LATROY HAWKINS

LaTroy Hawkins, a graduate of West Side High School, is a former professional baseball pitcher. In his 21-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played for the Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, New York Mets, and Toronto Blue Jays. Through the 2020 season, his 1,042 games pitched were the 10th-most of any major league player. He also registered saves against all 30 MLB teams. Born and raised in Gary, Indiana, Hawkins was a seventh-round draft pick of the Twins out of high school. He debuted with the team in 1995 and reached the major leagues for good in 1997. He reached the World Series with the Rockies in 2007,  joined the Yankees in 2008, and later moved on to the Astros where he was very effective. In 2009, he filled in for an injured José Valverde as the Astros' closer and posted a 2.13 ERA. He signed a two-year contract with the Brewers after the season and reached the playoffs with Milwaukee again in 2011. In 2014, as the oldest player in the NL, he served as Colorado's closer. In 2015, he reached the playoffs with the Blue Jays before retiring at the end of the year. After the 2016 season, Hawkins was hired as a special assistant to the Minnesota Twins organization. The team announced that he would, among other things, be "contributing to the development of our organizational pitching philosophies used in the selection and development of all players, and that additionally, he would contribute to the amateur scouting process and trade deadline preparation meetings.“ He has also continued to offer his time, talent and treasure to young athletes in the City of Gary, Northwest Indiana, and the Chicagoland Area.