MAMA History

As my brother and I debated about the relative merits of various candidates, we glanced over to see my mother, loyal Minnesotan that she is, punching out every Twin on the Ballot. Kent Hrbek was having a solid year, and Bruno was pretty hot - we couldn't argue too much about that. Then the moment that will forever be remembered in MAMA folklore - our mother voted for Tim Laudner as an All-Star catcher. Yes, THAT Tim Laudner, the one who was hitting about .170 at the time and was only in the Big Leagues because Dave Engle had not yet been groomed into the next Sal Butera.

Well, needless to say my brother and I rather enjoyed speculating on the prospects of Tim being elected. We enjoyed the prospect so much, that we dubbed him with a new nickname - Tim "All-Star" Laudner. Now if you're any kind of Twins' fan, you should be saying - wait a minute, Laudner DID become an All-Star, didn't he? Experts are entitled to their opinions, but for my money the greatest moment in the history of baseball came in 1988 when Tom Kelly made Tim Laudner the backup catcher for the American League All Star team.

With our fantasy fullfilled, and our nickname validated, we had to move on to bigger and better dreams for Tim. We changed his nickname to Tim "Hall-of-Fame" Launder and awaited the inevitable call from Cooperstown.

Of course, we all know that the call never came. Maybe it was that anti-Minnesota bias that plagues us with referees and Presidential elections, but Cooperstown overlooked Tim's accomplishments. After years of waiting, my brother and I decided that we had to take matters into our own hands.

So on February 29, 1992, the MAMA Hall of Fame was founded with Tim Laudner as one of its inaugural members. Its our hope that through MAMA the memories of Tim and other atheletes like him will live on forever in Minnesota sports folklore.

- Mark Salzwedel

President, Minnesota Assembly of Mediocre Atheletes