Mariano - The Greatest of All Time

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