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Mike Mee lived everything most young baseball lovers only dream about: He traveled to Major League ballparks with his father; he hung out in the press box at the Metrodome after Twins games with his grandfather; and, in between games, he played Wiffle ball in the backyard while listening to his dad’s tales about the College World Series. “I always thought that was cool as a little kid,” says Mee, in his typically understated way. “I remember one spring training when I was 8 or 9 my dad pulled some strings and I got to meet Roberto Alomar, my favorite player, when the Blue Jays were playing the Cardinals.”

Not only do Mee’s baseball bloodlines run strong, so do his Gopher roots. This year, as a versatile senior who can play both outfielder and first baseman for Minnesota, Mee is carrying on a family tradition that stretches back to his great-grandfather James Mee, who wrestled and played football for the Gophers in the early 1900s. It was Mike’s grandfather, Tom Mee, Sr., (B.A. ’52) who began the family’s baseball tradition, playing a few games for the Gophers in 1949 before leaving Minnesota for the minors. After playing two seasons of independent minor league baseball, Mee went on to work for the first incarnation of the St. Paul Saints. Later, he became the first front-office person hired when the Twins came to Minnesota in 1961. Now retired from his role as public relations director, Mee still serves as the official scorer for Twins games.

Tom Mee, Jr., (B.A. ’81) Mike’s father, made his mark at Minnesota early in his career, one of a select few freshmen to travel extensively with the team after a rule change permitted freshmen to join the varsity squad. In 1977, playing on the same team as Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, he batted .375 and led the team with 39 RBI, helping the Gophers to a trip to the College World Series. He went on to play in the minors before eventually becoming the director of television services for the St. Louis Cardinals, where he still works. So when it came time for Mike to choose a college, the only real decision was what color cap to wear: maroon or gold. “Growing up I always looked at Gopher baseball as something I wanted to do—it wasn’t a hard decision,” Mee says.

There were challenges, however. In one of his last hockey games for Richfield High School, Mee banged up his right elbow. Although the injury had adequately healed by the time he joined the Gophers, with a squad full of veteran players, Mee redshirted his first season. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Mee says he spent the year soaking up all the knowledge and atmosphere of college baseball during games and practices and giving his arm extra time to regain strength. He also kept in mind some words of advice passed down from his grandfather through his dad. “He always told me never to get too high or too low, to keep an even keel,” Mee recalls. “That’s probably the greatest piece of advice I’ve ever gotten from him.”

As a freshman, with a completely recovered elbow, Mee batted .319 with six home runs, 53 RBI, 44 runs scored and 16 doubles, making him the first Minnesota freshman to drive in over 50 runs since Terry Steinbach—the former Gopher and 13-year Major League catcher—did it in 1981. That season, the Gophers won both the Big Ten regular season and tournament for the first time in school history, and Mee was named an all-American.

Mee still remembers the home run he hit against Purdue in the tournament that year. “We were out at Siebert, and we had a big home crowd,” he says. He’d struck out in his first at-bat, a little timid in front of so many fans. Minnesota had come from behind to take a 4–1 lead, and his home run in the eighth made it 6–1. “It was a thrill running around the bases. I still remember it vividly.”

At that game, like every other Mee has played in, there’s been another family presence in the stands: his mother, Debbie. A baseball fan herself, she’s been the most influential person in her son’s life. While he phones his dad after almost every game and they discuss his at-bats and fielding, “my mom is more the moral support,” Mee says. “If I have a bad game, we’ll go out to eat together. It’s a nice luxury to have her there. When we can, we go to Twins games together. And if I keep playing after college, I’m sure she’ll try and make it to my games.”

Though Mee has been a strong performer for the Gophers his entire career—last season, for example, he led the team in runs and was second in RBI and in his sophomore season he was the only Gopher to play all 62 games of the season—he has not replicated the all-American form of his freshman year. Coach John Anderson worries that Mee has been too hard on himself. “He’s a fierce competitor,” Anderson says. “But sometimes your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness. He needs to be a little more forgiving—he can’t take the team by himself.”

That’s something Anderson is hoping Mee can pick up from his dad, who, as Anderson recalls from his days as a student coach, was the team jokester. “He’d take the good with the bad and find the humor in it,” Anderson says. “There’s so much failure and adversity in this game you have to leverage yourself, stay the course, and be consistent.”

Mee would like to conclude his college career the way he began it, with a championship. “We can compete for the Big Ten championship,” Anderson says. “Mike would like to see his career end that way.”

And like his dad and grandfather, Mike hopes to continue his baseball career in the pros. Eventually, he says he’ll consider working in baseball in another capacity, possibly putting to use the degree he’ll receive this spring in commercial recreation. “From letting my brother and me wear out the front and backyards playing Wiffle games to driving me to high school games and coming to my college games, my family has had a huge impact on my baseball career,” Mee says. “I’m blessed and happy to be able to play in front of them.”

Sheila Mulrooney Eldred is a Minneapolis-based freelance writer and frequent contributor to Minnesota.