Hello Fans,
There was some very, very sad news for a legendary player on the field, Mariano Rivera, who is also one of the great guys off the field too. This year, the all-time saves leader and devastating post-season closer, was not denying rumors of thinking of retirement following the 2012 season. Unfortunately, in pre-game warmups he slipped on the warning track ever so slightly, and reports are in that he tore his ACL. As a true fan of the game itself, you never want to see any player get seriously hurt let alone a monster-sized legend, but it does happen now and again even to the best.
The debates are already beginning early this morning of whether or not we have seen the last of the Great Mo. People will speculate if he will want to come back at all. And if so, can he be ready for the ’13 season opener? I think it’s hard to say. He is a very young, not weathered, and well-conditioned forty-two years old, but at the end of the day #42 is still 42. It won’t be easy, but if he wants to do it I think he could still be effective. I know, I know, that’s not going out on a limb, but take it for what it’s worth.
Does a talented legend want his last play to be an injury? Many fans answer that they would think not, right? That just doesn’t seem fitting by any means, and of course, nobody wants it, but can one accept it? Accepting that fate means no standing ovations on the last road trips to rival parks, not to mention the home crowd tributes, and not helping your teammates for one last pennant race. After listening to several media members and former players comment on how Mo is a great athlete and not one-dimensional, it made me consider that maybe he wouldn’t mind going out on top as a result of doing something like running down flyballs in b.p. Afterall, that is baseball in a nutshell. As a kid, you pitch to your buddies, they hit it, and you go get it. That’s how we all start playing the Great Game. This potential end of a dominant playing career would be just as dramatic as Teddy Ballgame’s last swing being a homer at Fenway as he planned on sitting out the last series of the ’60 season in where else, but New York. It’s still undoubtedly sad in the moment though. Mo was getting his leg work and pre-game workout in just being a kid. What’s wrong with going out like that? I hope he comes back just for the benefit of the game itself, but I won’t be critical of him if he decides not to. How could I be? However, I don’t think he will be coming back, which is unfortunate to say the least.
Mo’s injury does bring up two other things that tie together rather neatly. The first is how his situation reminds me of Chipper Jones’ torn ACL in August of 2010 when he was most likely going to hang up his spikes that October. He came back though and now 2012 is probably his last time around. The second thing is that if Mo was planning on retiring all along after this year and even now still does, him and Chipper could go into the Hall of Fame as first-ballot inductees in the summer of 2018. Together, they will represent the MLB as one of the best pitchers and switch-hitters in the history of the game. And not so ironically, their teams also battled each other in the ’96 and ’99 World Series as the Yanks dominated the latter half of the 1990s to steal the Braves’ early 90s claim as team of the decade. Cooperstown could then welcome two icons who played entirely for one team and also represent a slice of the best their era has to offer.
Five days after a legendary teenager, Bryce Harper, got his first MLB hit and one day after legendary games that included a record three walk-off homers alongside the 250th regular season no-hitter by Jered Weaver, the legendary Mariano Rivera warmed up and got ready to play the game of baseball the way he always has. He was playing with exuberance while shagging flies in the outfield. We are not sure if he will do so again. If he doesn’t, we won’t be able to explain his uniquely sad finale just as Mo himself cannot explain why his incredible cutter has been the lone unhittable pitch year in and year out. And the legendary reliever with a legendary pitch and legendary #42 jersey will also have a legendary exit.
Later Fans.