Hells Brews

You gotta think, with a legacy including 550+ saves, some impressive 9th inning moments and a few car dealership radio spots, a true TRUE Padres fan would mourn the loss of the most prolific closer in the history of the game JUST a tad more than the current "Holy shit, so glad THAT'S over with" feeling coursing through the veins of a healthy % of SD-ers right now.

But no, this is the 101 case study of the guest that wouldn't leave. Ozymandian in its poignancy, The Bell (Yes! Literally AND figuratively!) ringing on Trevor Hoffman's San Diego Padres career has been a long time coming and is quite welcome to any fan who actually had to watch his last few years. We loved him. We gave him cords and leagues of rope, but it JUST. HAD. TO. END.

He's the Brewers problem now. No more slow starts, blowing of the real easy ones (which for him constituted almost ALL of his saves), whilst embarrassing our already fragile-egoed burg on the National stage (World Series, All-Star games, playoffs, one-game-to-get-into-the-playoffs...), and lest any TRUE fan forget, the "We need a lights-out pitcher" 8th inning with no game on the line fiascoes. Sure, he could polish the pearl on the three-run 9th frame leads, but he also had a snappy knack for making you wonder why any manager would shove a guy out there whose fastball was slower than his changeup.

Mind you now, LOVE Trevor and all he has done for our Padres; giving us a modicum of stability, having an amazing 1998 (not counting any pitches to actual New York Yankees), giving his older brother a job...but you just gotta know when to hang it up. And Trevor hung his breaking ball up in the zone too often for me to miss him all that much at this point.