“Every corner here is impressive, but the one that I was glad to see and shocked to see was Juan Marichal,” he said. “Being a little kid from the Dominican, that was the first big name that I heard in baseball and the first big leaguer that I thought was like a god to us in the Dominican. Everything you heard was about Juan Marichal growing up and I remember every kid trying to equal his famous leg kick.
“There is big pride,” Beltré added about representing the Dominican Republic. “I know there are going to be a lot coming, especially with [Albert] Pujols coming soon.”
Mauer and Helton are among the increasingly-rare group of players entering the Hall of Fame having played their entire careers with one team, the Minnesota Twins and Colorado Rockies, respectively.
Mauer’s connection with the Twins was especially strong as a native Minnesotan where he was a high school superstar in multiple sports.
“I always felt that we had a chance to win there,” he said about playing for the Twins. “Every day I would go in along with my teammates and try to do that, to be the best version of myself.
“It’s a special place, a special community and I am happy to be a part of it.”
Mauer joins Chipper Jones, Ken Griffey Jr. and Harold Baines as the only first overall draft picks to make it to the Hall of Fame.
Taken number one in the 2001 Draft, Mauer spent all 15 years of his big league career in the Twin Cities, compiling a career .306 batting average and 2,123 hits.
The premier hitting catcher of his generation, he collected three batting titles, three Gold Gloves, five Silver Sluggers, made six All-Star Game appearances and was the 2009 American League MVP.
Helton joins Larry Walker as just the second Colorado Rockies player to enter Cooperstown.
“A lot of things had to go right,” he said about spending his entire career in one place. “Obviously contracts and money plays into all of that… You bite your tongue a little bit and you go out and you play hard every day. You try to make the team better and you lead, and if they want you there, great.
“I am so happy that I got to play my whole career in Colorado, where I love the town and I love the people. I was very lucky to get drafted by them.”
In 17 years in the majors, Helton recorded 2,519 hits, 369 home runs, 1,406 RBI and finished with a career .316 batting average.
A five-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner at first base and four-time Silver Slugger, Helton won the 2000 National League batting title with a .372 average.
He had six consecutive 30-home run seasons from 1999-2004 and would go on to lead the Rockies to their only World Series appearance in 2007.
The trio of inductees will join former manager Jim Leyland for the 2024 Induction Ceremony at the Clark Sports Center on Sunday, July 21.