In high school, I had this classmate who seemed to be good at everything he did.

He was a running back of the football team and ran hurdles well enough to earn a couple of trips to state. He played first chair trumpet and went to All State for choir. He got straight As, was president of the National Honor Society, drove school bus for school activities, was a Homecoming king candidate and well loved by just about everyone in our town.

He's the type of kid you envy but, at the same time, can't help but like.

He's Joe Mauer. OK, not really. I didn't go to Cretin-Derham Hall. But that's what Joe Mauer is: the personification of the kid that does everything well.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports wrote a great column last week, which sums up all of Mauer's amazing talents. Preview:

One of Mauer’s more legendary feats came in 2006 during spring
training. He and a few teammates went to a bowling alley in Ft. Myers,
Fla. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire suggested Mauer buy his own bowling
ball, even though Mauer rarely bowled. That night, he rolled a 265.

“I like the ball,” Mauer says. “I mean, I guess I wasn’t very good to start off.”

It’s like that with everything. Mauer doesn’t golf often. He shoots
about 10 over when he does. He dated a girl for six months a few years
ago. She was Miss USA.

There’s got to be something.

“Maybe he’s not a good housekeeper?” Gardenhire says.

Check it out at http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-mauer070109&prov=yhoo&type=lgns and then join me in glaring a little at Mauer the next time he comes up to bat on Fox Sports North. Glare well. Glare for all the Joe Mauer-type kids in the world.