SAN DIEGO (AP) – It’s the ninth inning and the San Diego Padres need a save. “Hells Bells” no longer rings out, the heavy metal song silenced because Trevor Hoffman is hurt.

But wait – here comes an experienced closer trotting out of the bullpen, a barrel-chested veteran with a Fu Manchu mustache and 272 career saves. “Shooter” is on his way to the mound and everything’s going to be OK.

Rod Beck, who might have one of the most famous Winnebagos in America, as well as a new appreciation for baseball, is back in the big leagues and pitching well.

Once one of baseball’s premier closers, he still swings his right arm a few times as he stares in at the batter. He pumps a fist or throws his arms skyward with every save.

Out of baseball last year while recovering from reconstructive elbow surgery, Beck is inspired by his two daughters and invigorated from having started this season in Triple-A.

“Even if it was Triple-A ball, I had a blast out there,” Beck said. “I got out there on the field and threw the ball around and I realized that I ain’t no old sucker.

“Everybody thinks I’m 45 years old, but I feel good,” said Beck, who turns 35 on Aug. 3. I had a whole year off, where not only did I rehab my elbow, but I gave my whole body a chance to heal and my mind a huge break, just being away from it.

“What else is there? I mean, this is it.”

And this is, after all, “Shooter.” In the minor leagues, if Beck didn’t know someone’s name, he’d call him “Big Shooter.” Teammate Mike Remlinger started calling Beck “Shooter” and the nickname stuck.

Beck became a dominating closer with San Francisco in the early 1990s, then saved 51 games for the Chicago Cubs in 1998.

He blew out his right elbow in 2001 while with Boston. There were only six days left in the season and he was a free agent, so he thought about retiring.

He had surgery, then bought a 36-foot Winnebago. It wasn’t hard being away from baseball, because in between rehabbing his elbow at a clinic near his Arizona home, he took his kids camping and fishing, to Disneyland and Disney World.

“I did all the things I haven’t been able to do in a long, long time,” he said. “I didn’t even watch baseball until about a month after the All-Star game.”

Prodded by his daughters, who are 8 and 9, and motivated to get 300 saves, Beck decided to come back.

Beck signed a minor league contract with the Cubs and pointed the Winnebago toward Des Moines, home of the Triple-A Iowa Cubs.

“I almost turned around a couple of times and said to hell with it,” Beck said.

If he had, he wouldn’t have become a folk hero. Beck parked the RV just beyond the right-center field fence, behind a scoreboard where it’d be protected from home run balls.

The RV had everything he needed: TVs, a VCR, a PlayStation, DVD player, a satellite dish. He plugged a power cord into the groundskeepers’ shed.

He bought a neon sign shaped like a martini glass and put it in the RV.

“So I’d come home, open it up, click on the martini glass and the bar was open,” Beck said.

His grounds crew buddies became regulars. Beck ended up staying in Triple-A longer than he thought, and the postgame scene got to be a big deal.

“After a game I’d go home and there’d be anywhere from five to 50 people there,” Beck said. “Most of them wanted an autograph and then they’d leave. And then a few would hang out and I would offer them a beer. If they wanted one great, if not, that’s fine. We’d talk baseball.”

Pretty soon, fans started leaving 12-packs. And Beck never had to worry about anything happening to his RV.

“It’s a small Midwest town. That’s just the way it is. It got to be pretty big,” he said.

Bikers, police and ambulance drivers also dropped in.

“Everybody came by,” Beck said.

The right-hander wasn’t in Des Moines just to have fun. Beck went 1-1 with an 0.59 ERA in 21 appearances.

The Padres signed Beck on June 2 to help stabilize the last-place team’s floundering bullpen. Beck is still working to get his velocity back, but he’s given the Padres a lift. He’s 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA and has converted all six save opportunities.

“He has no fear,” Towers said. “He loves to be in there in a jam in the ninth. I think that’s why he’s had success. It takes a different personality to get those last three outs.”

Until he’s summoned to the mound, Beck is pretty easygoing, as teammate Matt Herges found out.

Herges didn’t quite know what to think when Beck, who has a shaved head and a nipple ring, was assigned an adjoining locker.

“I expected one thing, and I got a very delightful guy, a guy who loves playing baseball,” Herges said.

“He’s very refreshing. He’s ‘Shooter.”‘

AP-ES-07-04-03 2044EDT