Posted on 01/24/2019 9:23:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
For the first time in history, the 425 voters of the Baseball Hall of Fame elected a Major League Baseball player, Mariano Rivera, by a unanimous vote. Rivera’s latest accomplishment is just as much a testament to the man as to his career.
Mariano Rivera was born in Panama. Known for his athleticism, he was drafted by the New York Yankees as a starting pitcher in the early 1990s. It was around this time that Rivera became a born-again Christian. Moving his way up to the Major Leagues in 1995, Rivera did not achieve great success as a starter, but, late in that season, began pitching very well out of the bullpen and helped lead the Yankees to their first postseason appearance since 1981. The Yankees lost the 1995 postseason, sometimes blamed on not using Rivera enough, but came back with a purpose with Rivera serving as the two-inning set-up man on the 1996 World Series team. He became the closer for the Yankees the next year and accidentally discovered his famous cutter pitch while playing catch. The cutter was not a natural pitch for Rivera and he actually tried to eliminate it for a month before deciding the dipping movement on this special fastball was a gift from God. The rest is history.
Armed with just a single pitch, his cutter, and a pitching glove inscribed with Phil 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me), Rivera helped the New York Yankees to further World Series championships in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2009. Over 19 seasons, Rivera became the all-time major league baseball saves leader. Yet, he was even better in the postseason. His 42 postseason saves and Earned Run Average of 0.70 are also major league records.
CARTOONS | STEVE KELLEY VIEW CARTOON What makes Rivera’s accomplishments all the more remarkable is that he came to success during the Steroid Era without having partaken in the substance at a time when it would have been most tempting for a young rookie to do so. However, to cheat was not in Rivera’s character. Winning was important to him but decency, sportsmanship, and true friendship meant more. Perhaps nowhere was this more evident in what many consider to the greatest World Series ever played, the World Series of 2001 held shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The New York Yankees had been baseball’s dominant team in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, baseball eventually resumed and the Yankees found themselves in the World Series again.
If there was ever a World Series that the nation wanted the New York Yankees to win it was in 2001. The remnants of the World Trade Center were still burning and President George W. Bush was cheered by a Yankee Stadium crowd in New York City as no president has been before or since while America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani cheered on his team with a Yankee hat emblazoned with the initials of the New York City Police and Fire Departments. Rivera’s Yankees had to win the World Series. It was not to be.
With the Yankees leading 2 to 1 in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 and Rivera on the mound, the greatest postseason pitcher in history uncharacteristically blew the lead and the Yankees lost the World Series. This heartbreaking defeat did not seem understandable to many Yankee fans but Rivera took it in stride and said later he was glad that the Yankees lost the Series. If the Yankees had won, his teammate and friend Enrique Wilson would have remained in New York and been on American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed in New York City on November 12, 2001.
The New York Yankees had been baseball’s dominant team in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, baseball eventually resumed and the Yankees found themselves in the World Series again.
If there was ever a World Series that the nation wanted the New York Yankees to win it was in 2001. The remnants of the World Trade Center were still burning and President George W. Bush was cheered by a Yankee Stadium crowd in New York City as no president has been before or since while America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani cheered on his team with a Yankee hat emblazoned with the initials of the New York City Police and Fire Departments. Rivera’s Yankees had to win the World Series. It was not to be.
With the Yankees leading 2 to 1 in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 and Rivera on the mound, the greatest postseason pitcher in history uncharacteristically blew the lead and the Yankees lost the World Series. This heartbreaking defeat did not seem understandable to many Yankee fans but Rivera took it in stride and said later he was glad that the Yankees lost the Series. If the Yankees had won, his teammate and friend Enrique Wilson would have remained in New York and been on American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed in New York City on November 12, 2001.
While his Hall of Fame balloting results are a tremendous, record breaking accomplishment of their own, Rivera would likely be the first to tell us that the glory does not belong to him and that what matters even more than life on the field is life off the field.
Since retiring from baseball Rivera has spent much time with his wife and three sons and is involved in church, church planting, schools, and other interests. He is a philanthropist and businessman, living just north of the city of New York where he first entered the American stage.
Keeping faith in these middle innings of his life, Mariano Rivera should continue to be a shining example for all time as to what you can accomplish if you work hard and give God the glory regardless of the circumstances. Closers finish well and like another great Yankee named Mickey Mantle, who found Jesus in his last days, Rivera’s greatest innings may be yet to come.
He of the Cut Fastball. That thing was unbelievable.
I always wanted to visit Cooperstown. But there’s no way in Hell I will go until Schilling gets in.
He was great, but the only unanimous selection? Over Babe, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson,......... What was wrong with those guys?
I’ve seen similar comments where people say that the Hall is deficient until Bonds, Clemens, and Pete Rose are elected.
But you could make the case the Riviera is head and shoulder above any other relief pitch in MLB history, with the possible exception of Dennis Eckersley.
Schilling isn't in solely because of his political beliefs, those other guys cheated.
good post. to be a church planter is the highest aspiration there is in my opinion.
here, in Mr. Rivera, is the archetypical legal migrant, which the American immigration system ought to aspire to attract and support.
sadly our ruling-class elite seem to prefer the anti-Rivera types.
The reason is simple: there were a bunch of writers on the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) that wouldn't vote in a first-time eligible nominee "out of principle." It's only recently when the BBWAA started to purge those old-time voters that it made it possible for Mariano Rivera to get the unanimous nod.
We love Mo. Saw him in his farewell game at Kansas City Royals in May of 2013. He is a rare athlete and human... Set some pretty high bars that will no doubt challenge future Yankees and MLB players.
“But you could make the case the Riviera is head and shoulder above any other relief pitch in MLB history,”
Maybe, but I give Rollie Fingers bonus points for:
a. The name
b. The ‘stach.
I loooove Mariano Rivera——and I root for the Red Sox.
A class act.
.
My thinking is that these 9th inning relievers, who pitch just one inning, don’t pitch with as much pressure as the relievers of the past. Relievers of the past often pitched 2 or 3 innings, and entered the game with men on base.
The way relief pitchers are used has changed in recent years, and Rivera is symbolic of one who normally pitches only the 9th inning and only is in the game when his team is in the lead.
So what you are saying is that they were “Pelosied” one way or another.
FYI, Pelosied=being the victim of a petty, vengeful shrew.
20 years ago for me as well.
The Hall seems to be about the only thing to do in town, although I’m sure I just arrived at the wrong time of year. They told me they have a baseball tournament or something.
Enjoyed buying a Hall of Fame souvenir card for each player’s autograph I own.
It was my last time in NY.
The Goose deserves some discussion.
http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/33699/goose-gossage-vs-mariano-rivera
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