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Loose Canons
Baseball Saints and Sinners
Sinners we will always have with us — but how many Mariano Riveras?
With Spring just around the corner, it’s time to take a break from the dreaded deprivations of sequestration and concentrate, of course, on baseball. And so, the other day a few friends and I gathered to watch Eight Men Out which is, to my mind, the best baseball movie ever made; crammed as it is with great acting, great writing, and great baseball scenes, not to mention a fairly accurate depiction of the Black Sox scandal which led to a granite rule of the game: gambling and gamblers will not be tolerated.
Eight Men Out should be required viewing for those who think that baseball in its earlier days was never a business or that players and owners were motivated only by love for the game. And it might help those who are constantly clamoring for admitted gambler Pete Rose to be reinstated to baseball and duly elected to its Hall of Fame, to realize that better players than he will also never darken the doorstep of Cooperstown.
Yes, the history of baseball is replete with miserly owners, money-hungry players, and crooks and cheaters of all kinds; kind of like the world in general. Yet baseball has been blessed with many more athletes who have been a credit to the game, though with the recent PED scandals they seem fewer and fewer. Why it is that so many talented athletes are so morally flawed that they would risk putting various and sundry chemicals in their bodies for a taste of fleeting glory or worse, for money? Are there any players with that rare combination of supreme performance both on and off the field left in today’s game?
Well, we have had, and will have for one more year, just such a player. The announcement by Mariano Rivera of his upcoming retirement gives us a chance to reflect that we have been witnesses of such a sublime melding of physical and spiritual grace on the diamond. For more than 18 seasons, fans of the New York Yankees have cheered his appearances while all others have dreaded them.
They say that nothing in life is guaranteed except death and taxes, but I would add the quick and lethal dispatch of batters facing “Mo” Rivera to that list. It has been my contention that the average Yankee fan has missed many of his regular season saves; either getting up to fetch a snack or beckoning the bartender for another celebratory drink while he made short work of the ninth inning. He has been that reliable. Baseball is a sport that relies more on numbers than any other, but it only takes one word to sum up the career of Rivera: inevitability.
Now, some would say that Rivera benefited from great setup pitchers throughout his career; but seriously, can anyone doubt that it is most probably the other way around? In the same way that a great hitter ensures better pitches for those hitting around him, so too with Rivera. How often did an opposing manager begin sweating with his team trailing the Yanks in the later innings; using up his bench while his players swung wildly in desperation knowing that their scoring opportunities were diminishing with every pitch? My husband, an inveterate Yankee-hater, has said that Joe Torre only became a great manager when he merely had to manage six-inning games.
Yet there is more to Rivera than the fluid and seemingly effortless delivery of his devastating cut fastball. He is a terrific fielder, no doubt going back to his boyhood days as a shortstop in his native Panama. Add to this his longevity — he has outlasted not only the prime years of his competitors, but their entire careers — and you have the perfect relief pitcher.
But more than this, Rivera is, what they called in the old days, a perfect gentleman. His gracious comportment on the mound and his humble demeanor in press conferences all but shout that he is a committed Christian, and so he is. In fact, his goal in retirement is to become a minister, where he will no doubt deliver the Good News with the same elegant ease as his famed cutter.
Are there other good guys in baseball? Sure, but it’s hard to name another who lives out his reputation as the game’s greatest closer and its best moral representative every time he toes the rubber. He is indeed an anomaly in today’s world: a man who is the best that ever was at his profession, yet openly acknowledges that his talents are no credit to himself, but that they are gifts from above.
The lords of baseball may one day decide to cave to the modern world’s desire for the relaxation of its moral rules — as have so many institutions in this country — and indeed reinstate Rose and the Black Sox, thus further cheapening the game’s integrity; but the great Rivera will endure.
Photo: UPI
Letter to the Editor View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
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donserge| 3.13.13 @ 7:38AM
The man exudes 'class' in a game where few have that trait. It is a shame that a 'classless' sports media do not,by and large, portray Rivera as a role model.
squalis| 3.13.13 @ 9:40AM
Not to impugn his personal integrity, but:
I understand that the game has transformed to a point where a "closer" has become an integral need for each team. That said, I never understand how a pitcher that pitches, typically, for no more than 1 inning at a time is considered great and HOF material. To compare, look at one of the best pitchers in the HOF: Tom Seaver who has nearly 4800 innings pitched (IP). Rivera, without any dispute a great closer, will probably finish his career at less than 1300 IP. It is so much tougher to face a line up 3-4 times during the course of a game when compared to facing 3-5 hitters max as a great closer. I know there is precedent with other relievers in the HOF, I just don't understand it. Their durability just doesn't stack up when compared to the starters.
JP| 3.13.13 @ 10:22AM
Great post. Before the "closer" position was chisled in stone (the mid to late 80s), most teams had closer by committees. The very idea of paying a pitcher several million dollars to pitch on average 2/3rds to 1/1/3 innings every 2 or 3 games never crossed a GM's mind. Blame sports writer Jerome Holtzman; he came up with the statistical parameters and defined the position in 1963.
Occam's Tool| 3.13.13 @ 5:15PM
There's also Elroy Face, who was the first of the great closers.
But, gentlemen, I repeat: "Nobody but the L-rd Saves More than Sutter."
JP| 3.13.13 @ 10:18AM
I'm with those who think that the closer position is way over blown. Several sports statisticians have pointed out the teams with a 3 run lead going into the 8th inning have a 97% chance of winning the game no matter who is on the mound. Additionally, a team with a 1 run lead in the 9th has a better than 70% of winning no matter who is pitching. These stats go back to the 1930s. And most closers today refuse to be put in unless they have a chance to get a "save".
Who Knows?| 3.13.13 @ 11:48AM
You've got to be kidding.
You mean a closer can tell his manager to fluck off, if the latter "asks" him to pitch.
OMG!
Another of my delusions exposed.
The manager is NOT in charge.
JP| 3.13.13 @ 12:01PM
And what's your point? Believe it or not, if Torre would have even attempted to put Rivera in the game during a non-save situation (say the 6th inning), Cashman would have gotten a very angry call from not only Rivera's agent, but the Players Union. Closers can only get their big bucks if they have the stats on their side. But, as I pointed out before, the chances of a team winning a game when down by 3 in the 8th are about 3 in 100. That is, you put in an average MLB pitcher and he would get the "save".
Occam's Tool| 3.13.13 @ 5:13PM
Mr. Squalis:
if you are wondering about the value of a Great relief pitcher to a team, may I point out a HOFer that Mr. Rivera will be joining: Bruce Sutter.
In the years of his greatness, when Sutter was available, the Cubs were pennant contenders. When he was not there, they were vin ordinaire, and went nowhere.
Great relievers hammer down wins. They enable more aggressive pinch hitting in the NL, for example.
But Lisa, you used the wrong example. Mr. Rivera is a gentleman, to be sure, but the Greatest baseball Gentleman of the last 70 years just passed away: Stan "The Man" Musial. And I say this as a CUBS fan, and a man who adores Ernie Banks. Stan was an ultimate class act.
You might also want to check out Bobby Brown, MD; Bobby Doerr; Roberto Clemente; and many, many others.
Of course, my personal favorite other than the ones mentioned above is Hammering Hank Greenberg.
squalis| 3.13.13 @ 6:01PM
Being crucial to a team's success and amassing career stats worthy of the HOF are not necessarily the same thing. Also, it should be remembered the 3-5 hitters a closer will face may not include the best hitters in the line up on any given day.
I stand by my post.
Occam's Tool| 3.14.13 @ 6:38PM
Mr. Squalis: Being crucial to a team's success is THE most important thing a team player can be. Sutter was crucial to the accomplishment of his teams' success, AND his pitching skills were AWESOME to observe (the ball would fall off a table in flight, essentially).
He deserves it much more than the one dimensional Mark McGwire, for example, even if Mark had gotten his Homers without PEDs (that is why Jim Thome will NOT be a first round HOFer, and may NOT get it, despite his homers).
But, isn't it nice to have a nice bar discussion?
NoGoBlue| 3.13.13 @ 5:19PM
Very few ballplayers were better than Pete Rose. Not a great man by any measure, but definitely one of the best ball players ever to play the game.
SUBVET| 3.13.13 @ 5:33PM
Maybe that's why they called him "charlie hustle".
Back then is when a ballplayer looked the part....no clown pants, no mop under the cap...and the bill of the cap was curved/not over sized so "it" can tuck in "it's" ears.
today "they" think they are bigger than the game......not
Terrible Ted| 3.13.13 @ 11:36PM
It's probably just me, but Pete Rose has done less to corrupt the game then has the designated hitter rule. I was 12 wihen the rule was instituted, and I have not followed the game since.