MILWAUKEE - It's the top of the ninth inning and the Milwaukee Brewers are precariously holding a one-run lead.

Then, the gong of a bell echoes throughout the stadium.

The bullpen door opens and the crowd is moved to goose bumps as the first guitar riffs of AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" rips though the stadium.

The adrenaline is flowing at Miller Park as Milwaukee's closer runs to the mound for another high-noon showdown with the opposition.

Despite the imagery "Hell's Bells" provides and the stereotype of a hard-throwing, high-strung personality associated with closers, that's not what the Milwaukee Brewers have with Trevor Hoffman.

While Hoffman is a dominant closer - entering Sunday's game against the San Francisco Giants he's converted 17 of 18 save opportunities and is 1-1 with a 1.99 ERA after earning the victory Saturday in the Brewers' 7-6 win over the Giants - he succeeds with amazing control and a baffling change-up.

"I think the perception of what a closer is or should be is fire breathing and throwing hard with some nasty breaking pitch," Hoffman said. "Coming in and not breaking the radar gun up and ultimately doing it with a trick pitch of a change up; the biggest thing you have to understand is that you have to have good location regardless of who you are and when you don't throw exceptionally hard you have to be more precise.

"I have been able to pound the strike zone and get the first guy out which has led to success."

And the entrance anthem, which included lyrics about being a friend of evil and taking people to Hell?

"I'm not looking to associate with the lyrics by any means. It's more of a musical deal," said Hoffman, who signed as a free agent with the Brewers Jan. 3 after 16 seasons with the San Diego Padres. "You just have the bells - and I'm not thinking about Hells bells or anything.

"The lyrics are a little hard, but it's just a song. It's just a song to get people fired up. It's just a song."

Especially considering the person Hoffman, who holds the major league record with 571 saves, is both inside and outside of baseball.

He's an experienced voice in the clubhouse and one of the leaders for the Brewers' bullpen.

"He's their guy," Milwaukee pitching coach Bill Castro said. "When he says jump, they jump. The guys have a lot of respect for him, so they listen to him.

"I'm happy and glad that we have a guy like him on the team."

Milwaukee reliever Todd Coffey is among those who listen and try to follow Hoffman's example.

"He's done it all," Coffey said. "Obviously he's a future Hall of Famer, no question, and the all-time saves leader. Just the way he goes about his business - whether he gets the save or has a bad outing in his opinion - he's very humble, down to earth man.

"We gravitate to him. He's the focal point of the bullpen."

Hoffman's ability to consistently close out games has given the Brewers something they desperately missed last season when Eric Gagne and Salomon Torres closed out games.

Last year, the Brewers' bullpen blew 26 saves - tied for third most in the National League. That's a stark contrast to Hoffman's near-perfect record.

"Those are the hardest three outs to get in baseball without a doubt and the guy has been doing it for so long and had so much success and still doing it," Brewers catcher Jason Kendall said. "I think his track record speaks for itself, but you're talking about a pretty damn good person in the clubhouse.

"He wants to help. He wants to make his teammates better and has made his teammates better."

How much better are the Brewers with Hoffman?

Hoffman started the season on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right oblique. From the start of the season until Hoffman was reinstated on April 26, Milwaukee was 8-10. Once Hoffman returned and gave the bullpen some stability, Milwaukee is 32-24 - including 18-9 in May when Hoffman earned National League Pitcher of the Month honors after converting 11 saves and not allowing a run.

"We missed him the first 18 games and we were scuffling a little bit and since he came back he's really had a tremendous impact on the bullpen," Milwaukee manager Ken Macha said.

And for the starting pitchers, there's a wonderful sense of security.

"We just try to go into the ninth inning with the lead and we have a pretty good shot," Milwaukee right-hander Yovani Gallardo said. "In the ninth inning, he will do everything he can to close that game out for the team."

The contrast between the "Hell's Bells" image is made even greater when looking at Hoffman's work outside the stadium.

During his career with the Padres, Hoffman was :

- A six-time nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award. The award recognizes the player who best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team;

- The 2004 recipient of the Hutch Award, presented by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to the Major League baseball player displaying honor, courage and dedication to baseball on and off the field;

- The national spokesman for Major League Baseball's support of "The Big Bam's" Breast Cancer Awareness Program in 2002.

In addition, Hoffman, who lost a kidney as an infant, provides support to the National Kidney Foundation.

"I think anytime you're in position to give back to the community you need to take advantage of it," Hoffman said. "Obviously it was a large part of really getting connected back in San Diego. "The ownership coming in thought it needed to get reconnected. That was a main goal of their's to be philanthropic."

Hoffman sees the same thing in Milwaukee with the Brewers connecting with the community.

"(Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark) Attanasio's focus is to make this a better place," Hoffman said.

For Hoffman, though, working in the community goes all the way back to helping his parents do community service projects such as meals-on-wheels while growing up in the Los Angeles area.

"For me, I got to see my mom donate a lot of her time at the church," Hoffman said. "Dad was helping out at the church as well. There was just constantly the idea of giving back.

"There are less fortunate (people) and if you have the opportunity to lend a helping hand … we were very fortunate and it was nice to help out other people. At the time I probably didn't know much about it, but I was put in a position that you can't help (doing community work) because it's your obligation."

And that obligation to help - both in the locker room and the public - is what defines Hoffman.

"I could sit here and talk him up and talk about his stats, talk about what he has done in this game, but he's a good person and a good teammate," Kendall said. "It's a special thing."

A little about Trevor HoffmanWHY "HELL'S BELLS?": Someone in the music department in San Diego noticed that I didn't come in with any specific music. He said you come in with all this hard rock stuff - Metallica, Van Halen and such - I think this song by AC/DC might be kind of cool. It was somewhat around the time that "Major League" the movie and the whole Wild Thing and gates flying open and we kind of looked at like it might draw the fans into the build up of the ninth inning. I thought, "Sure, I don't care." … Fans gravitated to it quickly. The song, just the way it plays out. It's really cool. It gets people pumped up and in turn I think it provides a lot of excitement in the ball park.

IF YOU COULD OWN ANY CAR IT WOULD BE: I'm in that situation, I drive a Toyota Tundra and I'm pretty happy with the truck. I think everybody needs a truck to move stuff around or just feel a little elbow room.

IF YOU COULD LIVE ANYWHERE, IT WOULD BE: My home is in San Diego. I have a place that I'm pretty happy with. Obviously you're going to fight with people everywhere with where they are from that there is a part of the year where they really, truly enjoy. I understand that, but you can't beat 65-70 degrees all year round.

FAVORITE MEAL: Steak and potatoes.

HOW HAVE YOU HANDLED THE MOVE TO MILWAUKEE?: The transition has gone pretty easy. I think the thing that is most noticeable is how things have really slowed down. Being at home (in San Diego), playing in your home city, the phone never stopped ringing. There was always something going on around the house with the kids and other things. So, it's kind of nice to come to a new city and really kind of relax.

I might go into a grocery store and get a few people (recognizing me), but for the most part I'm a Joe walking through.

FAVORITE PLAYER WHILE GROWING UP: His brother, former major league infielder Glen Hoffman.

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?: I went to school to be some type of administrator in athletics. Whether it was a coach all the way up to being an athletic director. Sports is something where I think there is truly no script really; the daily drama is intriguing to me.