Closer legend Trevor Hoffman celebrates her 50th birthday.Birthday.Because of an unfortunate bathing trip to the beach in front of San Diego, his career took an unusual turn.This day brought him a dreaded pitch, which was rung in regularly by the “bells of hell”.
“Today I can only laugh at my fate,”Trevor Hoffman told Bleacher Report looking back on his career.The man who was the first man in the history of baseball to reach over 600 saves and thus attain an absolute legendary status sounds as if he is still dreaming of a much bigger, more glorious career.
Hoffman’s career was decisively influenced by a strike that the pros had decided to take in the middle of the 1994 season.Proposals by club owners to introduce a salary cap should have made the game more sustainable, but from their point of view the players were too disadvantaged.As it was not possible to reach an agreement despite weeks of negotiations, the pros boycotted all games from August onwards.The playoffs and the World Series were also cancelled.
Just one day after the strike began, Hoffman, relief pitcher of the San Diego Padres, decided to spend a little time on the beach with friends on the Californian coast in Del Mar,”It was just an unhappy day,”says the seven-time all-star.
During a beach volleyball match, Hoffman threw himself in the sand to dig a short service, but fell unhappily on his right shoulder, which began to hurt.But he ignored the small pinching in the joint at first, the beautiful summer day should not be clouded by it.He continued to challenge his luck.
A short time later he and a colleague threw some passes with a football in the shallow water.When he fought again after a too short pass, he missed a sandbank on which he landed with full weight – again with his right shoulder in front.
“The next day I couldn’t lift my right arm because the joint was so inflamed that I couldn’t lift my right arm the next day because of pain,” Hoffman was blocked by the injury until the winter,”I should have been working to become a better player, but instead I was busy getting my shoulder back in order”.
Hoffman was 26 years old at the time of the strike and had just finished his first full season in the highest leagues.Even at a young age, there was little evidence of an athlete’s career.His left kidney gave up when he was six weeks old and had to be removed.The doctors discharged the young patient from the hospital with two pieces of advice: Drink plenty of water and – ironically – an absolute ban on football.
He even promised the University of Arizona, where he played baseball, that if he hit the right kidney, he wouldn’t have to face a lawsuit,”I told them it was impossible to hit him.The right side is the one that turns away from the pitcher when hitting.In 1989 Hoffman was then drafted by the Cincinnati Reds, where he was retrained as a pitcher.
At the end of the player strike in spring 1995, Hoffman was confronted with the next challenge: Instead of his usual 95-mile-hour speed, Hoffman took his fastball to just 90 after the shoulder injury.A small difference which, at the high level of the MLB, could mean that it was eliminated from the squad.
But Hoffman was fortunate in his misfortune: Since the Padres were in a rebuild this season, the “cheap” Hoffman had his place in the bullpen, despite deficits.Another relic, Doug Bechtler, made his debut this season and took on the role of the pitcher for the eighth inning.
The two became catch partners before the Padres’ games and Hoffman used one of these warmups to test his changeup pitch, which he worked on more intensively since the injury.This throwing technique is very similar to that of a fastball, but a changeup usually has deliberately less speed to cause confusion among the Hitters.
Hoffman managed to throw the ball in such a way that Bochtler had massive problems to read it:”He suddenly threw a pitch that slipped through my legs.” Bochtler wanted to rule out a lucky shot and asked for another one.”Secondly, I’ve just caught a little bit with the edge of the glove.”
By then, at the latest, Hoffman realized that he had made a virtue out of necessity.He perfected the changeup like no other, and thus became the best closer of the scene.Hoffman scored 31 saves in that shortened season, and in 1998 he scored 53, more than any other player in the MLB and helped the Padres into the World Series.
That season he also set a record with 41 saves in a row.The San Diego Padres paid tribute to the dreaded relief with a special enema: they played “Hell’s Bells” of the rock band AC/DC every time Hoffman jogged out of the bull pit of Jack Murphy Stadium.
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The former number 51 of the Padres, which is no longer awarded in San Diego, has already been a candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame twice due to his achievements.To be accepted, a player must be nominated by three-quarters of the committee members.In 2016, however, Hoffman was only 67 percent on the list, compared with 74 percent last January.
But no sign of disappointment at Hoffman:”It’s a pity not to be taken in so narrowly, but I thank all those who voted for me.The others definitely deserved to enter the Hall of Fame,” This empathy is a trait that Hoffman’s family had given him.
Hoffman, who often used to do charity work outside the ball parks, still likes to tell an anecdote from childhood.His 14 years older brother Greg once asked little Trevor how his first Litte League game ran.Trevor reported:”I was 2-4, managed a double, an RBI, all right,” but Greg was disappointed,”which was the last time you told me how you played.It’s all about how the team played!” A sentence Trevor never forgot.
Just like that summer’s day in August 1994:”I even have a house now, less than 100 meters away from the place where it happened:” That place that Trevor Hoffman owes his career as one of the most successful reliefs of all time to Trevor Hoffman,”I’ve even set up a volleyball net in the meantime”.