Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Mariano is Yanks most important piece as always-Athlon Sports
- Of top 15 things to watch this year in baseball:
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
