PEORIA, Ariz. -- First, Trevor Hoffman learned to pinch the
seam. Then, he moved the ball a little deeper into his palm.
Along the way, he perfected the art of using the same arm speed
as he does with his fastball.  With that evolution, a
notoriously deceptive changeup was born in Hoffman's right hand.
And a career was, quite literally, saved.  "There's no doubt
that without that changeup, I'm doing something else right now,"
Hoffman says as he enters his 13th Major League season, all but
three months of that service time spent in a Padres uniform.  A
decade after being introduced into his repertoire, Hoffman's
changeup remains one of the most baffling pitches in baseball.
It's a pitch that wouldn't get a speeding ticket from the
highway patrol, but it looks as if it's in floating in zero
gravity when played against a fastball that goes about 15 mph
faster.  This pitch wasn't just a change for the better. This is
the pitch that has launched 393 saves, which has him third on
the all-time list and, at age 37, l