At 40, LaTroy Hawkins is among the oldest active players in Major League Baseball. But as he proved Sunday night, he’s still not a guy you’d want to mess with.
While on a flight to South America for a hunting trip, an altercation arose, and Hawkins and two friends sprang into action to subdue and restrain an “unruly passenger.”
“We had to subdue a guy who was upset about not being able to sit in an open seat in business class,” the Mets reliever said in a text message to the New York Daily News. “He and flight attendant started wrestling and fell into my lap. The [flight attendant] said he needed help.”
Hawkins was able to overpower the disgruntled passenger with the help of friends Rodney Carter and Leonard Whittenberg. The plane made an unscheduled landing in Lima, Peru, to hand the man over to authorities before continuing on to its original destination of Santiago, Chile.
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Hawkins, who has pitched in the majors since 1995, posted the following photo on his Instagram page with the caption, “These 2 studs had to subdue a guy on our flight from DFW to Santiago Chile.. Escorted him of the plane after we made a emergency landing in Peru to drop him off. Long nite with a crazy Passenger…”
