As he recorded a video for MLB Network earlier this year, paying tribute to his good friend and former teammate Joe Mauer, it really started to hit Justin Morneau just how much time the two ballplayers had spent together on and off the field during their days as Twins teammates.

All the hours spent in the batting cage, the dugout, the clubhouse, on the field. All the days riding together to the ballpark, all the flights they spent sitting next to each other. All the rounds of golf and (post-playing career) pick-up hockey games. Heck, they even became roommates for a year.

So even though Morneau has no responsibilities this weekend when Mauer is inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame besides showing up, playing some golf and supporting his friend, he already admitted to having butterflies.

“I can’t even imagine where Joe’s at because I’m starting to get nervous,” Morneau said.

It will be a special weekend for Mauer and his family, obviously, but for Morneau, too, who had a front-row seat for much of Mauer’s career. The two became linked as teammates in Minnesota, nicknamed the “M&M Boys,” as they led the Twins through much of the early 2000s.

That bond was formed shortly after Mauer was drafted. In the fall of 2001, the two of them were down in Fort Myers, Fla., participating in the instructional league — and became fast friends.

Early on, they went to a local sporting goods store to pick up a few things they needed. As Mauer once told the story, ‘the next thing I know, we broke out in a full-blown hockey game in one of the aisles.”

The next spring, when Mauer stepped to the plate, he received an ovation from the Hammond Stadium crowd. Morneau, hitting behind him in the lineup, watched from the on-deck circle.

It took just one at-bat for Morneau to peg Mauer as a future hall of famer.

“He went up there, same thing he always does — took the first pitch,” Morneau said. “Then he hit a bullet up the middle. Another standing ovation, and it was just like, ‘This kid’s got something special.’ ”

Once they both ascended to the majors, the two played together from 2004-13, until Morneau eventually was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Though Mauer finished his career with the Twins in 2018, and Morneau bounced around a bit before retiring after the 2016 season, their bond never wavered.

“We shared so many different ups and downs together and going through injuries and career highlights and losses as a team and all that stuff, I think there’s very few people that can actually relate on that same level, and I think that that’s important for both of us,” Morneau said.

While Morneau wasn’t able to be there when Mauer’s playing career ended — he was on a trip to Iceland at the time and Mauer had not yet said whether the end of the 2018 season would be his final season — he’s ready to see this chapter of his good friend’s career close by being honored among the game’s legends this weekend in Cooperstown.

“He had national attention. But also playing in a smaller market in the middle of the country, I’m not sure he got all the credit that maybe he was due throughout his career, so I think that’s a positive that people are going to be able to reflect and look at his run, especially as a catcher and go, ‘This guy is a first-ballot hall of famer. He deserves to be in here,’ ” Morneau said.

“From St. Paul to the Hall”: the Pioneer Press chronicled the careers of Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Jack Morris and Joe Mauer, and we’ve compiled the best of our coverage into a new hardcover book that celebrates the legendary baseball legacy of Minnesota’s capital city. Order your copy of “From St. Paul to the Hall.”

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