Read this in the paper this morning, I hope he blokes with the black helicopters don't read the San Diego UT
Hoffman positively lights up when the subject is a good cigar
By Tom Krasovic
STAFF WRITER
May 22, 2008
Trevor Hoffman is happy to slip under the media's radar, because that means he probably is performing well. When he blows a save, Hoffman awaits reporters, yet he tends to steer clear of them after he gets the save. He prefers that other teammates get the attention after a victory.
Hoffman was predictably low key yesterday when asked about the solid run he's put together since a bumpy start to the season. Other than saying he “fiddled a little” with his slider, he offered no explanations.
Here's one: He is the majors' career saves leader, and April historically has been his least successful month.
Hoffman was far more talkative when the subject turned to cigars. He had received a shipment of Cuban cigars. Sitting in front of his clubhouse stall, he removed one from a box, smelled it and told of playing baseball near Cuba's tobacco fields while he was an infielder for the University of Arizona. The game, part of a goodwill tournament, was near a tobacco factory at Pinar del Rio. Like Padres owner John Moores, Hoffman thinks it would be a great idea if, post-Castro, baseball set up a franchise in Havana.
Hoffman associates the smell of a Cuban cigar with his late father, Eddie, a former Marine who loved cigars, particularly those from Cuba. “Those were better cigars,” Hoffman said of the pre-embargo days. “These are good, but back then, it was more of the premium leaf.”
During the season, Hoffman puffs far less frequently, weaning himself off the cigar-a-day habit of spring training. “In spring training, I get in shape and out of shape,” he cracked. “Maybe that's why I have bad Aprils.”
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