Ken Rosenthal brings together six former African American baseball players to speak about their life experiences in relation to the killing of George Floyd. Doug Glanville moderates. The panel include Dontrelle Willis, LaTroy Hawkins, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, and Torii Hunter. They all speak from the heart in a very moving conversation that is well worth your time.
Correction: I changed the wording of the first sentence as I used ‘in lieu’ incorrectly.
LaTroy Hawkins played air marshal on a flight to South America:
New York Mets right-hander LaTroy Hawkins, headed on vacation to South America to go dove hunting, helped subdue and then escort a troublesome passenger off a plane after the Boeing 777-200 made an unscheduled landing in Peru, Hawkins indicated.
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Hawkins, a pending free agent, wrote on Instagram: “Escorted him of the plane after we made a emergency landing in Peru to drop him off. Long nite with a crazy Passenger.”
AT 6′ 5″, 220 pounds, Hawkins is an imposing figure.
The Evil Player program selected LaTroy Hawkins as Wednesday’s evil player. From 1995-1999, Hawkins was almost exclusively a starter, making one relief appearance in 99 games. He posted an ERA over 6.00 during that time. In 1999, he finished the season with a 6.66 ERA, prompting the Twins to banish the evil pitcher to the bullpen. It turned his career around, drove the demons away, and he’s had a good career pitching in relief. He’s currently on the 60-day disabled list.
In addition to Randy Wolf, the Brewers agreed to pay LaTroy Hawkins $7.5 million for two years. That seems like a lot of money for a 37-year-old reliever (2010 seasonal age). Over the last two seasons, however, LaTroy pitched over 60 innings of relief with a low walk rate and a a low hit rate, despite not being an upper range K pitcher. Looks like the Brewers are going for “veteran presence” this year.