He’s 42 and throws a 93-mph fastball. It’s no wonder everyone wants to know LaTroy Hawkins’s secret. Kristina Rutherford breaks it down in Sportsnet Magazine.
LaTroy Hawkins has heard them all, and then some. The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander sits in the dugout on a Sunday morning after a pre-game warm-up, rattling off his favourite “I’m-so-old” jokes. “I sat behind Jesus in the first grade,” he says, grinning. The comments he gets, mostly from fans, make Hawkins laugh. “Priceless,” he says.
The 42-year-old reliever with the big smile and forehead somehow devoid of wrinkles wears the fact that he’s the oldest guy in MLB like a badge of honour. His pro career started before Jays closer Roberto Osuna was born. He’s recorded a save against every major-league franchise. He’s played 21 seasons for 11 teams. He’s struck out Michael Jordan. Twice. When teammates say he’s a valuable veteran presence because he’s seen it all, they mean it literally.
As of the end of August, Hawkins had appeared in 1,036 games, 10th-most all time, and his fastball was still averaging 93, a bit faster than he threw it five years ago. Press him for his secret, and you’ll get a range of answers. He sleeps a lot. He loves kale. He does a lot of weight-bearing exercises. He drinks nothing but water and tea and green smoothies, and it seems to work for him—up close, Hawkins, and particularly that right arm, appear cut from stone.
Jays ace David Price shakes his head at the mention of the veteran in the bullpen. “He’s in better shape than I am,” Price says.
Even the poker-faced Troy Tulowitzki cracks a smile when asked how Hawkins, a veteran with the Rockies 10 years ago when Tulowitzki was a rookie, is still going strong.
“I don’t know if it’s genetics or what,” the shortstop says.
Whatever it is, Hawkins has guys in this clubhouse hoping they have some of it. “Fingers crossed I’ll still be around at 42,” says Liam Hendriks. “I think that’s the dream.”
But for all the talk of that experience, Hawkins isn’t only bringing it in the form of service time. His sense of perspective, which might be his most valuable contribution to this young Blue Jays bullpen, is rooted in his childhood. Hawkins grew up in Gary, Ind., back when it was the murder capital of the U.S. Of his grandmother’s eight grandsons, he’s the only one who hasn’t served time in jail—his half-brother Ronald is currently serving a 27-year sentence for a carjacking incident in 1994. Hawkins says he could’ve easily gotten wrapped up in trouble himself, but he always had another plan. “I had a burning desire to do better,” he says. “I knew everything was better outside Gary. I hadn’t experienced it, but I knew it.”
Hawkins, whose mother, Debra, was a nurse and raised three boys on her own, says a lot of guys from back home had more talent than he did, but unlike them, he recognized that baseball was his golden ticket. He got homesick after he was drafted by the Minnesota Twins straight out of high school, but he says he knew if he went home, “I might not make it back out.”
Those beginnings are part of what makes Hawkins the calming presence his teammates talk about. “What I faced in the mean streets of Gary was way worse than being out there with bases loaded and no outs,” says Hawkins, eyebrows up. “No pressure.”
The pitcher who goes by Hawk and LT in the clubhouse (not “sir,” as 20-year-old Osuna learned the day they met) says this will be his last season, though he’s said that before. Recovery is taking longer than it used to, and parts of his body he never noticed 10 years ago are now feeling sore. Not that he’d ever tell his teammates. “I would never ever let them hear me complain,” he says, smiling. “Never.”
That doesn’t stop them from making fun of him for being old, though. They wasted no time at all with that. Says catcher Dioner Navarro, grinning: “We started with the jokes the day he got here.”
