Ever since the phone rang on Tuesday, it’s been a constant rush of activity for Joe Mauer.

The newly elected Baseball Hall of Famer returned home from a trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., at around 9 p.m. on Friday night. By Saturday morning, he was attending TwinsFest where scores of fans were waiting to congratulate the hometown hero.

“It’s been a heck of a week,” Mauer said.

Phone calls and texts have been pouring in from friends and family members — some of whom he talks to on a routine basis, some of whom he hadn’t talked to for about 20 years.

One name he wasn’t quite expecting to pop up on his phone? Wayne Gretzky. Mauer said he has gotten to know the hockey legend a bit over the years and received a congratulations from him this week.

While meeting with the media on Saturday, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli popped in to congratulate Mauer. Mauer’s former manager, Ron Gardenhire, did as well, and Kent Hrbek, another local legend, stopped in to get a ball signed, only to find the pen he had brought with him had run out of ink.

“(I’ve) got a lot of thank yous … ahead of me to start doing,” Mauer said.

A lot of planning, as well.

Mauer will be inducted on July 21 and he has an important speech to write between now and then. He’s had some recent practice with that, preparing a speech for his Twins Hall of Fame induction ceremony last summer, but of course, the scale of this speech will be much grander.

“You get one crack at it and you want to make sure it’s good,” Mauer said. “It’s kind of like (former teammate and hall of famer) Jim (Thome) and the way he approached the game, the amount of work that goes into it. I’ll definitely be practicing leading up, and hopefully I can articulate the words that I want to.”

While he’ll get the full Cooperstown experience in July, he got a little taste of it this week. Mauer visited with Adrián Beltré and Todd Helton, who were also elected last week by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Being there with his family and getting the lay of the land, he said, “was pretty special.”

“When we first arrived to the museum, Adrián Beltré and I were in front of the group and walked into the Plaque Gallery wall, and that’s when it really hit me,” Mauer said. “You could just feel the greatness around you. I looked at Adrián and said, ‘This is pretty awesome, huh?’ You could tell he was feeling the same feelings.”

On his walk around the Plaque Gallery, Mauer made sure to visit Roberto Clemente’s plaque. Others he paid a special visit to included all of St. Paul’s hall of famers — Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield and Jack Morris — and all six players who have been inducted as Twins — Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Bert Blyleven, Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat.

“Being the seventh Twin is pretty special, too,” said Mauer, who wore No. 7 during his career.

In mere months, his engraved likeness will be alongside theirs. In the meantime, Mauer is adjusting to his new reality: life as an (almost) hall of famer.

“The excitement of Twins fans, how happy and excited they are for me — I hear a lot of people are going to make the trek out there,” he said. “I’m excited to share that moment with them.”

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