The speech is done, all written. Joe Mauer’s career and lifetime in baseball has been distilled into words by the man himself, and the St. Paul legend will read them to the masses on Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Now, perhaps comes the hardest part: Delivering the speech.

“I’m nervous about the speech obviously and trying to articulate my feelings as best as I can up there at the podium with the crowd and the guys behind you, your childhood heroes behind you listening as well,” Mauer said Friday. “Trying to make sure everything comes out OK is one of the things that I’m most concerned about right now.”

It has been a long wait since January — though he described the period of time as a “whirlwind” — when Mauer was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, becoming just one of three catchers to be elected on the first ballot.

But, finally, induction weekend is nearly upon us.

Mauer will take his place among the game’s greatest on Sunday in upstate New York and deliver the speech of a lifetime.

“I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like talking in front of 40(,000) or 50,000 people. I’m sure he’ll be just fine because he’s handled every other moment with humility,” said Mauer’s good friend and former Twins teammate Justin Morneau. “I can’t imagine the emotions he’s going through right now because I’m starting to get nervous for him.”

The speech he will give, Mauer said, is centered around gratitude and his thankfulness for the opportunities he had in a career that saw him drafted first overall by the Minnesota Twins and play his entire career just miles away from home, becoming a beloved figure across the state.

It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen alone.

Writing his speech, he said, was nerve-wracking and challenging. His professional career started when he was drafted by the Twins as an 18-year-old. It ended at age 35, taking him through many of the formative years in his life.

All that must be summed up into a 10-minute speech.

“To get to this point being inducted into the Hall of Fame, it’s not something that I did on my own,” Mauer said. “There’s so many people that had a huge impact on me and helped me reach this point, and you want to try to articulate that as best as possible and thank these people because, like I said, there (are) a lot of people that I need to thank, and if I can’t fit it into that speech, I’ll be thanking them personally.”

Mauer has somewhat of an idea of what to expect this upcoming weekend. He’s been to Cooperstown multiple times and was in the audience when Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat were inducted in 2022 — but it will be far different when he’s actually the one on stage.

“I just need to practice and try to deliver it the best that I can,” Mauer said. “I know that there’s going to be a lot of emotions going, and that’s okay, right? It’s an unbelievable honor, and I’m just so thrilled and excited, nervous.”

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