Mariano Rivera Highlights

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11/29/11, "Happy 42nd To The Last No. 42," Rob Neyer, SB Nation

"According to Baseball-Reference.com, there have been only 25 relief pitchers in major-league history who pitched at least 20 innings in their Age 42 seasons.

Two of them -- two of the very best of them -- were knuckleballers: Hoyt Wilhelm and Dutch Leonard. Two of them pitched during World War II, when anyone with a pulse and a draft exemption was allowed to pitch. One of them was Satchel Paige.

What they haven't been is closers.

With just one exception: Dennis Eckersley.

In 1997, Eckersley's second season with the Cardinals -- but his 11th with Tony La Russa -- he racked up 36 saves. It wasn't a real good season otherwise, though. He blew seven saves, lost five games, and posted a 3.91 ERA.

Eckersley's the only 42-year-old modern closer. For a whole season, anyway....

Mariano Rivera probably isn't going to lose his job in May.

See, Mariano Rivera has shown exactly zero sign of showing his age.

At 41, his walk rate was lower than his career walk rate.

At 41, his strikeout rate was higher than his career strikeout rate.

At 41, his strikeout-to-walk ratio was significantly higher than his career strikeout-to-walk ratio.

And while he doesn't throw quite as hard as he once did, the difference is small enough to be irrelevant."...

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Ed. note: Neyer ends his article talking about number of innings pitched for Rivera in recent years, mistakenly says he's only pitched around 60 innings under Girardi. Rivera pitched 82.1 innings in 2009, not 60. Neyer knows post season exists so ignorance isn't the reason he's leaving it out. Regarding his 2009 effort in particular, don't you wonder why Neyer wouldn't mention it when speaking of Rivera's durability?

• Regarding the "IP" stat alone used to define durability, in 2010 regular season Rivera had 3+ big multi-inning performances that reflect anything but delicate treatment by Girardi,

• getting 12 outs in a 5 day span on June 23 and June 27 and getting the W for both.

• He also pitched 2 innings Sept. 10 at Texas but wasn't involved in the decision.
  

• He pitched 2 saves in one day on May 26, 2010 which doesn't show up in public stats.

The 16 innings Rivera threw in the 2009 post season meant his season ended on Nov. 4. MLB was all worried about SF Giants pitchers' "short offseason" after their big World Series. Rivera himself wouldn't want people fussing over his durability but it's interesting that his 'short 2009 offseason' wasn't mentioned by Neyer.

• How would Neyer like it if a book was published about him and left out his best work?
  

Add 6.1IP to Rivera's 2010, and 1.1IP to 2011. 2011 of course didn't see much of Rivera but he was used to get out of a bases-loaded jam which he did with 3 pitches in game 1. In ALDS game 5 he got 3 Tigers out with a total of 5 pitches. The Yankees were down 3-2, so it have helped but that was the end of it.

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1/14/11, MLB.com, "Giants' pitchers arming themselves against short offseason," by Chris Haft

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From the visiting manager's office regarding Rivera's 2011 post season:

11/21/11, "11/21/11, "Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 6. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer." Tom Verducci

"Awe does not come easily to the baseball men who endure the relentless rigors and inevitable failures of the 162-game season. But awe it was, mixed with cigarette smoke, that filled the visiting manager's office at Yankee Stadium last October as Tigers manager Jim Leyland and his coaching staff reflected upon what they had just witnessed.

The Tigers had just pulled off a stunning, cork-popping victory, eliminating the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, 3-2, in the fifth game of the American League Division Series. Only one other team, the 1926 Cardinals, ever had knocked out the Yankees in a one-run, sudden death postseason game at Yankee Stadium.

"Unbelievable," Detroit first-base coach Tom Brookens said. "Never seen anything like it and we probably never will again."

Leyland, hitting coach Lloyd McClendon and third base coach Gene Lamont each added his own version of baseball hallelujahs.

It was not the victory, big as it was, that inspired such wonder. Instead, these baseball lifers shared their amazement about the last Yankees pitcher, a guy who has been pitching in the big leagues for 17 seasons and turns 42 this month. The greatness and wonder of Mariano Rivera is hardly new, but you could say the same about the Grand Canyon, another national treasure that's been around a while

• and still causes jaws to drop.

Rivera threw five pitches in the ninth inning, all of them strikes, all of them wicked cutters, to dismiss three Tigers hitters with ease rarely seen in the big leagues. (For the series, he faced four batters and retired them all with eight pitches, all of them strikes.)"...

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11/26/11, "Mariano Rivera Foundation Delivers Thanksgiving Dinners for The Guidance Center Clients," New Rochelle Talk of the Sound

Rivera's wife Clara is 2 people to his left, smiling.

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"It was not the victory, big as it was, that inspired such wonder. Instead, these baseball lifers shared their amazement about the last Yankees pitcher"...

11/21/11, "Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 6. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer."

"Awe does not come easily to the baseball men who endure the relentless rigors and inevitable failures of the 162-game season. But awe it was, mixed with cigarette smoke, that filled the visiting manager's office at Yankee Stadium last October as Tigers manager Jim Leyland and his coaching staff reflected upon what they had just witnessed.

The Tigers had just pulled off a stunning, cork-popping victory, eliminating the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, 3-2, in the fifth game of the American League Division Series. Only one other team, the 1926 Cardinals, ever had knocked out the Yankees in a one-run, sudden death postseason game at Yankee Stadium.

"Unbelievable," Detroit first-base coach Tom Brookens said. "Never seen anything like it and we probably never will again."

Leyland, hitting coach Lloyd McClendon and third base coach Gene Lamont each added his own version of baseball hallelujahs.

It was not the victory, big as it was, that inspired such wonder. Instead, these baseball lifers shared their amazement about the last Yankees pitcher, a guy who has been pitching in the big leagues for 17 seasons and turns 42 this month. The greatness and wonder of Mariano Rivera is hardly new, but you could say the same about the Grand Canyon, another national treasure that's been around a while

• and still causes jaws to drop.

Rivera threw five pitches in the ninth inning, all of them strikes, all of them wicked cutters, to dismiss three Tigers hitters with ease rarely seen in the big leagues. (For the series, he faced four batters and retired them all with eight pitches, all of them strikes.)

What Rivera can do with a baseball -- make it cut so much so late at the edges of the plate -- would induce astonishment if it was performed by a strong-armed kid fresh out of the minors. That he still does it well past 40, with the same angular body and metronomic delivery all these years, multiplies the awe factor.

Still, if consistency is the very essence of Rivera, it has left his greatness a rather quiet one when it comes to national attention. Devoid of controversy, major injuries, self-aggrandizement or the need for comeback seasons, Rivera offers the same, simple narrative. He simply just keeps getting hitters out with one pitch while maintaining the proper, gentlemanly carriage of baseball royalty.

Even while breaking the all-time record for saves this year -- the mark of 602 was held by Trevor Hoffman -- Rivera remained the epitome of understated elegance. The story came and went quickly and quietly, in part because it left no room for debate; Rivera had been considered

• the greatest relief pitcher ever even without the record.

Truth is, you could consider Rivera SI's Sportsman of the Year almost every year, such is his consistency of performance and character. But the occasion of becoming the all-time saves king is a new, good reason to pick him as my Sportsman. And when I thought about Rivera for this award, I thought about the words and faces of those Tigers coaches. No player in the sport commands more professional respect than Rivera. But that night reminded me that Rivera is still so clearly the very best at his specific sports discipline -- both all time and currently. About whom else can that be said in all of sports?

Rivera posted a 1.91 ERA, his 11th season with an ERA less than 2.00, tying the great Walter Johnson for the most sub-2.00 ERA seasons of at least 60 innings. (No one else has more than six.) He faced 233 batters and walked only six of them unintentionally, tying his career low set in 2008. His strikeout-to-walk rate of 7.5 was the second best of his career. And the 1 1/3 shutout innings in the ALDS lowered his career postseason ERA to 0.70 across 96 games and 141 innings.

On the occasion of his record-breaking save, in a game Sept. 19 against Minnesota, Rivera virtually was pushed to the mound by teammates to accept the congratulations of the crowd, not too dissimilar to the humble Roger Maris being coaxed into a curtain call by his Yankees teammates in 1961 upon breaking the single season home run record.

Rivera was seated next to his three sons at his postgame news conference when he was asked to describe the moment. "Oh my God," he said. "For the first time in my career I'm on the mound alone. There's no one behind me, no one in front of me. I can't describe that feeling because it was priceless."...

Rivera has been generous with his time to fellow big leaguers -- watching fellow All-Star pitchers trying to tap into his time and knowledge at All-Star Games is impressive -- but even more importantly to his communities in New York and Panama through his charitable foundation. Few athletes of such greatness project such humility as does Rivera.

When I once asked him what he thought about how he is revered, Rivera replied, "You know, it's a good question, because I don't think about it. I really focus on trying to do the right thing. Then I forget what people think about me or what players think about me."

Rivera gives respect as much as he gets it, a trait groomed by his father, a hard-working Panamanian fisherman who told him to treat every person as if they were an uncle or part of the family.

"That's important," he said. "I always do that. I don't wait for people to give me respect. I always give them respect. Any player. Even a rookie, an old player, a veteran . . . I always respect them. I never try to show up nobody. I go to my business. I always take time for somebody who wants to talk to me. That's my thing."

Rivera, a man of deep faith, has spoken often and eloquently about his blessed life. The cutter itself, he insists, was a gift God gave him suddenly in 1997.

One of the remarkable aspects of this remarkable career is that we have seen no diminution to it. The pain of watching our sports icons slowly devolve never has applied to Rivera. Such pain isn't always as deep as Willie Mays as a Met or Joe Namath as a Ram. Sometimes it's just the sight of Mickey Mantle, his gait compromised by bad knees, going out as a .237 hitter at the age of 36.

Ultimately there must be a day when there is no more of Rivera, glove in his right hand, jogging in from the bullpen as "Enter Sandman" plays over Yankee Stadium, the familiar tableau of a game as good as over. But what he has done in the meantime is push away the twilight like very few in sports ever have done. The constancy of Rivera is worthy not just of recognition, but awe indeed."

11/21/11, "My Sportsman, Mariano Rivera," Tom Verducci

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11/18/11, "Tim Tebow as football closer, 'Enter Sandman'?" Huliq, Paula Duffy

"While there were a couple of Jets secondary players in the area when Tebow crossed the goal line, they stayed put. Who would want to get in the way of a 240+ man who is running towards you with a full head of steam? Not the Jets corners, that is for certain.

The closer role is not one officially designated on the roster of football teams. Arguably you could say that place kickers perform that function when a field goal can settle a close or tied contest....

What is it about the final few minutes that takes Tebow into the gear in which he seemingly can't be stopped? He says its his competitive spirit. He's got the baseball closer mentality, except that he's saving his own game....

Move over Mariano Rivera or just hello Tim Tebow? Either way it works."

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"Mariano Rivera 2011 Highlights," by True Yankee Forever. Tremendous job, True

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"There is a tendency for players to hang on in the hope of reaching such a number, believing immortality is attached to statistic rather than the player."

• 11/3/11, "Admire Records of Skill, Not Those of Will," Real Clear Sports, Jeff Neuman

"To what extent is Paterno responsible for Penn State's won-lost record today? If he were not a coaching icon chasing a record, would he still have the job?

A record like this perpetuates itself. Because it exists, people will chase it, and by doing so they distort the thing it is supposed to measure.

All records are not alike; some are meaningful, others are just static. The meaningful ones reflect the body of work of an athlete and feel as though they were set in the natural course of events.

Mariano Rivera passed Trevor Hoffman in September to take the all-time lead in saves. It is fitting and right that the man who is almost certainly the greatest closer in baseball history should have the record for saves. There was nothing ceremonial about the occasion;

• he came in to finish the game, not to achieve a number.

Contrast this with Pete Rose's pursuit of the all-time hits record. Over the last five years of his career, his triple-slash averages (batting/on-base/slugging) were .261/.348/.315, for an OPS of .662 - as a first baseman. Using baseball-reference.com's Wins Above Replacement numbers, Rose had a WAR from 1982-86 of -2.4; his performance cost his teams nearly two and a half wins compared not to the league average, but to the level of readily available players in AAA.

He averaged nearly 500 plate appearances in those five seasons. His name was written into the lineup - 217 times in his own handwriting - solely so he could break a record. The number 4,256 is a product of that distortion,

• not an accounting of his accomplishments as a useful ballplayer.

Nolan Ryan obliterated the career strikeout record formerly held by Walter Johnson, passing the Big Train's total of 3,509 in 1983 when Ryan still had 11 seasons and 2,204 Ks left in his arm....

The ultimate record of choice is Cal Ripken's mark of 2,632 consecutive games played. Day in, day out, there he was at shortstop and in the meat of the batting order. Am I alone in thinking this record is not only not worth much, but it's not even all that admirable? Might Cal have benefited from a day off every now and then? Might his late-season performances - .748 OPS in regular-season September and October games vs. .796 in the other months - have been better if he'd gotten some rest? Regardless of what you think of the man and his character,

• The Streak is undeniably a record he chose to set....

We often see the tyranny of numbers when a player is approaching a round milestone: 300 wins, 3,000 hits or 600 home runs. There is a tendency for players to hang on in the hope of reaching such a number, believing immortality is attached to statistic rather than the player.

Derek Jeter is a Hall of Famer whether or not he reached 3,000 hits. Johnny Damon is not, whether or not he hangs around to get there. Five hundred home runs won't get Gary Sheffield into the Hall of Fame. His last two seasons got him past the number, but his negative WAR for the seasons is a better reflection of what he gave his teams.

Is Paterno's mark at this point a record of will or of skill? Of choice, or of accomplishment?

There are many reasons to consider Paterno one of the greatest college football coaches who ever lived. The fact that he won more games than Eddie Robinson or Bear Bryant or Amos Alonzo Stagg (but not John Gagliardi)

• is one of the lesser ones."

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Above might help Gossage and Couch but I doubt it. The millions in media publicity leading up to and following accumulations of the 'regular season total save stat' by Eric Gagne (which got him a Cy Young Award), Frankie Rodriguez (who said the record was very important in his country of Venezuela), and Hoffman didn't enrage them. Nor did the fact that 'regular season saves' of these 3 were not in a pennant race, were low difficulty, could be pursued outside the needs of the team, and didn't reflect losses and other matters. The 'regular season total save stat' appears to be something the media use to alternately build up or tear down various players. Without it, what would they talk about a good bit of the time? The point is, Rivera's team never had the luxury of using him to achieve an individual record such as the 'regular season total save stat.' He only got the record because the team needed him to go out and pitch that day. The media couldn't very well ignore that he did it after giving so much hype to other guys. Nonetheless, among the first questions to Joe Girardi in the press room after the game when Rivera got the record was, "Why do you think this should be a big deal for someone who only pitches one inning?" Perhaps the media person mistook Rivera for Frankie Rodriguez who in fact got his "saves" record by never pitching more than one inning. Rivera has never been that guy, has always pitched multiple innings which don't always get reported because they might have been recorded as Wins rather than saves, or may not have been labeled in a game's final outcome. The 6 times he had two saves in one day weren't recorded as "multiple inning appearances" either. The other team has always known that Rivera if needed can come in any time from the 8th inning on. And the majority of his many years of post season appearances have been multiple inning appearances. So this was just someone making himself feel big and important by defaming Rivera in a public venue. In a roomful of people some of whom may have been among those dying to give a Cy Young award--immortality--in 2003 to a pitcher for doing a similar kind of job- a job now miraculously transformed into a joke, something about which to demean Rivera for all the world to hear. (Including Bud Selig, an outspoken supporter of the previous record-holder Mr. Hoffman for whom the save stat meant a great deal.) Rivera had won no prize, nothing. He was going to pitch anyway. Many said the 'regular season save' total is incidental to his career, a nice touch and well deserved, but doesn't begin to tell his story. Which leads me to one conclusion. The incessant, unprofessional, uninformed, and profane vomit from a man now exploiting the same uniform Mariano Rivera still wears as an active player indicates an individual in need of serious emotional help. If the Yankees had a front office or an owner who cared at all about the franchise they would have taken Gossage quietly aside long ago and told him to shut up. And that a poisonous, negative person such as himself is no longer welcome at Yankee spring training. Yankee ownership is obviously not interested in the team, only in making money. Why should fans care if they don't? I'll fill in with more links later. ed.

• Reference: 10/31/11, "Silly Goose: Mariano Rivera and the Myth of the Seven-Out Save," Kevin Baker, Guest at Baseball Prospectus, "Baseball ProGuestUs"

"If they want to contribute something, Goose Gossage and Greg Couch should take up the worthy cause of getting some of Goose’s other contemporaries into the Hall with him....In trying to denigrate what Mariano Rivera has accomplished, they only make themselves look foolish."