Mariano Rivera Highlights

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Top Mo, Edwar Ramirez and others chat on rain day in Tampa.
Bottom, Mo and Edwar crossing field in Tampa. both Noah K. Murray,
Star-Ledger, USpresswire

• "He is the greatest reliever in baseball history...

and there is some silver working its way into his hair. Ten years ago, he said, no young players really asked him any questions, but now, he said with a laugh, it's like they gather in a circle around him like kids."

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• Item at end of Buster Olney article comparing Satchel Paige's tips for staying young with Mo's.

"Mariano Rivera has no plans to fade away with the NY Yankees," Buster Olney, ESPN, 2/20/10. photo 2/22/10 ap spring training

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photos 3 and 5 with Billy Connors. all 2/18/10 in Tampa, by ap

• "Rivera Has Arrived," by Chad Jennings
  

"The clock above the clubhouse door read 9:19 — of course the number nine was involved – when Mariano Rivera walked in from the hallway and began

• shaking hands with everyone in sight.

• “Hello.”

• “How are you?”

• “Nice to see you.”

It was presidential, maybe even regal, the way he greeted everyone between the door and his locker. When he sat down, Rivera spoke for about 10 minutes. He said he’s not worried about his contract, that he doesn’t mind waiting until the offseason to negotiate. He said he wants to keep pitching as long as he’s capable of his lofty standards, but he wants to walk away the moment he starts slipping.

For now, he just wants to get back to work. Rivera’s spring training always moves at a slower pace

• than every other pitcher,
  

and Rivera said he’s only tossed off flat ground this winter. He has yet to throw off a mound."...

• from LohudYankee blog, 2/18/10

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Andy and Mo, 2/18, photo star-ledger, uspresswire

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• Mo throws in front of advance scout, 2/18/10, ap
  

Joel Sherman, NY Post, 2/19/10:

• "Enjoy it. Soak it in.

• You will not see anything like it again any time soon.

You are watching the final chapters of someone described by... Andy Pettitte as

• "the greatest pitcher ever."

• That is why as Yankees' workouts for 2010 began yesterday, we turned to the finish. We open with The Closer.
  

Mariano Rivera is 40, and by all logic that should mean the curtain is descending. But what is logic with Rivera? His age-39 season, after all, stands seamlessly with any of his best campaigns, and his best campaigns "make him the best closer ever," Jorge Posada said.

• Surgeons who have cut into skin and muscle and bone could attest that he really is not an android. So, at some point, the birth certificate will win. Not yet, though already the cutter that was once 95-96 mph is 89-91 mph.
  
• Thus Rivera is a great symbol that location and movement really do matter more than velocity. But how much more can he lose and still remain effective: 88 mph, 87, 86?

"The slower he throws, the more the ball moves," (Phil) Hughes said. "I really think he could pitch at 84 mph because the cutter will move 3 feet....

• This is the reverence for Rivera. There is something about him. A grace, a dignity. These qualities combined with his skill and results give him a Koufax-ian glean. ...
  

It is about longevity in a job known for its rise-and-fall, Gagne-esque brevity. It is about an unshakeable nature that enables him to flourish at the end -- of both games and seasons. Eight closers entered last postseason. Seven messed up. Rivera's team won a championship.

It is about how the Yankees have played tactically since Rivera's ascension,

• counting outs until he could be deployed.
  

• In the playoffs last year -- despite the age -- there were calls for him to pitch in the eighth inning
  
• and even the seventh.

But, again, this is about more than being the greatest closer, possibly the greatest postseason pitcher. He is humble, yet possibly the most self-confident player in the majors. He carries a regal flair without arrogance. He can be beaten, but never defeated.

• Rivera's mere physical arrival in the bullpen around the sixth inning each game transforms the tenor from
  
• frat house to laboratory.
  

He picks a different reliever to sit next to daily to play psychiatrist about yesterday's failure or pitching coach about today's challenges. "It is amazing," Hughes said. "He throws one pitch, yet knows everything about every pitch."

• It is about his annual stop across the street to the Yankees' minor league camp where he will gather prospects to share his wisdom.

"He's in street clothes," Cashman said. "He is not asked to do it and no one else does do it, but him. You have to see it. It is E.F. Hutton stuff. When he talks, people listen."

• It is about his annual jaunts to the Yankees' Dominican base where the organization's pitching coordinator Nardi Contreras said, "He is talking to kids in a room filled with pictures of him on the wall and you have to see the expression on the faces."

He defines living legend and defies the clock. But that clock is ticking.

• So enjoy this, soak it in.
  

• Another Rivera is not coming around any time soon."

"NY Yankees fans should enjoy every pitch of Mariano Rivera's career, " NY Post, 2/19/10

Labels: Joel Sherman, Mariano Rivera at spring training 2010

• Of top 15 things to watch this year in baseball:
  

• "6. Mariano The Great

The Yankees are the last team to repeat as World Series champions, winning titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000. They are a threat to do it again, bringing back most of the same hitters and all three starting pitchers who carried them through the postseason last year.

• The most important piece, as always, is Mariano Rivera, the incomparable closer who
  

said after the World Series that he hoped to pitch five more years. Rivera turned 40 in November, but he showed no signs of slipping last year. He was as coldly efficient as ever, converting 44 of 46 saves and staying strong for the postseason, when he carved up the Twins, Angels and Phillies.

• Time erodes all players’ skills eventually. We know that. But to watch Rivera is to suspend that reality. The textbook mechanics, the devastating cutter,
  
• the restrained demeanor, the pinpoint control — Rivera has not lost any of it.

• And he does it without much of the drama so often associated with the ninth inning.
  

As the former Angel Tim Salmon, the first player ever to get a hit off Rivera, marveled last summer, “It’s like he never even makes it interesting.” He meant it as a high compliment, that Rivera is so effective the outcome is rarely in doubt.

• Someday age will catch up with Rivera. But at 526 saves and counting, plus 39 in the postseason, he is still having fun,
  

holding baseball in amazement year after dazzling year."

This feature appears in the 2010 Athlon Sports Baseball magazine.photo from Athlon Sports

Labels: Mariano Rivera is Yanks most important piece as always-Athlon

• Atmospherics provided by the inimitable Bob Sheppard.

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Jan. 30, 2010 at Steinerfest, via EverythingNYC, twitpic.com

• "When Mariano Rivera arrived

at Mario's on Arthur Avenue in the "Little Italy of The Bronx" for a fund-raiser for underprivileged kids whose fathers are in jail,

• he took one look at the banquet menu and quietly signaled owner Joe Migliucci that he'd prefer the eatery's famed clams casino "for a starter, and some veal scaloppine, real thin, if you have it." After his meal, the

Yankee reliever went in the kitchen to thank the crew and then "signed everything in sight" for regular customers. "This guy is a star on and off the field," Migliucci said."

• Commenter to article:

"TheTruth15

02/07/2010 9:38 AM

The biggest sham is that Jeter gets all the credit for being a class act which in reality, he isn't. Jeter is rude and only looking to get laid. Mariano and Bernie are the two best examples of what a professional is on and off the field. Glad to see Mariano get his due all while Jeter is trying to hook up married Tiger Woods with hookers."...

• from NY Post Page Six, 2/7/10, "Mariano Rivera's star treatment"
  

• "After losing a close game, the coach put his arm around the young rookie quarterback who

came off the bench to try to spark a comeback for his team. In an unsettling retort to his coach's encouragement, Tom Brady said, "I gave it my best shot coach, but remember, I inherited that situation."

• A young relief pitcher was called in with the game tied in the bottom of the 9th inning
  

• with a runner on third and no outs.
  

As he takes the ball from the manager,

• Mariano Rivera looks into the manager's eyes and says, "I'll give it my best coach, but remember, I inherited this situation."

These two scenarios seem unimaginable in the world of sports.

• In fact, if they had really happened, you may not have expected these two players would have ever become superstars.

Any player with that attitude would be toxic to a team. And that kind of attitude would not be tolerated for an instant from any coach, teammate, or fan for that matter...they would be eliminated as soon as possible. (Contracts not withstanding)

• However, there have been instances of players like this. Take Terrell Owens for example. He never took responsibility for a loss and always made sure any blame landed on someone else. He was shuffled from team to team and always with the same result - he didn't last. Owens has great talent, but
  
• because he's not a team player, he'll always exit early....

After playing for a full year and no longer considered a rookie, it seems obvious that America has recruited a President who continues to exhibit these same toxic characteristics.

• For years Barack Obama wanted to play on the team. No, he begged to play on the team....
  

So with great hope and anticipation for a game changer, America gave the ball to Barack Obama

• late in the fourth quarter when things weren't looking so good....

He reminded team America in the face of this great adversity...

• he inherited this whole situation."...

"The President is No Team Player," American Thinker by Neil Braithwaite, 2/4/10

Labels: Obama fails as a team player

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"Mariano Rivera doesn't count, because he is in a class by himself.

• Perhaps the single most misguided piece of conventional wisdom of the last 15 years is the notion

that any other reliever on earth

• could provide the same results for their team as Mariano Rivera

• has done for the Yankees.

The man is inhuman, and mere mortals

• cannot replicate his results."

Productive Outs and Crackerjack blog, 2/3/10