A new city. A new team.

And one step closer to reaching the dream.

Former Tommie Jake Mauer is the new manager of the Chattanooga Lookouts baseball team, a Double-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.

“I was pretty excited for the opportunity and looking forward to it,” Mauer said. “I have a passion for baseball. When you make a living doing what you love, it doesn’t really feel like work.”

The 38-year-old has spent 10 years coaching in lower-level teams in the Twins’ minor league organization. Prior to the Lookouts, Mauer managed in the Gulf Coast and Florida State leagues and most recently with Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League. The Cedar Rapids Kernels posted winning records all four seasons under Mauer’s management and finished a combined 75 games over .500 during the regular season.

With a new team comes a new set of challenges, for which Mauer said he is ready.

“It’s a different type of player that I’m going to be dealing with. These guys are older and a little closer to the major leagues than the guys that I had in Cedar Rapids.”

The Lookouts have been successful over the last few years, claiming the league title two years ago. But the team’s success does not intimidate Mauer. Instead he is focused on his new role.

“We obviously would like to win some ballgames but more importantly we want to get guys prepared and ready to play up here in Minnesota.” Mauer said. “That’s our main job, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with winning a few ballgames, too.”

Mauer, along with his now-famous brother and Twins player Joe, was introduced to baseball at an early age; with Griggs Park just down the road from his childhood home the game soon became his favorite pastime.

“We would spend all day down there just playing,” Mauer said.

His grandfather played in the major leagues, so it only made sense that baseball was in his genes.

The St. Paul native went on to attend Cretin Derham Hall where he was a member of the 1996 and 1997 baseball State Championship teams.

Baseball brought Mauer to the University of St. Thomas, an extension of his backyard, where he would be a four-year starter, play in all 148 games in his last three seasons and help lead the Tommies to a national championship in 2001.

Then-coach Dennis Denning was a major factor in Mauer’s decision to play ball at St. Thomas. He said he “couldn’t have been happier or more excited” to play baseball for Denning, a former Cretin coach.

“Jakey was the most coachable, most likeable, but yet kind of a quiet kid too … he was head and heels above everybody as far his mental outlook of the game,” Denning recalled. “He made all the players around him way better. That is a sign of a really good athlete.”

Mauer played in the NCAA College World Series three out of his four-year career. In 1999 and 2000 the Tommies knocked on the door of the championship, until Mauer helped St. Thomas baseball win its first-ever national title.

“Three consecutive years of National Championship games and then to finally win that my senior year was probably the icing on the cake,” Mauer said.

His senior year, Mauer batted .449 and held the school record with 84 hits and a team-best 58 RBI; he was selected as the 2001 MIAC co-player of the year.

He finished his career at St. Thomas holding the record in hits (243), runs (181) and games (187). He was errorless in the final 17 games (82 chances) in the 2001 season and committed only one error in 40 career postseason games in 223 chances.

Current St. Thomas baseball coach and former teammate Chris Olean said Mauer was a very knowledgeable baseball player who “did everything right.”

“He was an outstanding defensive second baseman and he could really handle the bat … improved each year he was here,” Olean said.

Mauer was inducted into the St.Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.

On June 6, 2001, the Minnesota Twins selected the two time Division III All-American second baseman as their first pick in the 23rd round of the MLB draft.

Mauer would spend the next five season in the Twins’ farm system where he was eventually joined by his brothers Billy and Joe.

“Those three years (playing with his brothers) were probably some of my best memories going through the minor leagues,” Mauer said.

And as expected, a little friendly sibling rivalry encouraged improvement.

“They aren’t going to sugar-coat it. They are going to tell you what they think. If you stunk that day, they let you know and if you were pretty good that day, they would still tell you you stunk,” Mauer said.

An elbow injury to his ulna nerve ended his minor league run in 2006.

“My dream and goal was obviously always to make it to the major leagues as a player and unfortunately, physically, I just couldn’t do it at that point,” Mauer said.

And from that moment his path changed.

Mauer said he had signed a coaching contract not five minutes after being released.

“It was kind of a whirlwind, to be honest with you,” Mauer said. “I went right from the player’s side of the clubhouse, brought all my stuff to the coach’s side, and then came in the next morning, had a different uniform and I was on the coaching side.”

Ten years have past since he retired his player’s cleats, and Mauer still hopes to make it to the majors, but this time as a coach.

“It’s still a goal for me, hopefully to reach the major leagues one day and if it’s with the Minnesota Twins … that would be outstanding,” he said.

Denning said his former player “has all of the qualifications to be a successful major league manager.”

Carolyn Meyer can be reached at cameyer@stthomas.edu.