NEW YORK — Joe Mauer sat behind a table on a podium in a conference room at the Metrodome when Justin Morneau shouted out the last question of the day.
“Are you finally going to buy dinner now?” Morneau said to his teammate from the audience, one MVP to another.
Mauer became only the second catcher in 33 years to win the American League MVP Award, finishing first in a near-unanimous vote Monday.
The Minnesota Twins star received 27 of 28 first-place votes and 387 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Mauer became the second Twins player to win in four years, following Morneau in 2006.
Mauer set a major-league record for highest batting average by a catcher and won his third batting title, becoming the first repeat batting champion since Nomar Garciaparra in 1999-00.
“I love catching. I love the demands that are put on me and the responsibilities that I have, although it might beat you up a little bit physically and mentally,” Mauer said. “I like being back there making those decisions, you know, for my team.”
After missing April with a back injury, Mauer homered on his first swing of the season and went on to lead the AL in batting average (.365), on-base percentage (.444) and slugging percentage (.587), the first AL player to top all three categories in the same season since George Brett in 1980.
Mauer set career bests with 28 homers and 96 RBIs. He had more walks (76) than strikeouts (63) and batted .378 from Sept. 13 on after Morneau’s season-ending back injury, helping the Twins overtake Detroit for the AL Central title. He was voted to his third all-star team and won his second straight AL Gold Glove.
Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 had been the only catcher since Thurman Munson in 1976 to win the AL MVP.
