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sports
Exit sandman
DANIEL STYLER
Staff Writer
In 1996, following a loss to the New York Yankees, the long-time manager of the middling
Minnesota Twins, Tom Kelly, said this about
Yankees’ reliever Mariano Rivera: “We don’t
need to face him anymore. He needs to pitch in
a higher league, if there is one. Ban him from
baseball. He should be illegal.”
The most alarming thing about the above quote
is that it was said a year before Rivera acquired
his most deadly weapon – the cutter. In 1995
and 1996, first as a starting pitcher and then
as a set-up man for John Wetteland, Rivera
threw a straight fastball. In 1997, so the story
goes, Mariano – in his first year as the Yankees
closer – lost his ability to throw his mid-90s
fastball straight.
He hadn’t changed anything – not the grip, nor
the release – and yet suddenly the ball broke
with such fervour towards his glove side as
it approached home plate that his catcher in
the bullpen, Mike Borzello, was nervous. He
was nervous, you see, because the bullpen in
Detroit’s old ballpark, Tiger Stadium, was on
the field and not behind the outfield wall as it is
now in most parks, and he didn’t feel confident
that he could catch whatever it was that Rivera
was throwing: “… if you missed the ball, they
would have to stop the game. And there’s nothing more embarrassing than that.”
For a month or so, Rivera worked with Borzello and his pitching coach, Mel Stottlemyre,
to eliminate the cutting action. Then, they gave
up. It was the right decision.
Mariano has amassed 652 saves (and counting) in his brilliant career – over 50 more than
Trevor Hoffman, who is second on the list with
601 – and has the highest ERA+ in baseball
history at 205. ERA+ is a metric designed to
adjust a pitcher’s ERA (earned run average)
according to the park in which they pitch and
the ERA of the pitcher’s league. Pedro Martinez is a distant second with an ERA+ of 154.
By any measure, Mariano Rivera – or Mo, as he
is better known – is one of the greatest pitchers
of all time.
What makes Mariano’s alarming success so
inconceivable is that – aside from the occasional
“straight” fastball – he exclusively throws his
now patented cutter. Baseball, at its most fundamental level, is about outsmarting the competition. Pitchers bring a deep arsenal to their
intellectual battle with hitters, armed with a
variety of pitches and a variety of locations that
these pitches can be thrown to. Mariano, on the
other hand, brings none of this. He throws a
monday - september 30 - 2013
PICTURED: THE GUY FROM THE METALLICA SONG.
cutt er. And another. And another still. And yet
major league hitters can very rarely make solid
contact with a pitch that they know is coming.
“Enter Sandman,” Metallica’s 1991 single, plays
whenever Mariano Rivera enters a game at
Yankee Stadium. The lyrics are appropriate:
“Exit light/Enter night/Take my hand/We’re
off to never never-land.” For years, Rivera has
put his competition to sleep, ending games
without much in the way of adversity.
Mariano’s regular season accomplishments are
dwarfed only by his postseason achievements.
The New York Yankees’ success as a team
during his career has translated into many
postseason opportunities: he has pitched in
the playoffs in all but three seasons (including
this one, as the Yankees are almost assured of
missing the playoffs for only the second time
since 1995). He has almost always risen to the
occasion; in 141 innings, Rivera has amassed a
hard-to-fathom 0.70 ERA, far lower than his
career regular season ERA of 2.39. It would
be disingenuous to avoid mentioning his two
particularly high-profile playoff failures – the
2001 World Series and the 2004 ALCS. Rivera
has responded to these failures, though, with a
measure of grace and dignity not often demonstrated in the sporting world.
I would be remiss to define Rivera solely in
terms of his sporting achievements. If he is a
great baseball player, he is by all accounts a
better person. The Mariano Rivera Foundation,
founded in 1998 by Mariano and his wife, provides scholarships to underprivileged youths
and sponsors youth centres and churches that
implement educational programs that serve to
benefit underprivileged families in their communities in both Rivera’s native Panama and the
United States. In 2012, the Giving Back Fund,
a non-profit organization that tracks philanthropic giving worldwide, listed Rivera as 25th
most generous celebrity, having donated over
$600 000 of his own money in 2010.
Sometime between the time I write this article and September 29th, Mariano Rivera will
throw his last major league pitch, having
decided to retire following this season. The
2013 season has been a farewell tour of sorts
for Rivera, with organizations across baseball
holding ceremonies and showering him with
gifts and donations to his charity. The gifts
have ranged from the brilliant (a chair made of
broken bats – Mariano’s trademark cutter often
moves in such a way so as to induce a broken
bat – given to him by the Minnesota Twins) to
the absurd (a sandcastle with his likeness etched
in sand given to him by the Tampa Bay Rays).
The affection across baseball has been genuine;
despite being a dominant and feared competitor,
he is universally revered and respected across
the sport.
Since 1997, the Yankees have had a privilege
that no other team has had. They have known
that the 9th inning, a source of anguish and
despair for so many other teams across baseball, has been occupied and accounted for by
the greatest relief pitcher to ever play baseball.
Next year, everything will change. As a Yankees fan, rather than feel a sense of despair, I
am thankful that the “higher league” Tom Kelly
spoke about doesn’t exist and that Mariano
Rivera has been – and will always be – a New
York Yankee.
the obiter dicta