The Record That Nobody Talked About

Barry Bonds got a countdown for when he was chasing down Babe Ruth for second place on the home run list. David Ortiz got a countdown for when he was chasing down Jimmie Foxx for the Boston Red Sox single season home run mark. And maybe the man I am about to mention got a countdown of his own, but I didn't see it. He is Trevor Hoffman. And he has now saved more games than anybody in baseball history. ESPN didn't give him a peep. Not that I saw. When I checked Yahoo! Sports this evening I was startled to see the headline "Hoffman Sets Save Record." I knew Hoffman was close, but I thought it would be early next season when he passed Lee Smith's mark of 478 saves. Instead it happened tonight.

The only explanation I can have for this silent record being made is that ESPN's east-coast bias has slipped into all of us, me included. I will guarantee that when Mariano Rivera approaches what is now Trevor Hoffman's save record, it will be the lead story on SportsCenter every night. Hell, I heard more about Rivera's 400th career save this year than I did about Hoffman's 479th. That is crazy. The only solution I have on this is to break up the monster that ESPN has become. Get a west-coast based sports channel and then maybe I will hear about these things. I like to think I don't have much bias when it comes to sports. Sure I root for my teams, but I try to pay attention to all teams, and this is something I definitely should have seen coming. ESPN has sucked me down with them. I'm ashamed.

Congratulations to Trevor Hoffman. Even if Major League Baseball doesn't care too much about closers yet (the former saves leader, Smith, is not a Hall of Famer), I think they should. The closer has become one of the most important roles in baseball and they should be recognized. I think Hoffman should be in the Hall of Fame. I know a guy like Rivera will be (and should be). I have a lot of respect for a guy who has battled through injuries like Hoffman has and has also made all but two of his saves for the San Diego Padres. I hope he plays another year or two and makes it to 500+ saves. That would be fun to see for me, although maybe I wouldn't know about it because ESPN probably wouldn't tell me.