On the field and off, Hoffman was plugged in

Making his major league debut with the Padres in 2008, Nick Hundley arrived just in time to catch Trevor Hoffman as a battery-mate before the record-setting closer left San Diego to conclude his career with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Even before then, however, Hoffman had provided Hundley with two lifelong thrills.

“When I was in high school, I remember playing in a tournament in San Diego and going to a Padres game, sitting in the upper deck,” said Hundley, now with the San Francisco Giants. “The Padres were up by two in the eighth and my buddies and I are all, “Please, Padres, don’t score. We want to see Trevor Hoffman. We want to see Hells Bells.’ “

That is, the ninth-inning scene in which Hoffman entered a Padres game to the din of AC/DC song “Hells Bells,” turned up to 11 on the ballpark’s volume dial.

“It was Trevor and Adrian Gonzalez and a bunch of guys like me, kids wearing numbers like 72 and 88 and 92,” says Hundley. “After the second game, we’re heading back to the airport and Trevor took a ball around the bus, asking every single player to sign the ball. He shook every guy’s hand and thanked us.

“He’s thanking us for signing his ball? I mean, c’mon. But as I learned, that was the kind of leader and team guy that Trevor always was.””

Even if the number on his own autograph now reads: Trevor Hoffman, HOF '18.