It's no secret that Mariano Rivera is the Greatest Of All Time with regard to baseball closers. Monday, I was lucky enough to be at Yankee Stadium when he broke the career record for regular season saves. Needless to say, Mariano is already the career leader in postseason saves. October is really where Mariano has defined his greatness.
I could list all of the accolades...12 time All Star, five time Rolaids Relief Man Award, ALCS MVP (2003), World Series MVP (1999) and five time World Series Champion...and on and on. However, the theme that kept coming through during the interviews on Monday was that he is an even better person than he is a player. That's a tall order.
One of the things that struck me about the record breaking save was the Minnesota Twins coming out of the dugout to applaud Mariano. Throughout his career, he has been humble, talked about the team first, and I can't ever remember him showing anyone up. He never had a confrontation on the mound and while he looked like he was having fun, it never appeared at someone else's expense. A lot of players, in all sports, can learn from the way he carries himself on and off the field.
I was there when Mo was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS against the Mariners, a game that lasted 15 innings (3.1 innings, 2 hits, 5 K's). I was there when he closed out the Mets in 2000 and I am glad I was there Monday as I was for so many others. As many said, with Mariano on the mound, as a Yankee fan, there was and remains an extreme confidence that he will come through and a shock when he doesn't. He has 42 career postseason saves (and counting) and three heartbreaking blown saves that still give me nightmares. But not even Mo is perfect.
So today, in a short blog, I pay tribute to Mariano Rivera, the career leader in saves. When thinking about Mariano, I always come back to the quote from The Natural, which is actually modeled after a Ted Williams quote. Williams said, "A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived'. In the movie, Roy Hobbs said, "And then when I walked down the street people would've looked and they would've said there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game."
Well, Mariano....you are the greatest.
"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive"
JN
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Ten years ago...
I woke up on Labor Day 2001 in my sister Linzy's Monmouth Beach condo planning to make an early drive to West Orange (where I was living for the summer) to beat the inevitable "Shore traffic". While getting dressed, I received a phone call from my friend, Brian Kirk.
The back story is...Brian is the front man for Brian Kirk and the Jirks, a wildly popular Shore cover band and if I had to guess, 2001 was near the peak of their popularity. Brian had befriended Anthony DiAco years earlier and Anthony was friends with both local rock stars, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. Anthony's son Nick was either in high school or college at the time and was also a musician. Nick played with The Jirks pretty often at Donovan's Reef. Back story complete.
So Brian calls and says that Anthony is bringing Bruce to Donovan's that afternoon to see Nick sing with the band. Brian was trying to figure out how to make sure that Bruce came up on stage to play with him and band. I told him that he had to just make it really easy for Bruce and suggest songs that Bruce knows the words to (since there was no teleprompter) and I mentioned Mustang Sally as a possibility. He asked me to take some pictures with his camera if Bruce decided to play which I was more than happy to do.
Needless to say, I hung around the Shore for the day and headed to Donovan's in the early afternoon where I was joined by my sister and her crazy boyfriend at the time, Asher. We took a spot on the sea wall right in front of the stage. Part of the way through Brian's set, the DiAco clan appeared on top of the sea wall with none other than Bruce and Patti. Brian let the band play a song without him while he went up to chat with Bruce. When he came back to the stage, I taunted him to play Rosalita in front of Bruce. Little did I know what they had discussed.
Brian ran through a few more songs including Sweet Caroline during which I noticed Bruce singing along during the chorus and pumping his fist during the "so good, so good". Nick DiAco did a two song set and then it was show time. Wearing the ever present Dolphins hat from the era and overalls, Bruce and Patti made their way to the stage and Bruce took Brian's acoustic guitar. The band launched in to Rosalita and just crushed it. YouTube Link Now, remember that during the previous tour, Rosalita was played only once, so this was a big deal.
No one, especially Brian, was letting Bruce go after just one song so he asked Brian what other songs the band knew. They decided on 10th Avenue Freeze Out YouTube Link and Bruce even changed the "Big Man" lyrics to "Giles" to reflect the Jirks' sax player. After 10th Avenue, Bruce removed the guitar, but the crowd was going crazy. Brian suggested Mustang Sally and Bruce obliged. He led the band through the bar room favorite pointing to different band members to take solos. Keyboard player Bryan Douglas played his solo so hard that Bruce walked over to hold the keyboard steady.
After a loooong version, Patti whispered something in to Bruce's ear. He then went over and asked Brian a question to which he responded, "I know all the words!" Brian then started playing the chords for Jersey Girl, YouTube Link but there was one problem. Brian was playing it in the wrong key. Bruce leaned over his shoulder with a priceless look that said, "Nice try, but not quite". Brian changed to the right key, sang the first verse and then Bruce took over. (Except, when he got to the third verse, he forgot the words! Brian fed Bruce the lyrics until he caught on. Where's the damn teleprompter when you need it?
Bruce then said "Happy Labor Day Jersey Shore"...and with that, disappeared back in the crowd. It was a true highlight for everyone in attendance that day, many of us Donovan's regulars.
Little did we know, eight short days later, the world would change forever.
"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive..."
JN
The back story is...Brian is the front man for Brian Kirk and the Jirks, a wildly popular Shore cover band and if I had to guess, 2001 was near the peak of their popularity. Brian had befriended Anthony DiAco years earlier and Anthony was friends with both local rock stars, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. Anthony's son Nick was either in high school or college at the time and was also a musician. Nick played with The Jirks pretty often at Donovan's Reef. Back story complete.
So Brian calls and says that Anthony is bringing Bruce to Donovan's that afternoon to see Nick sing with the band. Brian was trying to figure out how to make sure that Bruce came up on stage to play with him and band. I told him that he had to just make it really easy for Bruce and suggest songs that Bruce knows the words to (since there was no teleprompter) and I mentioned Mustang Sally as a possibility. He asked me to take some pictures with his camera if Bruce decided to play which I was more than happy to do.
Needless to say, I hung around the Shore for the day and headed to Donovan's in the early afternoon where I was joined by my sister and her crazy boyfriend at the time, Asher. We took a spot on the sea wall right in front of the stage. Part of the way through Brian's set, the DiAco clan appeared on top of the sea wall with none other than Bruce and Patti. Brian let the band play a song without him while he went up to chat with Bruce. When he came back to the stage, I taunted him to play Rosalita in front of Bruce. Little did I know what they had discussed.
Brian ran through a few more songs including Sweet Caroline during which I noticed Bruce singing along during the chorus and pumping his fist during the "so good, so good". Nick DiAco did a two song set and then it was show time. Wearing the ever present Dolphins hat from the era and overalls, Bruce and Patti made their way to the stage and Bruce took Brian's acoustic guitar. The band launched in to Rosalita and just crushed it. YouTube Link Now, remember that during the previous tour, Rosalita was played only once, so this was a big deal.
No one, especially Brian, was letting Bruce go after just one song so he asked Brian what other songs the band knew. They decided on 10th Avenue Freeze Out YouTube Link and Bruce even changed the "Big Man" lyrics to "Giles" to reflect the Jirks' sax player. After 10th Avenue, Bruce removed the guitar, but the crowd was going crazy. Brian suggested Mustang Sally and Bruce obliged. He led the band through the bar room favorite pointing to different band members to take solos. Keyboard player Bryan Douglas played his solo so hard that Bruce walked over to hold the keyboard steady.
After a loooong version, Patti whispered something in to Bruce's ear. He then went over and asked Brian a question to which he responded, "I know all the words!" Brian then started playing the chords for Jersey Girl, YouTube Link but there was one problem. Brian was playing it in the wrong key. Bruce leaned over his shoulder with a priceless look that said, "Nice try, but not quite". Brian changed to the right key, sang the first verse and then Bruce took over. (Except, when he got to the third verse, he forgot the words! Brian fed Bruce the lyrics until he caught on. Where's the damn teleprompter when you need it?Bruce then said "Happy Labor Day Jersey Shore"...and with that, disappeared back in the crowd. It was a true highlight for everyone in attendance that day, many of us Donovan's regulars.
Little did we know, eight short days later, the world would change forever.
"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive..."
JN
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