Speaking of. What did DS do? He has been gone a long time
I don't know, i asked but nobody's spilling the beans, but i believe it's a lifetime ban. he could be annoy as f*** in this thread, but i hate to see that happen to anyone.
Oh shit. Wow. Yeah, I hear you
I just noticed that when you mentioned it just now.
Reading 2004
Albany 2006 Camden 2006 E. Rutherford 2, 2006 Inglewood 2006,
Chicago 2007
Camden 2008 MSG 2008 MSG 2008 Hartford 2008.
Seattle 2009 Seattle 2009 Philadelphia 2009,Philadelphia 2009 Philadelphia 2009
Hartford 2010 MSG 2010 MSG 2010
Toronto 2011,Toronto 2011
Wrigley Field 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Philadelphia 2, 2013
Philadelphia 1, 2016 Philadelphia 2 2016 New York 2016 New York 2016 Fenway 1, 2016 Fenway 2, 2018 MSG 2022 St. Paul, 1, St. Paul 2 2023 MSG 2024, MSG 2024 Philadelphia 2024
"I play good, hard-nosed basketball.
Things happen in the game. Nothing you
can do. I don't go and say,
"I'm gonna beat this guy up."
Strained tendon? Isn’t that the Jose Bautista injury?
In short, yes. Cashman said as much: “(Dr. Ahmad) said it’s a common injury,” Cashman said. “It happens a lot with hitters. It’s the same one Bautista had last year. Well, similar. I can’t tell you it’s the same because I don’t know the severity. Bautista’s might have been a lot worse, but that’s what Bautista had at Yankee Stadium last year.”
Bautista eventually had season-ending surgery. So far, there are no plans for Teixeira to have surgery. Cashman said he was told that a full four-weeks of rest is the way to go. It’s worth noting that Bautista rested for only 12 days before trying to play again, and after a series of setbacks, he eventually had surgery. Obviously, the Yankees are trying to avoid that.
Why not put Kevin Youkilis at first base?
He did win a Gold Glove over there in 2007, but the down side is probably obvious. Moving Youkilis only opens a hole at third base. “First is always an easier position to fill than third,” Cashman said.
Basically, the Yankees could either try Eduardo Nunez at third base, play Jayson Nix regularly at third base, or go with either Dan Johnson or Juan Rivera at first base. I guess there are other internal options — maybe Ronnier Mustelier at third, Luke Murton at first — but those seem to be at the top of the list if you’re looking internally. Clearly, Youkilis could shift to first if the Yankees happen to find a third baseman.
“I’m not dismissing,” Joe Girardi said. “But it’s kind of like the Ichiro/Gardy thing. Depending on who we break with, depends on where Youk could possibly go.”
Will be interesting to see what happens, not sure about Nunez at third. Carlos Lee is still out there but he supposedly doesn't want to play in NY, apparently he blocked a trade to the yanks that the marlins had in place at the deadline.
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
There's probably a solid 75 home runs from that lineup, ya know one every other game or so :fp:
my giants win WS's with that kind of production
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
There's probably a solid 75 home runs from that lineup, ya know one every other game or so :fp:
my giants win WS's with that kind of production
Twice
FUCK YEAH!!!!
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Via Joel Sherman: Mariano Rivera will hold a press conference on Saturday morning to announce his retirement from baseball following the 2013 season. He could always change his mind between now and then, but don’t count on it. The press conference is scheduled for 10am ET in Tampa.
Via Joel Sherman: Mariano Rivera will hold a press conference on Saturday morning to announce his retirement from baseball following the 2013 season. He could always change his mind between now and then, but don’t count on it. The press conference is scheduled for 10am ET in Tampa.
GOAT
I feared this would happen. oh i read this wrong, thought he was calling it quits today.
Marianos retirng is the end of an era.
Love this guy.
" I get the ball,
I throw the ball,
I take a shower "
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
That was the first time I saw him pitch in person when he was a starting pitcher. Game is more remembered for the Yankees losing despite Mike Stanley hitting three home runs.
This is a feature story I wrote about what it's like to face him from Sept. 2011 as he was approaching the all-time saves leader.
On his journey to becoming the second to 600 saves and the all-time saves leader, hundreds of hitters have seen Mariano Rivera’s famed cut fastball. Those hitters have ranged from future hall of famers, journeymen, players with brief careers and future teammates.
Rivera has faced seven of his current teammates (Eric Chavez, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Andruw Jones, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Russell Martin) at least once. Including postseason play, they are 16-for-55 with two home runs and 12 strikeouts off Rivera and recently METRO recently caught up with four of them to discuss what it is like to face that pitch.
Leading off is Mark Teixeira, who was 1-for-9 with two strikeouts from 2004-2008 with the Rangers and Angels. Teixeira’s first appearance against Rivera was June 6, 2004 and his lone hit was a single on August 11, 2005.
Teixeira has seen 18 pitches from Rivera and wondered how on earth he was going to hit the pitch, especially from the left side of the plate and reminisced about those at-bats.
“It was really, how am I supposed to hit that – honestly,” Teixeira said. “When Mo makes his pitches, you can’t hit them. The cutter is such a good pitch when he puts it in the right location. That’s why he has been so great for so long.
“People said don’t bring up your good bat because chances are you’re going to break it.
“It was probably a weak broken bat hit somewhere because I faced him when he was throwing 95 miles an hour and at the top of his game. Even though he’s low 90s now, he’s still at the top of his game.
“He was everything and more and he could do it all. I’m really happy to be a teammate of his so I don’t have to face him now.
Next up is Curtis Granderson, who was 2-for-5 with a home run off Rivera from 2007-2009 as a Tiger. Granderson’s first time against Rivera was a three-pitch strikeout in the 11th inning May 30, 2006 and his home run was April 2009.
Granderson has seen 17 pitches from Rivera and what struck him is the movement. He estimated the pitch moves about a foot from right to left and it’s something that only those who step in the batter’s box can truly see and begin to comprehend.
“You got a chance to see the ball move as much as it does because I never played behind him and I never really watched him on TV much,” Granderson said. “It’s hard to get a read on how much the ball is actually moving until you actually step in the box.
“You still can’t see it as much as you can from hitting it because a lot of pitches he throws are around the zone and you get a lot of swing and misses. You try to figure out why because it looked like they were there but the deception and the amount of movement it has, you can start to understand more why there is a lot of swing and misses.”
Nick Swisher has about the same amount of experience against Rivera as Granderson. In a span of nine months from Sept. 2005 through June 2006, Swisher faced Rivera four times. While seeing 17 pitches, Swisher flied out the first time also singled and in the last appearance he struck out swinging.
Swisher was a 24-year-old rookie for the Athletics when he first stepped in against Rivera. He didn’t do too much thinking other than being amazed at facing Rivera.
“I didn’t really think that much of it. I was like holy ***, man, I’m in the box against Mariano Rivera and I’m hitting a missile right here,” Swisher said. “I think just in general for someone to go that long in his career, throwing one pitch - that’s pretty impressive.”
Rivera had accumulated 84 saves when Eric Chavez stepped in for the first of his 19 at-bats on April 6, 1999 in Oakland. In his first at-bat, Rivera struck him out. Their paths also intersected in the 2000 and 2001 ALDS with Chavez making the final out of the 2000 series.
Chavez saw 29 pitches between 2002 and April 21, 2010. That was Chavez’s last at-bat against Rivera and was the latest one to leave him puzzled by the movement of the pitch.
“It was what you would expect it to be,” Chavez said. “You just knew you were going to get a cutter and there was a pretty good chance that if you were a left-hand hitter he was going to break your bat.
“If I faced him 12 or 15 times, I’d probably say he broke five or six bats.
“He was your typical 96 with a huge cutter. It was quite puzzling how a ball could move out.
They were four hitters facing Rivera from the left side of the plate. Now they are four teammates on the same side of the clubhouse marveling at seeing the cut fastball.
Reading 2004
Albany 2006 Camden 2006 E. Rutherford 2, 2006 Inglewood 2006,
Chicago 2007
Camden 2008 MSG 2008 MSG 2008 Hartford 2008.
Seattle 2009 Seattle 2009 Philadelphia 2009,Philadelphia 2009 Philadelphia 2009
Hartford 2010 MSG 2010 MSG 2010
Toronto 2011,Toronto 2011
Wrigley Field 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Philadelphia 2, 2013
Philadelphia 1, 2016 Philadelphia 2 2016 New York 2016 New York 2016 Fenway 1, 2016 Fenway 2, 2018 MSG 2022 St. Paul, 1, St. Paul 2 2023 MSG 2024, MSG 2024 Philadelphia 2024
"I play good, hard-nosed basketball.
Things happen in the game. Nothing you
can do. I don't go and say,
"I'm gonna beat this guy up."
There can be a argument made that not only is he the greatest closer but also the greatest pitcher of all time.
no.....there can't be :nono:
If I had known then what I know now...
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Yankees great Mariano Rivera to retire - no one in Major League Baseball history was better at his job than future Hall of Fame closer Babe Ruth was the greatest Yankee hitter, Rivera is absolutely the Babe Ruth of Yankee pitchers. The great Rivera will leave as the Yankee immortal who never had a bad season in his life, who was better at what he did than any Yankee who ever played the game.
Mariano Rivera is expected to announce his retirement on Saturday morning in Tampa, announce that this will be his last season with the Yankees, announce the beginning of what will be one of the best and longest and most emotional goodbyes in all of Yankee history.
“No one will ever have to tell me when it is time to leave,” he told me once in front of his locker.
So now he has decided it is time to leave, No. 42 telling us that at the age of 43, at the end of a career that stands with anything any Yankee has ever produced, on either side of 161st St.
He will leave with pitching accomplishments that stand with the hitting accomplishments of Babe Ruth, leave with the grace of Joe DiMaggio, leave as someone who deserves his own monument at Monument Park as much as anybody who has ever worn the pinstriped uniform. Ruth was the greatest Yankee hitter, Rivera is absolutely the Babe Ruth of Yankee pitchers. Start there.
And here: The great Rivera will leave as the Yankee immortal who never had a bad season in his life, who was better at what he did — the ninth inning, at the old Stadium and the new one — than any Yankee who ever played the game.
Someday there will be a Mariano Rivera Day at the Stadium, and they will officially retire the last No. 42, Jackie Robinson’s number, that anybody will ever wear in baseball. You know that will be a fine celebration of everything he has been as a pitcher, a day to remember everything he has been as one of the lasting gentlemen of sports, here or anywhere else.
But when that does happen, what we will remember best is the end of all the important baseball nights of his career.
Remember when the door in the outfield wall would open and “Enter Sandman” would play over the Stadium loudspeakers, and he would come running to the pitcher’s mound and get the last three outs of another Yankee victory.
Ruth was the first to make home runs glamorous in baseball, to make the Yankees matter. Ruth, in all the important ways, was the beginning of the Yankees. All this time after Ruth, here came Rivera with his cut fastball and his champion’s nerve and champion’s heart, to get those last three outs. He was all those endings, over all the years, the most memorable of them in October, some of them even in November.
“Think about what it will be like when he’s gone,” Buck Showalter said a few years ago, Showalter remembering first seeing the skinny kid from Panama on a back field in Fort Lauderdale one spring, long before the world would know his name.
“You look around baseball,” Showalter said, “and everybody has closer issues eventually. Everybody except the Yankees.
Closers come and closers go. Except Mo never goes anywhere.”
The only time he stopped closing games and stopped closing Yankee seasons was last season, one that ended much too early when Rivera’s knee gave out while he was chasing fly balls before a game against the Royals in Kansas City, and you thought that might be the end for him right there.
But if Rivera would know when it was time to leave, he would also go out on his own terms. He not only tried to rehab that knee in a hurry at the age of 42, he actually thought he might somehow make it back for the playoffs. He did not. But he would come back for one more season, now expected to be his last.
He will retire with more saves than anybody in regular-season history and with more saves than anybody in postseason history, the number currently at 42. The number on his back.
“Sometimes,” he told me once, “the only person they can compare you to is you.”
He is a relief pitcher, a power relief pitcher, who will be a month short of his 44th birthday if he helps pitch the Yankees to one more October. You look at all the big games he has pitched, from the time he was setting up John Wetteland when the Yankees won their first World Series under Joe Torre in 1996, and have a right to ask yourself how you can say that there was ever a better money player in professional sports history.
Michael Jordan made a lot of game-winning baskets and Derek Jeter has gotten all those big postseason hits. Then you put all that against all the big games Rivera has closed, all the ninth innings that belonged to him, all the bats and hearts he has broken on the other team.
So he is right: You only compare Rivera to Rivera. The fastballs, the longevity, the extraordinary consistency and excellence. And grace.
“He has changed less than anybody I’ve ever known in baseball,” Showalter was saying again the other day. “He came in a gentleman and leaves a gentleman.”
Say it again: Nobody you have ever seen in baseball, no hitter or pitcher, was ever better at his job as Rivera has been at his.
Now it is supposed to be coming to an end, the closer expected to talk on Saturday about the closing act for him, the oldest man in baseball still prepared to show all the young guys how to do it, with a right arm that has never gotten old. Somehow it is 10 years ago since that Game 7 against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series when he pitched three innings because that’s what was needed of him to get the Yankees to another World Series, ready to pitch all night if that’s what it took.
“I have always known who I am,” he says.
So have we. Oh man, so have we. Sometime this season there will be one last ninth inning for the great Rivera, and for us all.
Exit Sandman.
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Holy shit I can't believe Lupica actually wrote a positive article about the yankees.
Clearly I don't read the NY papers, but I'm guessing he doesn't like the Yankees.
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
As awesome as derek jeter is, and he is my favorite Yankee of all time, I can't argue with people who feel that way about Mo. Literally the best in the history if the game at what he does. Wil be interesting to see the reaction he gets this year
Comments
I just noticed that when you mentioned it just now.
Albany 2006 Camden 2006 E. Rutherford 2, 2006 Inglewood 2006,
Chicago 2007
Camden 2008 MSG 2008 MSG 2008 Hartford 2008.
Seattle 2009 Seattle 2009 Philadelphia 2009,Philadelphia 2009 Philadelphia 2009
Hartford 2010 MSG 2010 MSG 2010
Toronto 2011,Toronto 2011
Wrigley Field 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Philadelphia 2, 2013
Philadelphia 1, 2016 Philadelphia 2 2016 New York 2016 New York 2016 Fenway 1, 2016
Fenway 2, 2018
MSG 2022
St. Paul, 1, St. Paul 2 2023
MSG 2024, MSG 2024
Philadelphia 2024
"I play good, hard-nosed basketball.
Things happen in the game. Nothing you
can do. I don't go and say,
"I'm gonna beat this guy up."
In short, yes. Cashman said as much: “(Dr. Ahmad) said it’s a common injury,” Cashman said. “It happens a lot with hitters. It’s the same one Bautista had last year. Well, similar. I can’t tell you it’s the same because I don’t know the severity. Bautista’s might have been a lot worse, but that’s what Bautista had at Yankee Stadium last year.”
Bautista eventually had season-ending surgery. So far, there are no plans for Teixeira to have surgery. Cashman said he was told that a full four-weeks of rest is the way to go. It’s worth noting that Bautista rested for only 12 days before trying to play again, and after a series of setbacks, he eventually had surgery. Obviously, the Yankees are trying to avoid that.
Why not put Kevin Youkilis at first base?
He did win a Gold Glove over there in 2007, but the down side is probably obvious. Moving Youkilis only opens a hole at third base. “First is always an easier position to fill than third,” Cashman said.
Basically, the Yankees could either try Eduardo Nunez at third base, play Jayson Nix regularly at third base, or go with either Dan Johnson or Juan Rivera at first base. I guess there are other internal options — maybe Ronnier Mustelier at third, Luke Murton at first — but those seem to be at the top of the list if you’re looking internally. Clearly, Youkilis could shift to first if the Yankees happen to find a third baseman.
“I’m not dismissing,” Joe Girardi said. “But it’s kind of like the Ichiro/Gardy thing. Depending on who we break with, depends on where Youk could possibly go.”
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/
Will be interesting to see what happens, not sure about Nunez at third. Carlos Lee is still out there but he supposedly doesn't want to play in NY, apparently he blocked a trade to the yanks that the marlins had in place at the deadline.
Don't kill me, please.
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
It's Cool, Tino earned the Love,and under a big shadow of Mattingly and N.Y.
Bernie never offically retired, he's gotten a bit pudgy, but the staduim would loose it if 51took the feild.
my giants win WS's with that kind of production
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Twice
FUCK YEAH!!!!
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
GOAT
I feared this would happen. oh i read this wrong, thought he was calling it quits today.
Love this guy.
" I get the ball,
I throw the ball,
I take a shower "
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
That was the first time I saw him pitch in person when he was a starting pitcher. Game is more remembered for the Yankees losing despite Mike Stanley hitting three home runs.
This is a feature story I wrote about what it's like to face him from Sept. 2011 as he was approaching the all-time saves leader.
On his journey to becoming the second to 600 saves and the all-time saves leader, hundreds of hitters have seen Mariano Rivera’s famed cut fastball. Those hitters have ranged from future hall of famers, journeymen, players with brief careers and future teammates.
Rivera has faced seven of his current teammates (Eric Chavez, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Andruw Jones, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Russell Martin) at least once. Including postseason play, they are 16-for-55 with two home runs and 12 strikeouts off Rivera and recently METRO recently caught up with four of them to discuss what it is like to face that pitch.
Leading off is Mark Teixeira, who was 1-for-9 with two strikeouts from 2004-2008 with the Rangers and Angels. Teixeira’s first appearance against Rivera was June 6, 2004 and his lone hit was a single on August 11, 2005.
Teixeira has seen 18 pitches from Rivera and wondered how on earth he was going to hit the pitch, especially from the left side of the plate and reminisced about those at-bats.
“It was really, how am I supposed to hit that – honestly,” Teixeira said. “When Mo makes his pitches, you can’t hit them. The cutter is such a good pitch when he puts it in the right location. That’s why he has been so great for so long.
“People said don’t bring up your good bat because chances are you’re going to break it.
“It was probably a weak broken bat hit somewhere because I faced him when he was throwing 95 miles an hour and at the top of his game. Even though he’s low 90s now, he’s still at the top of his game.
“He was everything and more and he could do it all. I’m really happy to be a teammate of his so I don’t have to face him now.
Next up is Curtis Granderson, who was 2-for-5 with a home run off Rivera from 2007-2009 as a Tiger. Granderson’s first time against Rivera was a three-pitch strikeout in the 11th inning May 30, 2006 and his home run was April 2009.
Granderson has seen 17 pitches from Rivera and what struck him is the movement. He estimated the pitch moves about a foot from right to left and it’s something that only those who step in the batter’s box can truly see and begin to comprehend.
“You got a chance to see the ball move as much as it does because I never played behind him and I never really watched him on TV much,” Granderson said. “It’s hard to get a read on how much the ball is actually moving until you actually step in the box.
“You still can’t see it as much as you can from hitting it because a lot of pitches he throws are around the zone and you get a lot of swing and misses. You try to figure out why because it looked like they were there but the deception and the amount of movement it has, you can start to understand more why there is a lot of swing and misses.”
Nick Swisher has about the same amount of experience against Rivera as Granderson. In a span of nine months from Sept. 2005 through June 2006, Swisher faced Rivera four times. While seeing 17 pitches, Swisher flied out the first time also singled and in the last appearance he struck out swinging.
Swisher was a 24-year-old rookie for the Athletics when he first stepped in against Rivera. He didn’t do too much thinking other than being amazed at facing Rivera.
“I didn’t really think that much of it. I was like holy ***, man, I’m in the box against Mariano Rivera and I’m hitting a missile right here,” Swisher said. “I think just in general for someone to go that long in his career, throwing one pitch - that’s pretty impressive.”
Rivera had accumulated 84 saves when Eric Chavez stepped in for the first of his 19 at-bats on April 6, 1999 in Oakland. In his first at-bat, Rivera struck him out. Their paths also intersected in the 2000 and 2001 ALDS with Chavez making the final out of the 2000 series.
Chavez saw 29 pitches between 2002 and April 21, 2010. That was Chavez’s last at-bat against Rivera and was the latest one to leave him puzzled by the movement of the pitch.
“It was what you would expect it to be,” Chavez said. “You just knew you were going to get a cutter and there was a pretty good chance that if you were a left-hand hitter he was going to break your bat.
“If I faced him 12 or 15 times, I’d probably say he broke five or six bats.
“He was your typical 96 with a huge cutter. It was quite puzzling how a ball could move out.
They were four hitters facing Rivera from the left side of the plate. Now they are four teammates on the same side of the clubhouse marveling at seeing the cut fastball.
Albany 2006 Camden 2006 E. Rutherford 2, 2006 Inglewood 2006,
Chicago 2007
Camden 2008 MSG 2008 MSG 2008 Hartford 2008.
Seattle 2009 Seattle 2009 Philadelphia 2009,Philadelphia 2009 Philadelphia 2009
Hartford 2010 MSG 2010 MSG 2010
Toronto 2011,Toronto 2011
Wrigley Field 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Brooklyn 2013 Philadelphia 2, 2013
Philadelphia 1, 2016 Philadelphia 2 2016 New York 2016 New York 2016 Fenway 1, 2016
Fenway 2, 2018
MSG 2022
St. Paul, 1, St. Paul 2 2023
MSG 2024, MSG 2024
Philadelphia 2024
"I play good, hard-nosed basketball.
Things happen in the game. Nothing you
can do. I don't go and say,
"I'm gonna beat this guy up."
greatest closer of all-time. im shocked he came back after the knee...so who's next in line to close
There can be a argument made that not only is he the greatest closer but also the greatest pitcher of all time.
no.....there can't be :nono:
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... -1.1282867
Yankees great Mariano Rivera to retire - no one in Major League Baseball history was better at his job than future Hall of Fame closer
Babe Ruth was the greatest Yankee hitter, Rivera is absolutely the Babe Ruth of Yankee pitchers. The great Rivera will leave as the Yankee immortal who never had a bad season in his life, who was better at what he did than any Yankee who ever played the game.
Mariano Rivera is expected to announce his retirement on Saturday morning in Tampa, announce that this will be his last season with the Yankees, announce the beginning of what will be one of the best and longest and most emotional goodbyes in all of Yankee history.
“No one will ever have to tell me when it is time to leave,” he told me once in front of his locker.
So now he has decided it is time to leave, No. 42 telling us that at the age of 43, at the end of a career that stands with anything any Yankee has ever produced, on either side of 161st St.
He will leave with pitching accomplishments that stand with the hitting accomplishments of Babe Ruth, leave with the grace of Joe DiMaggio, leave as someone who deserves his own monument at Monument Park as much as anybody who has ever worn the pinstriped uniform. Ruth was the greatest Yankee hitter, Rivera is absolutely the Babe Ruth of Yankee pitchers. Start there.
And here: The great Rivera will leave as the Yankee immortal who never had a bad season in his life, who was better at what he did — the ninth inning, at the old Stadium and the new one — than any Yankee who ever played the game.
Someday there will be a Mariano Rivera Day at the Stadium, and they will officially retire the last No. 42, Jackie Robinson’s number, that anybody will ever wear in baseball. You know that will be a fine celebration of everything he has been as a pitcher, a day to remember everything he has been as one of the lasting gentlemen of sports, here or anywhere else.
But when that does happen, what we will remember best is the end of all the important baseball nights of his career.
Remember when the door in the outfield wall would open and “Enter Sandman” would play over the Stadium loudspeakers, and he would come running to the pitcher’s mound and get the last three outs of another Yankee victory.
Ruth was the first to make home runs glamorous in baseball, to make the Yankees matter. Ruth, in all the important ways, was the beginning of the Yankees. All this time after Ruth, here came Rivera with his cut fastball and his champion’s nerve and champion’s heart, to get those last three outs. He was all those endings, over all the years, the most memorable of them in October, some of them even in November.
“Think about what it will be like when he’s gone,” Buck Showalter said a few years ago, Showalter remembering first seeing the skinny kid from Panama on a back field in Fort Lauderdale one spring, long before the world would know his name.
“You look around baseball,” Showalter said, “and everybody has closer issues eventually. Everybody except the Yankees.
Closers come and closers go. Except Mo never goes anywhere.”
The only time he stopped closing games and stopped closing Yankee seasons was last season, one that ended much too early when Rivera’s knee gave out while he was chasing fly balls before a game against the Royals in Kansas City, and you thought that might be the end for him right there.
But if Rivera would know when it was time to leave, he would also go out on his own terms. He not only tried to rehab that knee in a hurry at the age of 42, he actually thought he might somehow make it back for the playoffs. He did not. But he would come back for one more season, now expected to be his last.
He will retire with more saves than anybody in regular-season history and with more saves than anybody in postseason history, the number currently at 42. The number on his back.
“Sometimes,” he told me once, “the only person they can compare you to is you.”
He is a relief pitcher, a power relief pitcher, who will be a month short of his 44th birthday if he helps pitch the Yankees to one more October. You look at all the big games he has pitched, from the time he was setting up John Wetteland when the Yankees won their first World Series under Joe Torre in 1996, and have a right to ask yourself how you can say that there was ever a better money player in professional sports history.
Michael Jordan made a lot of game-winning baskets and Derek Jeter has gotten all those big postseason hits. Then you put all that against all the big games Rivera has closed, all the ninth innings that belonged to him, all the bats and hearts he has broken on the other team.
So he is right: You only compare Rivera to Rivera. The fastballs, the longevity, the extraordinary consistency and excellence. And grace.
“He has changed less than anybody I’ve ever known in baseball,” Showalter was saying again the other day. “He came in a gentleman and leaves a gentleman.”
Say it again: Nobody you have ever seen in baseball, no hitter or pitcher, was ever better at his job as Rivera has been at his.
Now it is supposed to be coming to an end, the closer expected to talk on Saturday about the closing act for him, the oldest man in baseball still prepared to show all the young guys how to do it, with a right arm that has never gotten old. Somehow it is 10 years ago since that Game 7 against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series when he pitched three innings because that’s what was needed of him to get the Yankees to another World Series, ready to pitch all night if that’s what it took.
“I have always known who I am,” he says.
So have we. Oh man, so have we. Sometime this season there will be one last ninth inning for the great Rivera, and for us all.
Exit Sandman.
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
There's not a bigger Yankee hater than that douchebag.
http://web.yesnetwork.com/media/video.j ... yesnetwork
http://web.yesnetwork.com/media/video.j ... 693205&v=3
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
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That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life