San Diego Padres: Trevor Hoffman Enters MLB Hall Of Fame

Former San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman set for official induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

Enjoy this moment, San Diego Padres fans. Put away whatever feelings you have about this team for one weekend. Ignore the stats, the trade rumors, and the play on the field. This weekend is about one thing and one thing only, the induction of one of the best to ever play the game into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, Trevor Hoffman.

For San Diego Padres fans, this could be the last time we see a Friar enter the Hall of Fame for a very long time, I repeat, a very long time.

Trevor Hoffman joins Dave Winfield and everyone’s favorite Padre, Tony Gwynn, as the only three players to enter the Hall of Fame as a member of the San Diego Padres.

Hoffman also becomes just the second pitcher to enter Cooperstown without ever recording a start in a major league baseball game. Bruce Suter (Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, and Atlanta Braves) is the only other pitcher without a start, currently in the Hall of Fame. Suter appeared in 661 games and posted a 3.00 career ERA with 300 saves, six All-Star appearances, and one Cy Young Award (1979).

A closer in the Hall of Fame.

There’s been a debate about whether or not a closer deserves to be forever immortalized in Cooperstown. The save has become a statistic that many now view as irrelevant or at least one that doesn’t seem to define the effectiveness of a player, much like how the RBI is viewed.

There is a valid argument in there (the save stat, not Hoffman’s HOF credentials), however, Trevor Hoffman accomplished what very few men in baseball could do. Something has to be said of a player who enters every single game with the game on the line. Trevor Hoffman wasn’t just a closer, he was more than that.

When the spine-tingling sound of “Hell’s Bells” came over the PA system and Trevor Hoffman took the mound, Padres fans knew that a win was imminent.

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Including one season with the Florida Marlins and two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, Hoffman converted on 88.8% of his save opportunities. As a Friar, Hoffman converted 89.2% of his saves. That’s dominance. He had two different stretches of four-straight 40-plus save seasons. That’s dominance. He finished with a career ERA of 2.87, a WHIP of 1.06, and struck out 1,133 hitters in 1,089.1 innings. Do I need to repeat it? That’s dominance.

If you are a Padres fan reading this, I don’t have to convince you of anything. You know how special this weekend is and I know you will join me in hanging on to every word Hoffman has to say in his speech, shedding a few tears along the way.

If you couldn’t make it out to New York, the induction ceremony will broadcast live on MLB Network and MLB.com on Sunday (July 29th) at 1:30 pm ET.