trevor hoffman is in my hall of famer collection

i failed to get a post up this past weekend about the semi-annual show i went to recently at the st. paul rivercentre, but i will share today that i picked up an autograph card of trevor hofffman at the show to add him to my hall of famer collection:

that is a 2024 topps chrome black base autograph card. here is the back:

no bells or whistles on this puppy, that's for sure.

i had looked at hoffman autos in the past, but never pulled the trigger. i got this one from a seller who had it in a dollar (unless marked) box. the sticker on the back said $5 but i wound up with $40 worth of cards that he charged me $35 for, so you might say this was a freebee.

at the time of hoffman's retirement following the 2010 season, he was baseball's all-time leader in saves with 601 to his credit. mariano rivera passed him the following year, but he is still number 2 on the all-time list with kenley jansen the closest active pitcher to him, and he is 176 saves as of may 1, 2024 behind.

hoffman spent the vast majority of his career with the padres, and that is how i wanted him to be represented in this collection. he also pitched for the marlins to start his career and the brewers to end it, and for a while it seemed like the new hoffman autos hitting the secondary market were late career brewers cards. 

the main reason i was only going to go with a padres card is that i saw trevor hoffman pitch in person just twice. the first time was september 16, 1998 and the dodgers were playing the padres in san diego. heading into the 9th, the padres had a seven run lead, so it was definitely not a spot where i expected to hear hell's bells and see hoffman. the dodgers rallied, however, to close the gap to four runs, and with two on and two out, hoffman was summoned from the bullpen. he struck out jim eisenreich to end the game and earn career save number 156. i also saw him pick up a more traditional save on may 27, 2002 against the rockies (and their trio of todds - helton, zeile, and hollandsworth) in san diego when he set down terry shumpert, juan pierre, and juan uribe in order in the top of the 9th to complete the pads' 8-5 victory.  

hoffman made it into the hall of fame in 2018, his third year on the ballot. as a reminder, you can see hoffman and the other members of my hall of famer collection here!