Happy fifty-fifth birthday to Glenn Hoffman! Born on this day in 1958, the Padres' current third base coach spent nine years in the big leagues with three teams.
Hoffman was drafted in the second round of the 1976 draft by the Red Sox and made his debut less than four years later. He had a solid rookie season, batting .285 as Boston's primary starting third baseman. He was shifted over to shortstop the following season to make room for newly acquired Carney Lansford, who would go on to lead the league in batting average that year. Hoffman started at short for a few years before playing his way into a bench role, eventually getting traded to the Dodgers in 1987. After 40 games in Los Angeles, Glenn signed with the Red Sox again and spent all of 1988 in Pawtucket before inking a deal with his hometown Angels. He played his final 48 big league games with California in 1989 and then headed back to the Dodgers organization for 24 games at AAA Albuquerque in 1990 before retiring and getting into coaching.
Starting out at rookie-level Great Falls in 1991, Hoffman managed his way up the Dodgers' organizational ladder throughout the '90s, making stops in Vero Beach, San Antonio, and Albuquerque before he got the call back up to the bigs. That call came in 1998, when he was selected to replace Dodger lifer Bill Russell, who started the season 36-38. Despite finishing the season with a 47-41 record as the interim manager, Glenn was not given the full-time job. The team instead turned to hired gun Davey Johnson and named Hoffman their bullpen coach. He was shifted to third base coach less than three months into the season and held that gig down until 2006, when he was hired by the Padres to do the same thing.
An interesting bit of trivia that not too many people know about Glenn Hoffman is that he has a brother named Trevor who was at one point a pitcher for the Padres and a couple of other teams. The younger Hoffman never started any games and retired with a losing record. Trevor was also nowhere near as good of a hitter as his big brother, batting just .118 with only two doubles and five RBI in 34 at-bats. It's no wonder that he's a forgotten footnote.
So, happy cake day to you, Glenn Hoffman. I look forward to watching you out there waving 'em home for years to come.