ESPN Buster Olney Blog

There was a day many years ago when Jim O'Neill had to try to coax Joe Mauer into trying to power the baseball. So a few days ago, O'Neill was surprised by a request from Mauer.

O'Neill, 52, the longtime hockey and baseball coach at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minn., was at home when the Twins catcher called and asked him to throw to him in the Home Run Derby. Well, Mauer didn't really ask O'Neill. "He put the pressure on me," O'Neill said Sunday afternoon, chuckling.

Mauer told O'Neill that he was considering participating in the Derby but wouldn't do it unless O'Neill agreed to throw to him. So this is how it came to pass that the coach was on a plane from Minneapolis to St. Louis on Sunday night.

O'Neill is certain he will be nervous. "Any human being would be," he said. O'Neill has thrown thousands of hours of batting practice in his lifetime and has been throwing a couple of times a week this summer, so he's physically prepared. But he has never thrown in front of a crowd as large as the group that will be seated Monday night in St. Louis. "I'm just going to revert back to playing catch and throwing batting practice," O'Neill said.

He watched last summer as 71-year-old Claybon Counsil, the amateur coach for Josh Hamilton, helped the Texas slugger put on a show in Yankee Stadium. "I keep telling myself, 'If he could do it, I can do it,'" O'Neill said.

O'Neill went to the Metrodome on Saturday and spoke with Mauer about the strategy the two of them would employ, such as where Mauer would like him to throw the ball. Then O'Neill threw some batting practice to the catcher, focusing on throwing high and inside.

So O'Neill has at least an ounce of preparation. Yet the coach is curious to see how Mauer will handle the event. Since he met Mauer -- as a fifth-grader who ran around the bases quietly after hitting a home run -- the player always has hit the same way, driving the ball through the middle and the other way, focusing on trying to hit line drives rather than home runs. "He's never tried to hit home runs, never really changed," O'Neill said. "This, to me, is a little out of his element. It'll be interesting."

O'Neill coached Mauer on five different teams in high school and summer ball, and he can remember trying to talk the left-handed-hitting Mauer into looking for pitches to drive, to show him that he had the power to pull the ball and hit home runs. "His power is really to right-center field [now]," O'Neill said. "He can do it. But I told him that if he has a big lead, he has to hit one to left field."

For principle's sake.

Mauer's old coach is a little starstruck, writes La Velle Neal.

Around the league

• Brandon Inge is prepping for the Home Run Derby, and he mashed two on Sunday.

• The Twins seek to host the 2014 All-Star Game, Charley Walters writes.

• Washington, D.C., is a place where deals are made out of sight, and the Nationals made a major decision Sunday night in a way that makes you think they didn't want anybody to notice: Manager Manny Acta was fired late Sunday after racking up a record of 158-252. The baseball world will be focused on the All-Star events Monday and not the Nationals' decision, but sadly, nobody probably would've noticed if the Nationals had fired their manager on the Capitol steps in broad daylight. Acta confirmed the decision for Ben Goessling.

• The Diamondbacks raised about $50 million through a recent cash call, writes Nick Piecoro.

• Tim Lincecum has been on a serious roll in recent weeks and is the defending Cy Young Award winner, but it is almost inarguable that at the All-Star break, the Diamondbacks' Dan Haren is the King of the Pitching Mountain. Haren leads the majors in ERA (2.01), strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.1), WHIP (0.81) and opponents' on-base percentage (.219).

He is the first pitcher in baseball history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, to go into the All-Star break leading the majors in these four categories at his current levels. He also leads the majors in quality start percentage.

Haren should be the pick to start the All-Star Game for the National League.

Trevor Hoffman was added to the NL team, as was Zach Duke. And Carlos Pena realized a dream when he was added to the AL team.

Moves, deals and decisions

To see Buster's trade notes on Roy Halladay, the NL Central, the Marlins and many more, you must be an ESPN Insider.