LaTroy Hawkins' All-Time Best Teammates

[Seth Stohs]

LaTroy Hawkins recently penned an article for his Sports Blog on his best teammates in his long career and posted it at the Canadian Baseball Network. 

 

It's fun to see and think about all of the teammates he had during his long and successful MLB career which came to an end with the Blue Jays playoff loss to the Royals. There are a lot of former Twins teammates mentioned prominently. Some will surprise you. Others won't. There are several current and future Hall of Famers.

 

And consider that Derek Jeter and Mike Trout are on his bench, it's a pretty strong team.

 

It's a fun read. Take a few minutes. When you consider how bad LaTroy Hawkins was as a starter with the Twins, and then how bad he was at their closer for a half-season, and how he endured to have such a long and successful career is amazing. Seems like a good guy too.

[HitInAPinch]

Fun read.  Thanks!

[Vanimal46]

Bob Tewksbury was a surprising name to read on his list. One of my earliest memories as a Twins fan was going to a game in the dome with my family, and Tewksbury was on the mound. I may have been 7 or 8 years old at the time. I don't know why that name has stuck with me all of this time, or how good he really was.  

[Seth Stohs]

I like reading some of the more obscure names on these lists. Cool also to see Denny Hocking on the list.

[nicksaviking]

Hawk's retirement leaves A-Rod as the only active player who ever shared the field with Kirby Puckett.

 

Good list, but that had to be tough.  Ha, I wonder what Tulowitzki's thinking about that list, he was teammates with Hawk in two stops and gets trumped by Denny Hocking.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Ha, I wonder what Tulowitzki's thinking about that list, he was teammates with Hawk in two stops and gets trumped by Denny Hocking.

I'm guessing Hawkins felt obligated to include a true "utility" guy on his bench, hence Hocking.

 

Although his bench also includes Mike Trout (!) and Derek Jeter, so who knows.

 

A-Rod is his starting shortstop, although he was a full-time 3B by the time he was teammates with Hawkins, 5 years removed from his last start at shortstop.

[Halsey Hall]

LaTroy Hawkins.  First met him when he came to camp with the Twins. I liked him right off the bat.  Enjoyed his list here and was surprised at a few of the names.  He certainly played with some great ball players.  And I have to believe he grew as a person and a player, and became even a better man through his career. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Also Puckett is his starting choice for "centre field", although Kirby never played CF behind Hawkins (at least not in a regular season game), only RF.

[TRex]

Sounds like you need to make your own list!

[notoriousgod71]

I'm not sure if this is a list of his favorite teammates or a list of the best players that were his teammates.

 

Including Bonds and Arod make you believe the latter; including Radke, Tewksbury, and Hocking make you believe the former.

[ashbury]

"Eddie Gurardo". My buddy. My brother from another mother. No one worked hard than he did. He led by example.

 

Reminds me of a Yogi Berra quip:

 

"How long have you known me, Jack? And you still don't know how to spell my name." -- Upon receiving a check from Jack Buck made out to "bearer."¹

 

Also: Rick Anderson helped me a lot when I was with the Twins.

 

Hawk better not show up here and troll like that.

 

 

¹ http://rinkworks.com/said/yogiberra.shtml