Mariano Rivera-Simply the Best

Mariano Rivera notched his 500th save last night becoming only the second pitcher in history to accomplish that and made me stop and think back. I am 31 years old and have seen pretty much every save that MO has ever had, i am a diehard fan and go or watch just about every single game. Mariano Rivera started out as a skinny little kid that was a starting pitcher in the minor leagues. He came up in 1995 and if Buck Showalter knew what he had in MO things may have drastically been different for lots of people. The Yankees lost a thrilling division round playoff to the Seattle Mariners that year in 5 games. Buck Showalter didn't know what he had in MO and if he did the Yankees probably would have won and maybe gone on to win the World Series and there would of been no Joe Torre and maybe not all those championships but who knows. Mariano Rivera failed as a starting pitcher and was converted to relief and thank goodness Buck and Gene Michael and some others saved him because if it was up to George Steinbrenner they would of traded him to get a shortstop because they were so worried about a kid named Derek Jeter being the starting shortstop for the Yankees. It is really funny how all these years later they are still teammates and both headed to the Hall Of Fame. Mariano Rivera started out as a setup man in 1996 for John Wetteland and made the games 6 innings when Mo would come in for the 7th and 8th and just blow people away and hand the ball off to Wetteland for the save, the Yankees won the World Series that year and next year Wetteland was gone and MO became the closer which he has stayed ever since. Mariano is such a humble man that he didn't even think about that in the offseason until they called him up and said you are going to be our closer and he said ok I will do my best. Mariano Rivera is such a cool customer and never shows too much emotion either way, he acts the same all the time, no matter if it is playoffs, World Series, regular season, spring training. It is funny that now you have Jonathan Papelbon, K-rod even Joba Chamberlain who have some histrionics to them and you still have MO just simply walking towards the catcher and shaking hands. The game last night was a time when he truly could of let loose with emotion but he did what he always does and of course everyone of his teammates walked up to him and hugged him, Derek Jeter had a moment with him and Jorge Posada also had a nice embrace, these guys have been together for a long time and it was great to see. The thing that makes MO great other then him just saving all of these games and being the best in the postseason and never sweating even after he does blow games is how humble he is and what a great person he is. They asked him about saving 500 and what he means and he still thanked go and all of his teammates, it is truly a pleasure to have witnessed his whole career and being able to tell my kids and grandkids one day that i saw the greatest closer of all time pitch. I don't know what will happen when he finally decides to hang it up but it will be a sad sad day. I definitely would love to be there the day he is in Cooperstown inducted into the Baseball Hall of FAme. Congratulations MO you are simply the best.

My Citi Field experience

I went to Citi Field on Saturday night to see the Yankees play the Mets. The first cool thing to happen was on my way there on the Grand Central Parkway, all of the sudden we heard all these sirens and saw police cars coming and everyone moving out of the way well wouldn't you know that it was the Yankees team bus coming to the game. The bus drove right past us, it was a really nice bus of course. The first thing I noticed about Citi Field was how impressive it looked from the outside and how good the employees were with getting everyone into the parking lot and parked in a safe and orderly manner. I walked up to the stadium and just stared in amazement at how impressive it is, Shea was just terrible and I always hated it there, Citi Field immediatel was 30 times better then Shea. I really though that it was set up nice and was pretty intimate for a big stadium. I loved how the scoreboards were set up and the between innings activities that they do. I thought there was a lot of legroom and a lot of room to walk in the corridors, the section we were in had the Caesars Club which was a really nice lounge. It felt like being in a VIP lounce in Atlantic City or Las Vegas. It had nice leather couches and chairs and tables to sit and relax along with the high end concessions and bar. There was a bunch of flat screen televisions. I really liked that area. The level I was in was in the middle third base line in the outfield and other then the left field corner you could see the whole field perfectly, i thought the site lines were great and they had flat screen televisions to the left and right all through the section which was a nice touch. I didn't get to see everything and I definitely want to go back and see more but a really cool thing they have there is a mini Citi Field that is a wiffle ball field for the kids to play in, they even had a homerun hitting contest from there in between one of the innings. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda was very nice and a great spot to take pictures. I definitely thought it was a great park and plan on going back, I am not sure if it was better then Yankees Stadium but it may be. I will post pictures as soon as I can get them downloaded to my computer. I hope everyone that lives around here will get a chance to go at least once, it is definitely worth it.

Pitching Matchups for Seattle Series

The New York Yankees have today off and then start a 3 game series at home with Seattle before playing a 4 game holiday weekend series with Toronto. Here are the pitching matchups for Seattle. Tomorrow- Brandon Morrow vs Joba Chamberlain Wednesday- Jarrod Washburn vs Andy Pettitte Thursday- Jason Vargas vs CC Sabathia Tomorrow is a interesting matchups of two young righthanders who were relievers but both teams project as front end type pitchers. Wednesday is the battle of veteran lefthanders and Thursday CC will try and keep it rolling. The Yankees I am sure will be happy to playing AL ball again with them getting Matsui the DH back and facing familiar teams and pitchers.

Yanks sweep away Mets

The New York Yankees defeated the New York Mets tonight by the score of 4-2. Chien-Ming Wang got the start and finally recorded his first win of the season. He went 5 1/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 4 hits with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. I don't know what to think of him because that is pretty good but he just doesn't go deep into game anymore, at least he got a win finally and hopefully can build on that. Phil Coke got a strikeout on the only guy he faced and Phil Hughes pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up one walk with a strikeout. Brian Bruney got two outs in the eighth but also walked two guys and Mariano Rivera got the final 4 outs for his 500th career save. Mo is now only the second guy in history with 500 saves, the other is Trevor Hoffman. Mariano Rivera also got his first Rbi of his career with a bases loaded walk. The Yankees didn't do much offensively, A-rod had a single and 3 walks, Jorge Posada had a hit and rbi and Mark Teixeira had a hit and 2 rbi's. Derek Jeter had a hit and 3 walks in his return from illness. The Yankees are now 3 games behind Boston in the AL East. They do lead the wildcard standings. The Yankees will have a day off tomorrow and then start a 3 game series with Seattle at the Stadium on Tuesday.

Game 75: Yankees at Mets (updated with Girardi and Matsui pre-game audio)

Here is the link to the game post, the pregame notes and lineups via Peter Abraham and the Yankees Lohud Blog. I will be back later with the postgame reaction and some stuff about Citi Field. Sorry for the lack of updates but it was a busy day. Game 75: Yankees at Mets (updated with Girardi and Matsui pre-game audio) Posted using ShareThis