It was the summer of 1990, and Trevor Hoffman's baseball career had reached a turning point.

The slick-fielding shortstop was toiling in the Cincinnati Reds' minor league system, and he was struggling mightily at the plate.

So Jim Lett, Hoffman's manager at Class A Charleston in West Virginia, suggested a radical move to the team's pitching coach, Mike Griffin: give the strong-armed infielder a shot at relief pitching.

"He had very good agility and a great arm," Lett, now the bench coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates, told IBD. "So we presented it to him, and we knew that nobody was going to work harder at it than he was."

The 22-year-old took the idea and ran with it — or at least pitched with it. Armed with his new job, Hoffman headed to stardom.

Today he stands atop Major League Baseball's all-time saves list, with 510 and counting.

"He has obviously worked very hard to get to where he is at," said Lett, who was in the Pirates' dugout last September when Hoffman closed out a game in San Diego to break Lee Smith's record of 478 saves. "He's a great pitcher, a great person on and off the field, and he did everything he could do to get to the point where he is now."

Hoffman learned the meaning of a save many innings before his first closing role.

At just 6 weeks old, he was taken to the doctor for a routine checkup. The physician found a jammed artery leading to his right kidney, which was broken. To prevent blockage carry-over to the good kidney, the bad one had to go.

"It was basically dead," Hoffman told MLB.com about the kidney. "Shriveled up. Didn't have enough blood supply to keep it alive. No disease. Just a blood clot. A freak thing. It was never really part of my consciousness, except that I was told to just 'drink a lot of water, Trev.' "

That and keep up with his older brothers. After all, they personified good health.

Glenn, nine years Trevor's senior, joined the Boston Red Sox as a shortstop when Trevor was 12.

When Trevor wasn't hanging out in a major league clubhouse with Glenn, he was tagging along with his oldest brother, Greg, a basketball coach in the Anaheim, Calif., school system near where the boys grew up.

Trevor caught the sports bug. He excelled so well on the baseball field that the Reds picked him in the 11th round of the amateur draft. It was 1989 and time for this Hoffman to start his own career.

After a few years in the minor leagues, including that stint in Charleston for his conversion to the mound, Hoffman found his way to Florida. The Marlins wanted him in their new bullpen and took him in the 1992 expansion draft.

Hoffman saved two games for the brand-new Marlins in 1993 before they traded him to the San Diego Padres in a five-player trade that included Gary Sheffield going east.

Hoffman, a muscular right-hander, has been doing the heavy lifting late in games for San Diego ever since — 15 seasons.

His pitching at times may appear effortless, but not everything has come easy for Hoffman. He entered the major leagues with a fastball that reached 95 mph on the radar gun, but he had to downshift fast.

A shoulder injury in just his second season forced Hoffman to reinvent his pitching style. He incorporated a change-up that many consider one of the best pitches in baseball.

Thanks partly to that change-up, Hoffman has consistently been among the league leaders in strikeouts per nine innings.

He sure needed the change of pace, with his fastball coasting in the 80-mph range.

"People go up there looking for the change-up now," Padres General Manager Kevin Towers told IBD. "And he freezes them with the fastball. Hitters just are not going to outsmart Trevor Hoffman."

Being a successful closer requires mental strength, and Hoffman has one tough brain. He focuses on the situation — batter, catcher, base runners — not peripheral ups and downs that detract other relievers.

Bill Center, who covers the Padres for the San Diego Union-Tribune, has seen most of Hoffman's game-ending performances.

"Getting the last three outs is a very tough job," Center told IBD. "To do that for 14 seasons . . . if you look at all the guys who have wilted under the pressure of that role, it makes what he has done even more amazing."

He could have wilted on April 28, 1999. On that day Hoffman blew a save in New York by allowing a game-ending, two-run home run to the Mets' star catcher, Mike Piazza.

Towers remembers the time well: "The next day, I get on the 7 train to go into Shea Stadium for the game and Hoffman is sitting there. We started talking and I asked him, 'How do you deal with what happened last night?' "

"What are you talking about?" Hoffman answered, unperturbed.

"He had already gotten over it," recalled Towers. "That's how quickly he is able to move on. He has just never had any fear of failure."

Evidently, neither does he fear growing old. Hoffman is 39, retirement time for many athletes. Yet he has 28 saves for the contending Padres.

And in the clubhouse he leads young players by example — through his rigorous workout routine and baseball tips.

"A lot of his work is done during batting practice, on plane rides," said Towers. "He is instructing in the bullpen all the time, before he even enters the ballgame. And at almost 40 years old, he is in as good a shape as anyone on our ballclub. He is just one of the best I've ever been around."

He's also one of the most consistent.

Hoffman has posted a sub-3.00 earned run average in 11 of the last 13 full seasons — and right now his ERA stands at 1.75 as the Padres head for the pennant stretch.

Hoffman has appeared in 831 Padres games, the all-time record for games pitched with a single team.

That longevity and his will to win make him a fan favorite. San Diego's Petco Park rocks when Hoffman traipses from the bullpen to the tune of AC/DC's "Hell's Bells."

He especially turned it up a notch in 1998, producing 53 saves and a 1.48 ERA to lead San Diego to the National League pennant.

"He does not like getting beat," said Center. "But at the same time, he can live with the ups and downs. He just has a great demeanor about him. He is very well-foundationed. After baseball is over, he is going to be OK."

Others sure know about Hoffman's winning ways. He's been awarded with six All-Star Game appearances and finished in the top six in Cy Young voting four times and in the top 10 in Most Valuable Player voting twice.

"He leads by example," Towers said. "From his offseason routine to game days, he approaches each day the same way. Psychologically, he is as strong as anyone I've ever seen. He is as good as it gets."

BY RICHIE BRAND.