Nearly four hours before a late September 2009 game at Miller Park, a guy in cargo shorts with his flipped around backwards was barreling over the banks of the parking lot adjacent to the TV trucks on a skateboard. No, it’s not unusual to see a kid out on a skateboard catching air over the contours of a veritable sea of macadam, but this wasn’t just some kid.
This was Trevor Hoffman riding his skateboard outside of the ballpark in Milwaukee.
Certainly it was no surprise seeing Hoffman, the all-time major league saves leader and certain Hall of Famer, in such an informal setting. After all, I recall bumping into him one morning at a Starbucks in St. Louis, and while out for a run around the Sports Complex before a game at The Vet. Still, a 41-year old tooling around on a skateboard is a rarity even before one considers that he has saved more ballgames in baseball history.
If there was ever a more grounded and regular dude than Hoffman who will one day go to the Hall of Fame, few people have seen him shredding on his skateboard outside of Miller Park hours before pitching a perfect ninth inning for his 590th save of his career.
Hoffman was as real as they came, his former manager Bud Black told The New York Times.
“He can carry on a conversation with the owner of the club, and he can also talk with the clubhouse attendants and the ushers. He has such an ability to go across so many layers of people. In the simplest terms, he’s just an outstanding person.”
Ultimately, a person is measured not by numbers and records or silly awards, but by the way they treat others.
As Hoffman’s successor with the Padres Heath Bell told The New York Times:
“Usually with such great competitors, some guys are really cocky, some guys are all about the money or the fame, some guys don’t want any part of it, some guys are very shy. He wasn’t any of those things.”
Nevertheless, after 18 seasons and a record 601 saves, Trevor Hoffman called it a career during a press conference in San Diego on Wednesday afternoon. Though he wasn’t as durable as his multi-inning closer predecessors, Goose Gossage or Bruce Sutter, it’s tough to argue against Hoffman standing at a podium (with Ken Griffey Jr.) in Cooperstown five years from now.
No, Hoffman wasn’t the first of the one-inning closers and he certainly didn’t reinvent it. Hell, he might not even be the best of the new-breed of closers considering Mariano Rivera has a remarkable success in the regular season and unparalleled greatness in the postseason. But for 18 seasons, save one for injury, Hoffman was uncannily consistent in a position where consistency is rare.
Consider this:
Hoffman got 552 of his saves with the Padres, which when put into perspective is impressive because the Phillies, as a team, had 587 saves during the same period. For perspective, Hoffman got nearly as many saves as 11 regular closers for the Phillies. During this span, Jose Mesa set the Phillies’ record for saves with 112, though that mark likely will be broken by Brad Lidge in 2011.
And in that case Lidge is the rarity for the Phillies in that he will be the team’s main closer for a fourth season. That has never happened.
Think of Hoffman’s save record this way… he had as many saves against the Los Angeles Dodgers (68) during his career as Rawley Eastwick saved in eight big league seasons. What’s the big deal about Rawley Eastwick, you ask? Well, the lefty who pitched for the Reds, Cardinals, Yankees and Phillies during his career, led the majors in saves in 1975 and 1976 for The Big Red Machine, often regarded as the best team in National League history. Certainly there were plenty of chances for Eastwick to close out games since those Reds clubs rate amongst the greatest of all time, just as Rivera has had a ton of chances saving games for the Yankees. But the 1976 Rolaids Relief Fireman of the Year just didn’t pile ‘em up the way Hoffman has.
Sure, Hoffman and Eastwick worked in different eras of baseball. Particularly now when roles are so ironclad in definition and save chances are much more prevalent, Hoffman has an advantage over pitchers that came before. Still, only Hoffman and Rivera have saved more than 500 games and no Hall of Famer (Dennis Eckersley) has saved more than 390 games.
Shoot, Hoffman has more than twice as many saves as Hall-of-Fame closer, Sutter.
So the question is, how did he do it? How did Hoffman put together epic saves seasons every year no matter what? How did he do it with just a changeup and a four-seamer that rarely (if ever) topped 90 mph? Hoffman wasn’t a soft thrower like Jamie Moyer but his pitch was a changeup that he turned to after he lost his fastball when he “jacked up my shoulder screwing around on the beach, throwing a Nerf football and playing volleyball.”
Hoffman was drafted by the Reds and spent his first two years of pro ball playing shortstop and committing 50 errors. However, when he was converted to pitcher, the Marlins saw enough of his arm to select him in the expansion draft. Just two months into his major league career he was sent to San Diego for Gary Sheffield in a deal where the Padres were looking to shed salary.
Error-prone shortstop to all-time saves leader, just like that.
Still, the opposition always knew what to expect. Yet somehow that high leg kick and loose motion from the stretch just got outs…
For 18 years.
So how has Hoffman lasted when others, often with more talent, do not?
“When you’re out there as a closer you want to get strikes and you want to get them quick," Hoffman said during his press conference. “Sometimes you don't want to waste your whole repertoire to get into an out situation or a count. If you have pretty good conviction on two pitches, I think that's enough you want to deal with.”
Ultimately, Hoffman refused to waste his talent.
“Don't leave yourself questioning ‘what if I tried harder.’ I think it is being disciplined, having a plan,” he said during his farewell in San Diego.
Hoffman never recorded more than seven blown saves in any of his 18 seasons, and true to his consistency, he reached that high-water mark five times. But add it all up and Hoffman has 76 blown saves in 677 chances. In not nearly half as many seasons, Lidge has more than half the total of blown saves (43) as the all-time save king and Hoffman’s 29 saves against the Phillies in 54 appearances is more than Tug McGraw ever compiled in a single season.
More notably, the 40-save plateau has been reached just five times in 127 years of Phillies’ baseball. From 1996 to 2007, Hoffman saved at least 40 games nine times.
No, the closer position isn’t as hard-nosed as it once was. After all, Hoffman pitched 602 innings to get 601 saves. But if it’s easier to be a closer than it was, how come very few pitchers last long at it?
In the end, of course, Hoffman sounded like the unassuming guy hanging out at Starbucks or riding a skateboard in the parking lot before a game.
“The retirement word can be a bit scary,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “It kind of snuck up on me. I thought the announcement would be a little blurb at the bottom of the TV.
“How thankful I was to be able to put the uniform on and be a kid until I was 43. The most coveted title I carried was teammate.”
Of course how can a recap of Hoffman's career be complete without a look at the greatest entrance in baseball history...