Countdown to Cooperstown: Another milestone for ex-Wildcat
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
Trevor Hoffman celebrates after his 600th save Tuesday night/Photo by Jeff Hanisch, US PRESSWIRE
As a minor-leaguer who couldn’t hit, former Arizona Wildcat shortstop Trevor Hoffman had nothing to lose when he started over as a pitcher. His first time on the mound in this experiment was the Arizona’s 1991 All-Pro Alumni Game.
He hit his first batter.
Things managed to get a lot, lot better in the next two decades.
Hoffman, a future Hall of Famer and one of the most accomplished athletes to ever pass through UA, extended his major league record with a milestone save Tuesday night. He worked a scoreless ninth inning in Milwaukee’s 4-2 victory over St. Louis for save No. 600.
And baseball cheered.
The on-line blog headline at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called it a “Classy ending for a classy guy.” Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com called Hoffman “one of the most respected men in the game.”
In a 2006 story for the Tucson Citizen, sports columnist Corky Simpson talked to former UA pitching coach Jim Wing about Hoffman and wrote:
