Mariano Rivera: The Closer Who Made History

[00:00:00] On September 19, 2011, longtime Yankees Closer Mariano Rivera passes Trevor Hoffman

[00:00:09] getting his 600nd career save becoming the leader for the most saves all time in a career.

[00:00:18] And many say the greatest Closer of all time.

[00:00:22] Today we're going to dive into how he got to be this great Closer on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:35] Welcome to Daily Sports History, I'm Ethan Reese here guide to help you learn daily about

[00:00:40] sports history as you increase your sports knowledge.

[00:00:44] And today's trivia question is who was the last player in Major League Baseball to wear

[00:00:50] number 42?

[00:00:53] Now Mariano Rivera was born in Panama City, Panama.

[00:00:57] And he had three other siblings and he grew up poor in a poor fishing family.

[00:01:03] And as a young and when Mariano was young he played soccer and baseball with his

[00:01:07] friends on the beach when there was a low tide.

[00:01:10] And soccer was actually his favorite with paylaping his favorite athlete.

[00:01:13] And for baseball they didn't even have everything they needed.

[00:01:16] They used cardboard milk cartons for gloves and cheap rancids bats and would tape up

[00:01:22] fishing nets as their bowl.

[00:01:23] And it wasn't until he was 12 years old when he got his first real baseball glove.

[00:01:29] And as he grew up he learned the fishing trade from his dad but he saw how hard it was on

[00:01:33] his dad and see work six days a week year round just to try to support what little

[00:01:38] he could for his family.

[00:01:40] And at the age of 17 due to ankle and knee injuries and shifted his attention to baseball

[00:01:45] though he really considered it more of a hobby than an actual profession.

[00:01:49] And there were scouts that saw him at this time that thought he wasn't actually a major

[00:01:53] figure as he wasn't pitching.

[00:01:55] He was mainly playing in the field at short stop but while playing for a local amateur

[00:01:58] team the pitcher actually got hurt and Mariano was taped into a replacement with no

[00:02:03] experience ever pitching and he pitched well.

[00:02:06] And teammates actually contacted a scout they knew for the New York Yankees and within

[00:02:10] two weeks Mariano was invited to a try out in Panama City for the Yankees and they saw

[00:02:17] him as a very, very raw prospect as he had just started pitching but he was able to hit

[00:02:22] 85 miles an hour with an effortless throwing motion and they actually signed him to an amateur

[00:02:27] for agents contract giving a 2500 signing bonus.

[00:02:31] And so he left home to try to help support his family speaking no English and has never left

[00:02:37] home before he flew to the United States to report to the golf course Yankees and would

[00:02:43] write home to his family any chance he could as they didn't have a phone to contact him.

[00:02:47] No, given that he was such a raw prospect he was mainly brought in for relief situations

[00:02:52] but he showed great success as he had an ERA of 0.17 and 52 innings and they actually started

[00:02:59] in the last game of the season and an effort for him to possibly reach the qualifications for

[00:03:04] the ERA title which would give him a 500 dollar bonus where he had a 7 innings no hitter

[00:03:12] and put him on the map and this got him really noticed by those around the league.

[00:03:16] So the following year he would come back and be promoted to Class A to the Greensboro Hornets

[00:03:21] in the south of Nanak Lee where he would actually go to start 25 of the 29 games he would go

[00:03:28] pitching and how although he would have a losing record of 4 9 is ERA was 2.75 while

[00:03:34] striking out 123 battles and again he continued to get better and move up the following season he

[00:03:40] went to the class A advanced level for the Fort Lauderdale Yankees. Although he missed part of

[00:03:45] the season due to elbow stiffness he was able to start 10 games with a record of 5 and 3 with

[00:03:52] the 2.28 ERA so after the 1983 season where he had 12 starts and had a 2.08 ERA

[00:04:00] despite recovering from elbow surgery he continued to advance and the New York Yankees came

[00:04:04] calling on May 23rd in 95 where he made his debut against the California Angels starting

[00:04:11] in place for injured picture Jim Key now Mario No Allowed 5 earned runs in 3 innings in a 10 to 0 loss

[00:04:19] and he struggled through his first 4 major league starts posting an ERA of 10.2 as a result

[00:04:26] he was demoted back to the minor leagues and while he worked out in the minor leagues for a few more

[00:04:31] years and he started to have success as a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees and worked his way

[00:04:37] back up being the setup man for their closer John Waitland in a 1996 over a stretch he pitched

[00:04:45] 26 consecutive score of the innings and recorded his first career save on May 17th against the

[00:04:52] Angels and he finished that season with a 2.09 ERA and helped the Yankees win the world series

[00:05:00] that year versus the Atlanta Braves. The following year their closer and opted instead to have

[00:05:06] Mariana Rivera become the teams closer which would help them continue their historic run through

[00:05:12] the 90s and early 2000s. Now Mariana Rivera at the time was wearing number 42 in the 1997

[00:05:19] the league retired in the Jackie Robinson number league wide but there were 13 players that were

[00:05:30] in his career Mariano ended up being the last player to wear number 42 in the league.

[00:05:36] Now despite having success the previous year as a setup man he was not initially seamless

[00:05:42] going into his closer role as he blew three of the first six opportunities he had for saves

[00:05:48] as he felt uncomfortable initially but eventually got into his role and was a bit selected as an

[00:05:58] ranked 8-8 ERA. Then in 1999 is when he got his nickname as the Yankees production staff

[00:06:06] started to play the song Interstandman by Metallica every time that he would enter the game similar

[00:06:12] to the movie Major League when wild thing would come in there play the song Wild Thing Mariano

[00:06:18] became known as the Sandman as he would put all the other better to sleep and they got this idea

[00:06:25] as the previous record holder for the most saves Trevor Hoffman would enter to ACDC's

[00:06:32] Hell's Bells and throughout the early 2000s he became known as one of the best closures throughout

[00:06:38] the league. He was a 13-time all star and would help the Yankees win three straight championships

[00:06:44] from 1998 to 2000 as well as being the world series MVP in 1999. In 2002 he had his

[00:06:51] 2200 and 25th career save becoming an all-time saves leader for the Yankees after the 2000s

[00:06:58] season Trevor Hoffman who was the all-time saves leader retired with 601 career saves and

[00:07:04] starting the 2011 season Mariano which just 42 saves behind him and on September 19th at Yankee

[00:07:12] Stadium against the Minnesota twins he came in with a 6-4 lead and got the final strike out

[00:07:19] to get the save to give him his 6-hundred and second career save becoming the all-time leader

[00:07:26] and saves throughout his career and he would go on to pitch for another couple years retiring

[00:07:31] after the 2013 season with the total and still record of 652 career saves and he would go on to

[00:07:38] have his number 42 retired by the Yankees and was a first-ballad whole-famer giving 100% of the votes

[00:07:47] from the voters and in 2014 mainly baseball announced a new reliefer relief pitcher of the year

[00:07:55] and named the AL version after Mariano Rivera as he is the greatest closer to ever play the game.

[00:08:05] I want to thank you for listening to today's daily sports history. I hope you enjoyed it.

[00:08:09] If you did please go tell a friend share this, send that little triangle button to a friend

[00:08:14] say hey listen to daily sports history so we can both be sports historians together and come

[00:08:20] back tomorrow for more daily sports history. In the answer to today's trivia question

[00:08:26] who was the last player in major league baseball to wear number 42? Mariano Rivera as in 1995

[00:08:34] the league retired the number 42 league wide but he was one of 13 players who grandfathered in

[00:08:41] he was the last one to wear number 42 and have it retired also by the Yankees.