“stared at the baseball before returning to the present”
He was praying as he does before every appearance. He is a devout Christian.
..the era of MO has past, and I’ve enjoy it all..God speed MO.
So, by definition, they must have been Bronx cheers, right?
The only Yankee I cheered and pulled for.
.
P.S. #2 and 3 on the respect list: Torii Hunter and Ben Zobrist, but no one in my lifetime is likely to fill Rivera's shoes.
Well, I hate the Yankees as much as any non-NY fan, but this guy is pure class and the best there ever was at his position. I hope he has a great life in retirement.
I have been a lifelong Yankees fan. I am a Diamondbacks fan. The night that Luis Gonzalez hit Mario Rivera’s fast ball to win the 2001 World Series, I jumped up and down and and screamed and cheered and, and went nuts. But I felt bad for my Brother in Christ, Mr. Rivera. Mr. Rivera will be a difficult act to follow. A class act at that.
It was good to hear Bob Sheppard again. It was great to see #42 run to the mound. He got his outs, then Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte came to get him, and he hugged his longtime teammates. They walked off together, symbolically ending an era.
Mo was the last man in the dugout. He came out to the mound and scooped up a piece of dirt, holding it in his hands as he did his interview with Meredith Marakovits of YES.
As he has done throughout his career, he did it all with grace, class, and dignity. For that, he’ll be missed, as well as for the brilliant performances he gave over his 19-year career. If you’re a Yankee fan and the Yankees were up a run or two after 8, you knew the Sandman was coming and the ballgame was over. To maintain that degree of humility while displaying that level of excellence so consistently is remarkable, especially in this day and age.
Thank you, Mariano.
The Yankees’ YES Network ran comments form players on other teams. Great line from Alex Gordon, the young slugger from the Royals: “I wish he’d stick around so I could get a hit off him.”
I want Mariano Rivera to be the first baseball player to be voted unanimously into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). And there’s a good chance it will happen: the mass media in general has really liked Rivera over the years.