He’s few days late because of a sick kid, but Mariano Rivera reported to Spring Training today. “I’m here and I’m ready to work,” said Rivera. “I feel great.” The team obviously authorized the late arrival, but much like everything else that surrounds Mo, there is no reason to worry.
“Whenever Mo gets here is fine,” said Brian Cashman yesterday, showing that Rivera’s tardiness was of no real concern to the team. “I don’t want him getting any ideas next year,” joked skipper Joe Girardi. “He could have [stayed home] for a while.”
In fact, Rivera wouldn’t even have gotten near a mound yet had he reported on time. He’s long operated on his own schedule in the spring, doing nothing more than playing catch and running the pitcher’s fielding practice gamut for the first week or two or three. Rivera usually doesn’t make his first appearance in a game until there’s about three weeks left in camp, and he’ll only make seven, maybe eight appearances total. Last year it was six. Road trips? Yeah right, Mo doesn’t leave Tampa until the season starts.
“I know what it takes. I know what I have to accomplish,” said Rivera. “You earn that respect when you give everything you have, and that’s what I have done. It’s not right to talk about myself, but that’s what I have done all my career. If I needed time to do something, it’s not because I wanted to do it. It’s because I needed to do it. And now I’m here, and ready to work.”
Mo told Erik Boland that the toughest part about starting a new season is being separated from his family, unsurprising if you’ve followed the man’s career up to this point. He also said the “love and passion” for the game is still there despite his advanced age (41) and the fact that Rivera has accomplished everything a player could ever dream of accomplishing in a career. “I believe that I can do it one more time,” he said, interesting only because he signed a two-year contract.
Depending on who you ask, the Yankees need a dominant late-game presence this year to mitigate the depressing situation at the back of their rotation. I’m of the belief that the middle relief corps become more important when you have a poor rotation, not necessarily the end-game guys, but no one asked me. Rivera, as always, is the security blanket in the ninth inning, and this year he has a new running mate in the late innings.
“I will get to know him better,” said Mo of Rafael Soriano. “It’s going to be an interesting year.”
Well, they’re all interesting years in Yankeeland. The newest candidate to solve the “Bridge to Mariano” problem that has become almost comically overblown is Rafael Soriano, the latest in a long line of high-priced setup relievers with a fraction of Rivera’s success to their credit. Regardless of who’s occupied that role, be it Soriano, Joba Chamberlain, Mike Stanton, Kyle Farnsworth, Steve Karsay or whoever, Mo has always been the guy the Yankees counted on for key outs. No matter who they played or what time of year it was, they’ve always had at least one advantage over their opponents, and that’s the guy taking the mound for those last three outs.
The pitching gang is pretty much all there now that Rivera is in camp, what is likely the second to last Spring Training of his career. We’ve been spoiled beyond belief by his presence over the last decade-and-a-half, so these next two seasons are the perfect time, and really the last opportunity we have to sit back and appreciate Mariano’s greatness. There’s never going to be another one like him.
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