Mariano Rivera: The Closer Who Made History

On September nineteenth, twenty eleven, longtime Yankees closure Marianna Rivera passes Trevor Hoffman getting his six hundred and second career save, becoming the leader for the most saves all time in a career and many say the greatest closure of all time. Today, we're going to dive into how he got to be this great closure on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reeves, your guide to help you learn daily about sports history as you increase your sports knowledge. In today's trivia question is who was the last player in Major League Baseball to wear number forty two? Now? Mariano Rivera was born in Panama City, Panama, and he had three other siblings, and he grew up poor in a poor fishing family. And as a young and when Mariona was young, he played soccer and baseball with his friends on the beach when there was a low tide, and soccer was actually his favorite, with Pele being his favorite athlete. And for baseball, they didn't even have everything they needed. They used cardboard milk cartons for gloves, and she branched as bats and would tape up fishing nets as their ball and it wasn't until he was twelve years old when he got his first real baseball glove, and as he grew up, he learned the fishing trade from his dad, but he saw how hard it was on his dad as he worked six days a week year round, just to try to support what little he could for his family, and at the age of seventeen, due to ankle and knee injuries and shifted his attention to baseball, though he really considered it more of a hobby than an actual profession, and there were scouts that saw him at this time that thought he wasn't actually a major leaguer as he wasn't pitching. He was mainly playing in the field it shortstop, but while playing for a local amateur team, the pitcher actually got hurt and Marianne was stepped in to replace him with no experience ever pitching, and he pitched well, and teammates actually contacted a scout they knew for the New York Yankees, and within two weeks Mariano was invited to a tryout in Panama City for the Yankees, and they saw him as a very, very raw prospect as he had just started pitching. But he was able to hit eighty five miles an hour with an effortless throwing motion, and they actually signed him to an amateur free agency contract, giving a twenty five hundred signing bonus, and so he left home to try to help support his family. Speaking no English and has never left home before. He flew to the United States to report to the Gulf Coast Yankees and would write home to his family any chance he could, as they didn't have a phone to contact him. Now, given that he was such a raw prospect, he was mainly brought in for relief situations, but he showed great success as he had an ERA ofero point one point seven in fifty two innings and they actually started him the last game of the season in an effort for him to possibly reach the qualifications for the RRA title, which would give him a five hundred dollars bonus, where he had a seven inning no hitter and put him on the map, and this got him really noticed by those around the league. So the following year he would come back and be promoted to Class A to the Greensborough Hornets in the South Atlantic League, where he would actually go to start twenty five of the twenty nine games he would go pitch in and although he would have a losing record of four to nine, his RA was two point seventy five while striking out one hundred and twenty three batters, and again he continued to get better and move up. The following season, he went to the Class A Advanced level for the Fort Lauderdale Yankees. Although he missed part of the season due to elbow stiffness, he was able to start ten games with a record of five and three with a two point two eight RRA. So after the nineteen eighty three season, where he had twelve starts and had a two point zero eight RA despite recovering from elbow surgery, he continued to advance and the New York Yankees came calling on May twenty third, ninety five, where he made his debut against the California Angels, starting in place for injured picture Jim Key. Now Mariano allowed five earned runs in three innings in a ten to zero loss, and he struggled through his first four major league starts, posting an ERA of ten point two. As a result, he was demoted back to the minor leagues, and while he worked out in the minor leagues for a few more years, and he started to have success as a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees and worked his way back up being the setup man for their closer, John Weitland, and in nineteen ninety six, over a stretch, he pitched twenty six consecutive scoreless innings and recorded his first career save on May seventeenth against the Angels, and he finished that season with a two point zero nine ra and helped the Yankees win the World's Seie that year versus the Atlanta Braves the following year their closer and opted instead to have Marianna Rivera become the teams closer, which would help them continue their historic run through the nineties and early two thousands. Now, Marianna Rivera at the time was wearing number forty two, and in nineteen ninety seven, the league retired than Jackie Robinson number league wide, but there was thirteen players that were allowed to keep their number as they had already had it before the retiring, which meant and through his career, Mariano ended up being the last player to wear number forty two in the league. Now, despite having success the previous year as a setup man. He was not initially seamless going into his closer role, as he blew three of the first six opportunities he had for saves as he felt uncomfortable initially, but he eventually got into his role and was selected as an All Star and ended the year with forty three saves in one point eight eighty e Then in nineteen ninety nine is when he got his nickname, as the Yankees' production staff started to play the song inter Sandman by Metallica every time that he would enter the game, similar to the movie Major League. When wild Thing would come in, they'd play the song wild Thing. Mariano became known as the Sandman as he would put all the other batters to sleep, and they got this idea as the previous record her order for the most saves, Trevor Hoffman would enter to acdc's Hell's Bells, and throughout the early two thousands he became known as one of the best closures throughout the league. He was a thirteen time All Star and would help the Yankees win three straight championships from nineteen ninety eight to two thousand, as well as being the World Series MVP in nineteen ninety nine. In two thousand and two, he had his two hundred and twenty fifth career save, becoming an all time saves leader for the Yankees. After the twenty ten season, Trevor Hoffman, who was the all time saves leader, retired with six hundred and one career saves, and starting the twenty eleven season, Mariano was just forty two saves behind him, and on September nineteenth at Yankee Stadium against the Minnesota Twins, he came in with a six to four lead and got the final strikeout to get the save to give him his six hundred and second career save, becoming the all time leader in saves throughout his career, and he would go on to pitch for another couple years, retiring after the twenty thirteen season with a total and still record of six hundred and fifty two career saves, and he would go on to have his number forty two retired by the Yankees and was a first ballot Hall of Famer, giving one hundred percent of the votes from the voters. In twenty fourteen, Major League Baseball announced a new relief for Relief Pitcher of the Year and named the al version after Mariano Rivera, as he is the greatest closer to ever play the game. I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please go tell a friend, share this, Send that little triangle button to a friend, say hey, listen to Daily Sports History so we can both be sports historians together. And come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History and the answer to today's trivia question. Who was the last player in Major League Baseball to wear number forty two? Marianna Rivera as in nineteen ninety five, the league retired the number forty two league wide, but he was one of thirteen players grandfathered in and he was the last one to wear number forty two and have it retired, also by the Yankees.