After Rivera's "bad" season, he started mixing in more 2 seam fastballs that break the opposite way from his cutter. That bought him another decade or so of dominance.
@@GuidoLuzziIf I recall an interview he gave at one point, the reason he never really threw the changeup is because he didn't have nearly as good command over the changeup as he did his cut and two-seam fastballs. So while it would have been a devastating out pitch, he didn't want to get beat throwing it. He was so confident that he'd get the hitter with his fastballs, and to be fair he was right and it made him a legend.
My favorite Rivera story: he had NO idea his entrance song was Enter Sandman for a really long time. He was so focused when he entered, he never even heard it. That's not his style of music. He likes carribean music (if I remember correctly, like Harry Bellefonte?). He wasn't familiar with Metallica until fairly late into his career.
Was Mariano Rivera, the only player that used this walkout song? Was there sort of written (or unwritten rule) that only once a player uses the song, than no other player can use that song ? & was this song (chosen by Yankees mgmt) was it selected, before or after Virginia Tech started using this song?
@@MikeCee7 Definitely no written rule. Not sure how many have used it. It certainly is a pretty obvious choice and it wouldn't surprise me if many have used it. But because of his greatness, it got associated with him and if anyone else uses it now, they DAMN well better be one of the all time greatest. Gotta back it up. The song is from 1991. Rivera first used it in 1999. Not sure how long before he noticed.
1996 was actually before Mariano developed his cutter, which makes that season even more insane. He was the best reliever in baseball and had opposing managers saying he belongs in an even higher league than MLB and THEN he starting throwing the greatest pitch in baseball history.
He was the setup guy in '96 for dominant closer and WS MVP John Wetteland, but was so dominant himself that the Yankees let Wetteland go, and made him their closer.
I still would change all the half of his saved games or even more, for the blown saves against the diamond backs and probably even if you aren't a Yankee fan you know the other team, man I know it is just a "game" but those two were devastating, and anforgeteble an a bad way, but it is what it is
As a Sox fan growing up, seeing Mariano on my tv screen as a kid might as well have been my worst nightmare. Mad respect though, there has never been anybody to do it like him or likely ever willl again.
I just want to share another anecdote from the 2004 post-season finale that often gets unfairly forgotten. What most people remember from the 2004 season is the massive comeback the Red Sox pulled off against the Yankees in the ALCS, including a dramatic 9th-inning comeback against Rivera where the Sox managed to score a run against him with…. a single BB, a single SB, and a single seeing-eye single through tie infield; which is what you have to do to score a run against Rivera when you can barely get the ball out of the infield. What people forget is that Rivera suffered a crazy personal tragedy at the start of that ALCS. As I recall two of his cousins (both kids or teens I think) whom he and his family were close to were swimming in a pool at Rivers’s house in the D-R, and both died of electrocution in that pool at Rivers’s house due to mishap. I believe he had been dealing with all of that and the funeral arrangements and such when he had to fly back to NYC that night to be available to pitch Game 1. Which he did, ultimately getting 4-out saves in both game 1 *and* game 2 of that series. Which honestly blows my mind about as much as any detail about that 2004 ALCS.
I(and family) had the great good fortune to watch and meet Mariano. My daughter is handicapped and he NEVER passed her by at the stadium. He always came and took pics with her. He is one of the finest player and person you will ever see
He had the best command of any pitcher in the history of baseball. Go back and look at his walk totals. His last 2 full seasons he only walked 8 and 9 batters at age 41 & 43. He honestly could've pitched at least another 3 years, maybe more. Absolute joy to watch and is my favorite player of all time.
The greatest reliever to ever do it, especially in the playoffs. His greatest kryptonite? The greatest DH to ever do it, Edgar Martinez of the Seattle Mariners. The Seattle Mariners biggest kryptonite? Making the playoffs. 😂
Interestingly Edgar's numbers against Mo was frontloaded. If you look up on the splits there was a drop off being had starting in the 2000s. Plus for someone who was known as the "Yankee Killer" due to his exploits in 1995 ALDS, he didn't live up to it when the M's needed him in 2000 and 2001 ALCS.
Also, Trever Hoffman finished with 501 saves and 76 blown saves for his career. When Mariano reached 502 saves to pass Hoffman, he had 72 blown saves. In that apples-to-apples comparison, Mariano still comes out on top.
The regular season "saves" stat doesn't begin to describe Mo's greatness. There's no comparison betw. Mo and Hoffman. Hoffman's stature was raised when his name was mentioned along with Mo--such as above commenter Jim has done. The Padres promoted the "total save stat" to sell tickets, so obviously Hoffman's saves weren't multiple inning appearances. Hoffman only pitched 13 postseason innings, 3.46 ERA. Rivera pitched 144 postseason innings, equivalent to two full regular seasons @70 ip, with .70 ERA.
@@susanmullen8648Mariano is twice the pitcher Hoffman was but that’s no slight on Hoffman. They’re similar because they both relied on 1 pitch to get outs (hoffman’s changeup)
1996 Yankees went 70 - 3 when they had a lead after the 6th inning - Mariano would pitch the 7th and 8th setting up for Wetland. It was an amazing one-two set up.
He was so good that by the time us yankee fans and the rest of the world saw him blow a big game under pressure…..we couldn’t believe that it happened. We couldn’t believe he gave up a run. It had been 6 years. That series against the Dbacks was the beginning of the end of the Yankee dynasty. Haven’t been the same since.
@castlefreeland 2 game 7 losses to the “upstart” Dbacks and Marlins. Because of GREAT pitching and our bats going cold. We went away from the contact hitting teams of the dynasty and went bopper 1-9. I wonder why that sounds familiar? 🤔
I wouldn't say the beginning of the end, it was the end of the dynasty. To be honest the fact that the Yankees won in 2000 despite the season they had and made it as far as they had in 2001 was them over performing and getting by with experience. Plus the D-Backs were filled with veteran All Star players that the team had acquired so it's not like the Yankees lost to a bunch of rookies like they kind of did in 2003.
What is funny when talking about Mo's win totals is that, as a reliever and a guy almost exclusively brought in to save a game and prserve a lead, a win usually meant he gave up the lead but the Yankees took it back lol What I always found impressive though were those wins he earned coming in down one in a high leverage situation amd throwing 2+ scoreless while his team scratched back in to the game As a Yankee fan, I got so used to Mo that is was automatic and expected for us to win when he was brought into a game, but I didn't appreciate that as much until he was gone. I cried tears of joy when he became the first ever unanimous hall of famer, even though that shoupd have happened so much sooner to so many other deserving candidates. Its a testament to his unparalleled dominance. He will always be a hero of mine and I am grateful now to have watched a master of his craft on my side all of those years
Just one thing I wanted to note is that he didn't exclusively pitch 1 inning at a time. If my memory serves me correct, he pitched more than 1 inning many, many times.
@@TheLockdownKidNYC I recall the TV analyst (the late Tim McCarver?) saying before the Game 7 walk-off that Rivera's one vulnerability was to the jam-shot, broken-bat flare single to center field. Not the home run nor the 110-mph line drive, but the little blooper that finds a gap in the defense. The weak flare single against a draw-in infield is exactly what Luis Gonzalez hit to beat Mo. If Jeter and Soriano had been playing at normal infield depth, they would most likely have turned that hit into an inning-ending double play. (There were also some defensive mistakes, one a throwing error by Rivera, that led to the blown save, so it wasn't exactly like the D-backs teed off on Rivera.)
@@10Peter25 Definitely some human error in that last inning but the lead off single, botched bunt, AND the double really set the stage. Rivera blows the save no matter what.
@@TheLockdownKidNYC It feels as if Murphy's Law is in play there. Keep in mind he broke three bats that inning which tells you something, even that double felt like a floater compare to how it normally goes. Also it should be noted that even had the double play been made on Gonzo there's no guarantee the Yankees would win in the extras unless Brenly decides to send out Kim again and that assumes whoever takes over for Mo holds the ground long enough.
And, if you look at his last season, you very much get the sense that he could have easily kept going for several more years as an elite reliever. He had 44 saves and an ERA below his career average.
I think this all means that we need a Dennis Eckersley video -- you could make one for his career as a player and one for his career as a broadcaster/source of amazing quotes. Fun fact, he coined the term "walk-off" to describe the homer that Kirk Gibson hit off of him...except he was actually referring to the losing pitcher (in that case, himself) "walking off" the mound.
I am a Yankees fan and this was my favorite moment of Rivera's career. Not because he lost the World Series, but because he CAME BACK and not matter what, remained consistent and dominant as ever. It was bound to happen at some point, and the Yankees tbh had NO BUSINESS even being in that WS against the Dbacks 12:20
Not only did he do it with one pitch, he found the pitch by accident while having a catch in the outfield. My fav story is at the all star game Roy Halladay asked him about it and Mo actually drew on a baseball to show him the finger placement and that's how Halladay learned the cutter and became even better. Mo was fined in Kangaroo court in the Yankee clubhouse for that lol
The most amazing thing about him was how consistent he was, 18 years of dominance. Hoffman had a couple of bad years Kimbrel was on his way to being the best and then fell off I think the only one who compares to him is Wagner and he didn't play as many years as Mariano in the majors
I was always stressed during Yankee playoff games.... until I heard Enter Sandman. That's how ridiculous he was. What is now (and for every other team, THE MOST stressful moment, became the 'game over' moment for me. When your team is up a run with the WS on the line... Enter Sandman comes on and instead of worrying or praying, you're sitting back, popping the bottle and celebrating the win because here comes Mo. From a superstitious fan, that says EVERYTHING
The best parts of his dominance was to watch the faces of the batters. They knew what was coming. Could not hit it and would at time look perplexed or angry as if they figured him out. HoF with 100% of the votes. A family man, a wonderful teammate, loves his Creator and his wife. True G.O.A.T.
Guy who usually only throws one inning? Do the math on postseason alone...I grew up watching this demi-god of a closer, can't count how many times I saw him come in in the eighth to throw 2 innings. GOAT
More people have set foot on the damn moon than scored a run on him in the playoffs. And he had a full season plus worth of playoff appearances. He was, with zero legitimate debate, better at his job than any other player has been at theirs (excluding short runs of brilliance no longer than 2-3 years) The word dominant was never more aptly used than it was when used to describe Mo. I very much doubt I will ever see a better pitcher than him. Not just closer, but pitcher period. And that's just him in the regular season. He gets exponentially better in the postseason. So, to paraphrase Tim Kurkijan, "in the playoffs, Mariano was much better than the greatest closer in the history of baseball. Which is himself"
I always argued about that. Ppl always complained about him throwing the same piches, my response always was "so what you saying is, they knew it was coming and still failed"
I saw somebody use a WAR comparison for Rivera to other non-reliever players. My immediate thought was that was foolish; on a per-inning basis Mo is the best player in MLB history at run prevention in both the regular and post seasons with anything near his volume of work. You can argue till the cows come home who the best starting pitcher was between Randy Johnson, Cy Young, Nolan Ryan, Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax, or any of the other all time greats...but if you want 1-2 innings of work, you pick Mo basically unquestionably. Doesn't matter if it's game 7 of the world series, or opening day, if you want that W and you want a guy you can count on for 3 outs, Mo is the best to ever do it. That's why he was a unanimous hall of famer. The only reason his counting stats are smaller is because he was a reliever. Like here's an astounding stat: excluding his 1995 rookie season where he started several games, for his entire career, Mariano Rivera only allowed 285 earned runs across 17 seasons, including postseason. Jordan Lyles has allowed 294 runners since just the 2021 season.
If you want to know what kind of a person Mariano Rivera was, he doesn't regret blowing a save in game 7 of the 2001 world series bc it meant a friend of his flew home early from New York instead of attending a potential Yankees victory parade and avoided boarding American Airlines flight 587, which crashed after takeoff into the Rockaways and killed all 260 people onboard, thus Mariano's blown save ended up saving his friend's life
I saw him pitch in a subway series at the old Bronx stadium. Jumbo tron locked in a a big dude with long hair headbanging to enter sandman the entire song while Mariano took the mound
The thing that should add to how good he was, and how head and shoulders above everyone else he was, is that closers RARELY have long careers, whereas there are always starters who you can see making the HOF. So often guys will come out of the gate hot and seem untouchable like they're the next Rivera, but the stresses of so many 9th innings and high-pressure situations eventually breaks them. I think of Gagne, Papelbon, Lidge, guys who had stretches of brilliance but couldn't quite put together the HOF career (also why I think Billy Wagner should eventually get in, we're seeing how rare it is to be that good for that long as a closer). Rivera and Hoffman are above the rest, and Rivera is clearly above Hoffman because of the playoff edge. I'd love to see how many 4+ out saves/outings Rivera had in his career. Guys like Kimbrel absolutely fall apart once they have to go more than one inning, but I distinctly remember Rivera coming into games as early as one out in the 8th just to stop the bleeding.
Amazing that the number of times Rivera blew a save in the postseason are so rare that I can remember 40% of them clearly: Luis Gonzalez's walk-off single in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series and his blown save in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS that opened the door for the Red Sox' historic comeback from down 3 games to none. (I read that Rivera's blown save in the 2001 World Series actually saved his teammate's life. If the Yankees had won that series, Yankee teammate Enrique Wilson would have flown back to his home in the Dominican Republic after their victory parade. The plane Wilson originally scheduled crashed, leaving no survivors. Because they lost the series, Wilson decided to fly back home a few days early. Rivera said afterward that he was glad he blew the save; otherwise, he would have lost a friend.)
Best ever? No, not really. Maybe if you add the word "reliever" to the second sentence I'll agree but there were starters just as dominant. Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Greg Maddux just to name a few.
The cutter was near Randy Johnson slider level good, but thrown for strikes. I watched him warm up in Baltimore once about a week after seeing Troy Percival do the same. (that visitors pen was awesome) The hiss was almost the same between the two of them, but Mo's just wasn't anywhere near straight.
Nobody executed their role more effectively in MLB history, or maybe sports history. I know baseball better than I know other sports but idk how you can be better. As good, not better.
And even then, he pitched brilliantly. His biggest failure in that game was his errant throw to second base which resulted in the situation that everyone remembers. He lost the game with a really good pitch that Gonzalez fended off over the drawn-in infield.
Grew up going to Yankee Stadium and as a kid would lose my mind every time Enter Sandman came on. I loved Mo. (Paul O'Neil was my favorite though) Honestly, my love of baseball diminished A LOT after Mo and Jeter retired.
I would take any of Mariano's peak years over Gagne's best ANY DAMN DAY. Especially in October. Period. Rivera was not just a reliver or a closer, he was a SYMBOL for the DOMINANCE of the Yankees during his years. It was intimidation beyond anything a Craig Kimbrell or Gagne could even dream of. 0.70 ERA is the POSTSEASON! END 2:34
He has such a complicated legacy to me because I fuckin hated the 90's-00's Yankees, they were the wet blanket to every upstart franchise or storybook narrative. But goddamn you gotta respect the sandman
I hated the Yankees growing up but I'll admit Mariano Rivera was the best closer I've ever seen. Watching him in the post season felt like an adult pitching against little leaguers. Strikeouts, weak groundballs or broken bats, it felt like hitters had no chance.
I'm the biggest Mariano collector on the planet with more baseball cards than you can imagine, including more than one thousand autographs going back to his first year in the minors, so I've talked with a lot of people that have interacted with him. I've never heard a single bad word about him as a person. Not one.
I love hearing about players who are just dominant and terrifying on the field and really swell guys off the field. Someone you'd love to grab a beer with or run into at the grocery store but absolutely hate to step into the batter's box against.
There are a couple who does have something negative to say about him but they also have credibility issues as well. One example is Paul Priore whom you may have heard somewhere.
I would like to put in a kind word for my hometown Padres’ greatest closer, Trevor Hoffman…yes, Rivera was better, but Hoffman was almost equally dominant for a decade and a half, and he mastered only a single pitch and just pounded it forever!
A lot of people don't know this but he was virtually spotless in the 2001 post season with the exception of that 9th inning. Had the Yankees have won that World Series, he may have been MVP based on his dominance.
His MIND BLOWING 0.70 era. Two things, not mentioned was that it was against the best teams, all playoff and world series caliber teams. And, it would be even lower if Torre hadnt brought the infield in against AZ. and steroid laden Gonzalez, I was screaming at the tv. Do you know how many bloop pop ups I had seen caught by Jeter, Martinez and whoever was playing 3rd base at the time? So Steroid Gonzo hits a blooper over Jeter's head, that Jeter would have caught had Torre not brought the infield in.
I don’t think he’s even better than I remember, speaking as a Red Sox fan who would watch nearly every game from 2002 - 2018 or thereabouts. I watched Rivera pitch a *lot* and I have no qualms with saying that he’s among the top 3 relievers to ever throw a baseball, if not in the top 1. Trying to get a hit off Rivera was basically impossible if you were a left-handed hitter (you were more likely to get your bat sawed in half by a cutter) and only insanely difficult if you were a right-handed hitter - but maybe you had a chance to get to first base then, whereupon your team would still lose.
Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersly, Goose Gossage and God help us Bruce Sutter all came in on a regular run on second, third nobody out save the came. Came in in the seventh or eighth to face the best hitters on other teams. He was great for his empty bade start an inning era
and yet it is not a true one-trick-pony because he did it from 1996-2013 (bullpen) and with the cutter from mid-1997 to 2013. That is something you should be able to adapt to, if it is, in fact, a true one-trick-pony. The real key was the WAY he modified it and commanded the pitch to destroy at bats and BATS themselves 6:48
Get off degroms nuts, he will go down as a guy in baseball history who had the best stuff for a small period and a high risk asset/stock that didnt pay dividends….
Wins is generally a bad stat for closers since it usually comes after they blow a save and their team ends up winning it in the bottom half of the inning.
the funny thing is NONE of these guys today or during or BEFORE Rivera came CLOSE. Rivera does not care if you swing and miss or make contact and break your bat. THE GAME IS OVER... 0:50
I'd have to say, I don't think Mariano Rivera was better than I think because I grew up throughout his whole career and know how good he was. There's no thinking on how good he was. His last couple years he wasn't so lights out in the playoffs but that's okay
I’m just gonna say a player that is the only 100% vote in cannot be underrated especially when there are so many better players that didn’t get that title.
He’ll never be in the conversation with anyone for greateat pitcher of all time, but there’s arguments you could make where Rivera could be the greatest pitcher of all time. Case and point this video, if Rivera came in you might as well shut the tv off and go to bed because you just KNEW the game was over
Hmmm...DeGrom should be the second character in this video; absolutely no disrespect to DeGrom but...if you're plagued with injuries for most of your career from max-effort pitching, you're no better than a paper-weight sitting on the bench taking up cap space and possible prospect $. Rivera never was a max-effort pitcher unless he was actually upset (which was very rare). I've seen his FB clocked in the upper 90s a few times after giving up a walk or base hit (again which was rare). I will say however, pitching in the 80s and 90s was a magical time for me to watch even though baseball wasn't my primary sport. I also find it boring compared to gymnastics. But as a gymnastics coach and knowing the ins and outs of the human body, the number of injuries sustained in today's game due to the pressure of throwing hard and putting max-effort is really destroying arms. DeGrom's included. It's not worth it. I'd rather throw 90-93 with 15+inches of break than 97-100 MPH and blow out your arm or constantly having season ending surgery. (Ohtani is another great example of another train-wreck waiting to happen if he doesn't lower the intensity.)
He was a great pitcher, no doubt about that. It's because he was so great that I went to bed early, going into the bottom of the 9th inning, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, because I believed he would dominate my Diamondbacks. Little did I know that he would blow his first save since April of 1997 (before the D-backs had ever played a single regular season game). I didn't know what had happened until the next day. How I wish I had stayed up to watch history being made.
I grew up watching mo from day one, I didn't realize how inferior everyone else was until he got hurt the year before his retirement and the rest of the bullpen had to fill in. 😳
Starters need to pace. Relievers go 100% for 1-2 innings. Put degrom in his prime as a closer and he'd destroy records. Reason yankees used Rivera in the pen was because of arm surgery early in career
I would rather have Rivera as my closer than deGrom as a starter on my team, period. Not hate at all. Rivera does not even have a true COMPARABLE 7:47 and Rivera could pitch in any inning and was often used for 2 innings, and at times, even three.
When I hear a debate about who’s better: Michael Jordan or LeBron James, it makes me think that Jordan is somehow underrated as well. Just the fact that that debate is happening at all makes it so.
I love mo and I appreciate everything he did but the 100% hof ballot always puzzled me. I know it's worthless really but I don't think any primary relief pitcher should ever be voted in that highly. Suggesting he was more worthy of hof than so many players. I just think it's a bit crazy.
After Rivera's "bad" season, he started mixing in more 2 seam fastballs that break the opposite way from his cutter. That bought him another decade or so of dominance.
he also had an outstanding changeup but he never threw it during games. only spring training games
@@GuidoLuzzioutstanding pitch that can be still considered a weak link in his repertoire
Also helped that after 2002 he starts working on his conditioning as well.
@@GuidoLuzziIf I recall an interview he gave at one point, the reason he never really threw the changeup is because he didn't have nearly as good command over the changeup as he did his cut and two-seam fastballs. So while it would have been a devastating out pitch, he didn't want to get beat throwing it. He was so confident that he'd get the hitter with his fastballs, and to be fair he was right and it made him a legend.
My favorite Rivera story: he had NO idea his entrance song was Enter Sandman for a really long time. He was so focused when he entered, he never even heard it. That's not his style of music. He likes carribean music (if I remember correctly, like Harry Bellefonte?). He wasn't familiar with Metallica until fairly late into his career.
He listens to mostly Christian music.
He should listen to Bernie Williams music.
He listens to mostly Nickleback music
Was Mariano Rivera, the only player that used this walkout song? Was there sort of written (or unwritten rule) that only once a player uses the song, than no other player can use that song ?
& was this song (chosen by Yankees mgmt) was it selected, before or after Virginia Tech started using this song?
@@MikeCee7 Definitely no written rule. Not sure how many have used it. It certainly is a pretty obvious choice and it wouldn't surprise me if many have used it. But because of his greatness, it got associated with him and if anyone else uses it now, they DAMN well better be one of the all time greatest. Gotta back it up.
The song is from 1991. Rivera first used it in 1999. Not sure how long before he noticed.
1996 was actually before Mariano developed his cutter, which makes that season even more insane. He was the best reliever in baseball and had opposing managers saying he belongs in an even higher league than MLB and THEN he starting throwing the greatest pitch in baseball history.
He was the setup guy in '96 for dominant closer and WS MVP John Wetteland, but was so dominant himself that the Yankees let Wetteland go, and made him their closer.
If I recall correctly, that was Jim Leyland who said he belongs in a higher league than MLB.
I still would change all the half of his saved games or even more, for the blown saves against the diamond backs and probably even if you aren't a Yankee fan you know the other team, man I know it is just a "game" but those two were devastating, and anforgeteble an a bad way, but it is what it is
@@martinmunoz7798 how dare he be human. Geez, .70 era in a full season worth of postseason games and that’s not good enough🙄
@@snerdterguson Could be worse, there are idiots who thinks 2001 should discredit everything he had done.
As a Sox fan growing up, seeing Mariano on my tv screen as a kid might as well have been my worst nightmare. Mad respect though, there has never been anybody to do it like him or likely ever willl again.
I just want to share another anecdote from the 2004 post-season finale that often gets unfairly forgotten.
What most people remember from the 2004 season is the massive comeback the Red Sox pulled off against the Yankees in the ALCS, including a dramatic 9th-inning comeback against Rivera where the Sox managed to score a run against him with…. a single BB, a single SB, and a single seeing-eye single through tie infield; which is what you have to do to score a run against Rivera when you can barely get the ball out of the infield.
What people forget is that Rivera suffered a crazy personal tragedy at the start of that ALCS. As I recall two of his cousins (both kids or teens I think) whom he and his family were close to were swimming in a pool at Rivers’s house in the D-R, and both died of electrocution in that pool at Rivers’s house due to mishap.
I believe he had been dealing with all of that and the funeral arrangements and such when he had to fly back to NYC that night to be available to pitch Game 1. Which he did, ultimately getting 4-out saves in both game 1 *and* game 2 of that series. Which honestly blows my mind about as much as any detail about that 2004 ALCS.
I(and family) had the great good fortune to watch and meet Mariano. My daughter is handicapped and he NEVER passed her by at the stadium. He always came and took pics with her. He is one of the finest player and person you will ever see
He had the best command of any pitcher in the history of baseball. Go back and look at his walk totals. His last 2 full seasons he only walked 8 and 9 batters at age 41 & 43. He honestly could've pitched at least another 3 years, maybe more. Absolute joy to watch and is my favorite player of all time.
The greatest reliever to ever do it, especially in the playoffs. His greatest kryptonite? The greatest DH to ever do it, Edgar Martinez of the Seattle Mariners. The Seattle Mariners biggest kryptonite? Making the playoffs. 😂
He just hates Hall of Fame DHs
Mike trout and ohtani greatest krpytonite. Not making the playoffs at all
Interestingly Edgar's numbers against Mo was frontloaded. If you look up on the splits there was a drop off being had starting in the 2000s. Plus for someone who was known as the "Yankee Killer" due to his exploits in 1995 ALDS, he didn't live up to it when the M's needed him in 2000 and 2001 ALCS.
Ichiro also hit him pretty well, but Ichiro also said his Cutter was the single hardest pitch he ever had to face.
This man has .1 less WAR than Dave freakin’ Stieb as a closer 😭
And steib was the best pitcher of the eighties!
Dave Stieb mentioned!
🤷♂️
Stieb was great. He threw one no hitter and I think 2 or 3 times he had one broken up in the 9th with 2 outs. He did it in back to back games.
Secret base has a great series on Steib
@@rorymurphy4315 it is a great series one of the most underrated and unlucky players of all time
Also, Trever Hoffman finished with 501 saves and 76 blown saves for his career. When Mariano reached 502 saves to pass Hoffman, he had 72 blown saves. In that apples-to-apples comparison, Mariano still comes out on top.
It was actually 601 not 501 bud. Look up your stats before you make a comment about them buddy 😂
The regular season "saves" stat doesn't begin to describe Mo's greatness. There's no comparison betw. Mo and Hoffman. Hoffman's stature was raised when his name was mentioned along with Mo--such as above commenter Jim has done. The Padres promoted the "total save stat" to sell tickets, so obviously Hoffman's saves weren't multiple inning appearances. Hoffman only pitched 13 postseason innings, 3.46 ERA. Rivera pitched 144 postseason innings, equivalent to two full regular seasons @70 ip, with .70 ERA.
@@susanmullen8648Mariano is twice the pitcher Hoffman was but that’s no slight on Hoffman. They’re similar because they both relied on 1 pitch to get outs (hoffman’s changeup)
1996 Yankees went 70 - 3 when they had a lead after the 6th inning - Mariano would pitch the 7th and 8th setting up for Wetland. It was an amazing one-two set up.
He was so good that by the time us yankee fans and the rest of the world saw him blow a big game under pressure…..we couldn’t believe that it happened. We couldn’t believe he gave up a run. It had been 6 years.
That series against the Dbacks was the beginning of the end of the Yankee dynasty. Haven’t been the same since.
@castlefreeland 2 game 7 losses to the “upstart” Dbacks and Marlins. Because of GREAT pitching and our bats going cold. We went away from the contact hitting teams of the dynasty and went bopper 1-9. I wonder why that sounds familiar? 🤔
I wouldn't say the beginning of the end, it was the end of the dynasty. To be honest the fact that the Yankees won in 2000 despite the season they had and made it as far as they had in 2001 was them over performing and getting by with experience. Plus the D-Backs were filled with veteran All Star players that the team had acquired so it's not like the Yankees lost to a bunch of rookies like they kind of did in 2003.
2003 WS was 6 games, mostly because of Josh Beckett.
@@bulovapsb Though Beckett took an L in Game 3, it was after that blown opportunity in Game 4 where things went downhill.
What is funny when talking about Mo's win totals is that, as a reliever and a guy almost exclusively brought in to save a game and prserve a lead, a win usually meant he gave up the lead but the Yankees took it back lol
What I always found impressive though were those wins he earned coming in down one in a high leverage situation amd throwing 2+ scoreless while his team scratched back in to the game
As a Yankee fan, I got so used to Mo that is was automatic and expected for us to win when he was brought into a game, but I didn't appreciate that as much until he was gone. I cried tears of joy when he became the first ever unanimous hall of famer, even though that shoupd have happened so much sooner to so many other deserving candidates. Its a testament to his unparalleled dominance. He will always be a hero of mine and I am grateful now to have watched a master of his craft on my side all of those years
Just one thing I wanted to note is that he didn't exclusively pitch 1 inning at a time. If my memory serves me correct, he pitched more than 1 inning many, many times.
Torre put him a lot of 2 innings and in the Boone hr again Boston he pitched 3
Great point. Rivera often came in for the 8th. As he did in Game 7 2001 which points to him possibly being gassed by the end of that post season.
@@TheLockdownKidNYC I recall the TV analyst (the late Tim McCarver?) saying before the Game 7 walk-off that Rivera's one vulnerability was to the jam-shot, broken-bat flare single to center field. Not the home run nor the 110-mph line drive, but the little blooper that finds a gap in the defense. The weak flare single against a draw-in infield is exactly what Luis Gonzalez hit to beat Mo. If Jeter and Soriano had been playing at normal infield depth, they would most likely have turned that hit into an inning-ending double play. (There were also some defensive mistakes, one a throwing error by Rivera, that led to the blown save, so it wasn't exactly like the D-backs teed off on Rivera.)
@@10Peter25
Definitely some human error in that last inning but the lead off single, botched bunt, AND the double really set the stage. Rivera blows the save no matter what.
@@TheLockdownKidNYC It feels as if Murphy's Law is in play there. Keep in mind he broke three bats that inning which tells you something, even that double felt like a floater compare to how it normally goes. Also it should be noted that even had the double play been made on Gonzo there's no guarantee the Yankees would win in the extras unless Brenly decides to send out Kim again and that assumes whoever takes over for Mo holds the ground long enough.
And, if you look at his last season, you very much get the sense that he could have easily kept going for several more years as an elite reliever. He had 44 saves and an ERA below his career average.
Thank you for this video! As a panamanian, really and truly happy for having a Mo in our lives!
I think this all means that we need a Dennis Eckersley video -- you could make one for his career as a player and one for his career as a broadcaster/source of amazing quotes. Fun fact, he coined the term "walk-off" to describe the homer that Kirk Gibson hit off of him...except he was actually referring to the losing pitcher (in that case, himself) "walking off" the mound.
I am a Yankees fan and this was my favorite moment of Rivera's career. Not because he lost the World Series, but because he CAME BACK and not matter what, remained consistent and dominant as ever. It was bound to happen at some point, and the Yankees tbh had NO BUSINESS even being in that WS against the Dbacks 12:20
Not only did he do it with one pitch, he found the pitch by accident while having a catch in the outfield. My fav story is at the all star game Roy Halladay asked him about it and Mo actually drew on a baseball to show him the finger placement and that's how Halladay learned the cutter and became even better. Mo was fined in Kangaroo court in the Yankee clubhouse for that lol
Nah. I watched him play. I know how great he was. I was there. Just like seeing Juniors sweet swing. You just had to be there. ❤️🙏
The most amazing thing about him was how consistent he was, 18 years of dominance.
Hoffman had a couple of bad years
Kimbrel was on his way to being the best and then fell off
I think the only one who compares to him is Wagner and he didn't play as many years as Mariano in the majors
And that's without getting into the postseason.
I was always stressed during Yankee playoff games.... until I heard Enter Sandman. That's how ridiculous he was. What is now (and for every other team, THE MOST stressful moment, became the 'game over' moment for me. When your team is up a run with the WS on the line... Enter Sandman comes on and instead of worrying or praying, you're sitting back, popping the bottle and celebrating the win because here comes Mo. From a superstitious fan, that says EVERYTHING
8:11 Michael Jordan playing against plumbers is not only a cliche buzz phrase, it's also the dumbest thing anyone has ever said in world history.
The best parts of his dominance was to watch the faces of the batters. They knew what was coming. Could not hit it and would at time look perplexed or angry as if they figured him out. HoF with 100% of the votes. A family man, a wonderful teammate, loves his Creator and his wife. True G.O.A.T.
It's no coincidence that the Yankees started to win championships when he joined the team and haven't won one since he retired.
Guy who usually only throws one inning? Do the math on postseason alone...I grew up watching this demi-god of a closer, can't count how many times I saw him come in in the eighth to throw 2 innings. GOAT
More people have set foot on the damn moon than scored a run on him in the playoffs. And he had a full season plus worth of playoff appearances.
He was, with zero legitimate debate, better at his job than any other player has been at theirs (excluding short runs of brilliance no longer than 2-3 years) The word dominant was never more aptly used than it was when used to describe Mo.
I very much doubt I will ever see a better pitcher than him. Not just closer, but pitcher period. And that's just him in the regular season. He gets exponentially better in the postseason. So, to paraphrase Tim Kurkijan, "in the playoffs, Mariano was much better than the greatest closer in the history of baseball. Which is himself"
I always argued about that. Ppl always complained about him throwing the same piches, my response always was "so what you saying is, they knew it was coming and still failed"
More men have walked on the moon(12) than have scored on Mo Rivera in the playoffs(11).
I am literally blessed to have been born in New York and watch him pitch
I saw somebody use a WAR comparison for Rivera to other non-reliever players. My immediate thought was that was foolish; on a per-inning basis Mo is the best player in MLB history at run prevention in both the regular and post seasons with anything near his volume of work. You can argue till the cows come home who the best starting pitcher was between Randy Johnson, Cy Young, Nolan Ryan, Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax, or any of the other all time greats...but if you want 1-2 innings of work, you pick Mo basically unquestionably. Doesn't matter if it's game 7 of the world series, or opening day, if you want that W and you want a guy you can count on for 3 outs, Mo is the best to ever do it. That's why he was a unanimous hall of famer. The only reason his counting stats are smaller is because he was a reliever.
Like here's an astounding stat: excluding his 1995 rookie season where he started several games, for his entire career, Mariano Rivera only allowed 285 earned runs across 17 seasons, including postseason. Jordan Lyles has allowed 294 runners since just the 2021 season.
Thank you for this. The world needed this.
What I’m noticing about this video is that Dennis Eckersley deserves more appreciation than many of us may have thought.
Great video. I feel like Rivera went 2 innings a good amount tho
If you want to know what kind of a person Mariano Rivera was, he doesn't regret blowing a save in game 7 of the 2001 world series bc it meant a friend of his flew home early from New York instead of attending a potential Yankees victory parade and avoided boarding American Airlines flight 587, which crashed after takeoff into the Rockaways and killed all 260 people onboard, thus Mariano's blown save ended up saving his friend's life
Enrique Wilson.
I saw him pitch in a subway series at the old Bronx stadium. Jumbo tron locked in a a big dude with long hair headbanging to enter sandman the entire song while Mariano took the mound
The thing that should add to how good he was, and how head and shoulders above everyone else he was, is that closers RARELY have long careers, whereas there are always starters who you can see making the HOF. So often guys will come out of the gate hot and seem untouchable like they're the next Rivera, but the stresses of so many 9th innings and high-pressure situations eventually breaks them. I think of Gagne, Papelbon, Lidge, guys who had stretches of brilliance but couldn't quite put together the HOF career (also why I think Billy Wagner should eventually get in, we're seeing how rare it is to be that good for that long as a closer). Rivera and Hoffman are above the rest, and Rivera is clearly above Hoffman because of the playoff edge.
I'd love to see how many 4+ out saves/outings Rivera had in his career. Guys like Kimbrel absolutely fall apart once they have to go more than one inning, but I distinctly remember Rivera coming into games as early as one out in the 8th just to stop the bleeding.
Awesome video his stats are insane
As a Yankees fan, I love this video!
Amazing that the number of times Rivera blew a save in the postseason are so rare that I can remember 40% of them clearly: Luis Gonzalez's walk-off single in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series and his blown save in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS that opened the door for the Red Sox' historic comeback from down 3 games to none.
(I read that Rivera's blown save in the 2001 World Series actually saved his teammate's life. If the Yankees had won that series, Yankee teammate Enrique Wilson would have flown back to his home in the Dominican Republic after their victory parade. The plane Wilson originally scheduled crashed, leaving no survivors. Because they lost the series, Wilson decided to fly back home a few days early. Rivera said afterward that he was glad he blew the save; otherwise, he would have lost a friend.)
In the 2004 ALCS he was dealing with a family tragedy.
He’s simply the best pitcher of all time. The most consistently dominant at least
Best ever? No, not really. Maybe if you add the word "reliever" to the second sentence I'll agree but there were starters just as dominant. Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Greg Maddux just to name a few.
The cutter was near Randy Johnson slider level good, but thrown for strikes. I watched him warm up in Baltimore once about a week after seeing Troy Percival do the same. (that visitors pen was awesome) The hiss was almost the same between the two of them, but Mo's just wasn't anywhere near straight.
Nobody executed their role more effectively in MLB history, or maybe sports history. I know baseball better than I know other sports but idk how you can be better. As good, not better.
as a Red Sox fan I dreaded this guy I think we got him once in that ACLS game
Good video thank you
I guess that makes 2001 shine in terms of World Series because that was the first time Rivera looked mortal out there
And even then, he pitched brilliantly. His biggest failure in that game was his errant throw to second base which resulted in the situation that everyone remembers. He lost the game with a really good pitch that Gonzalez fended off over the drawn-in infield.
These stats are legit crazy like 0.70 era in the playoffs over like what 100 innings that’s crazy
Grew up going to Yankee Stadium and as a kid would lose my mind every time Enter Sandman came on. I loved Mo. (Paul O'Neil was my favorite though) Honestly, my love of baseball diminished A LOT after Mo and Jeter retired.
I love how you ended this! 😂
I would take any of Mariano's peak years over Gagne's best ANY DAMN DAY. Especially in October. Period. Rivera was not just a reliver or a closer, he was a SYMBOL for the DOMINANCE of the Yankees during his years. It was intimidation beyond anything a Craig Kimbrell or Gagne could even dream of. 0.70 ERA is the POSTSEASON! END 2:34
He has such a complicated legacy to me because I fuckin hated the 90's-00's Yankees, they were the wet blanket to every upstart franchise or storybook narrative. But goddamn you gotta respect the sandman
Ironically that dynasty started with the Yankees having an upstart storybook season in 1996.
Great video
I hated the Yankees growing up but I'll admit Mariano Rivera was the best closer I've ever seen. Watching him in the post season felt like an adult pitching against little leaguers. Strikeouts, weak groundballs or broken bats, it felt like hitters had no chance.
Top 1 yt Chanel rn
I dont know the numbers but I'm fairly certain that he had the most ABs against 3-5 hitters too. I remember hearing that in 2013.
His 2005 season was absurd 308 era+!
I'm the biggest Mariano collector on the planet with more baseball cards than you can imagine, including more than one thousand autographs going back to his first year in the minors, so I've talked with a lot of people that have interacted with him. I've never heard a single bad word about him as a person. Not one.
I love hearing about players who are just dominant and terrifying on the field and really swell guys off the field. Someone you'd love to grab a beer with or run into at the grocery store but absolutely hate to step into the batter's box against.
There are a couple who does have something negative to say about him but they also have credibility issues as well. One example is Paul Priore whom you may have heard somewhere.
@@iamhungey12345 I had to look that guy up. He's clearly looney tunes and looking for a pay out.
@@forgerelli1 Exactly.
Unironically the highlight of my yankees season
GOAT. And I'm a Tribe fan.
Amazing video! Mariano's numbers are unbelievable
He also had a great change up that he never used except spring training
I would like to put in a kind word for my hometown Padres’ greatest closer, Trevor Hoffman…yes, Rivera was better, but Hoffman was almost equally dominant for a decade and a half, and he mastered only a single pitch and just pounded it forever!
A lot of people don't know this but he was virtually spotless in the 2001 post season with the exception of that 9th inning. Had the Yankees have won that World Series, he may have been MVP based on his dominance.
Also, part of the problem was his own error and Brosius not going for the double play!
His MIND BLOWING 0.70 era. Two things, not mentioned was that it was against the best teams, all playoff and world series caliber teams. And, it would be even lower if Torre hadnt brought the infield in against AZ. and steroid laden Gonzalez, I was screaming at the tv. Do you know how many bloop pop ups I had seen caught by Jeter, Martinez and whoever was playing 3rd base at the time? So Steroid Gonzo hits a blooper over Jeter's head, that Jeter would have caught had Torre not brought the infield in.
Jays fan, saying he tore his knee shagging fly balls at 42. Just had to put that out there.
I don’t think he’s even better than I remember, speaking as a Red Sox fan who would watch nearly every game from 2002 - 2018 or thereabouts. I watched Rivera pitch a *lot* and I have no qualms with saying that he’s among the top 3 relievers to ever throw a baseball, if not in the top 1.
Trying to get a hit off Rivera was basically impossible if you were a left-handed hitter (you were more likely to get your bat sawed in half by a cutter) and only insanely difficult if you were a right-handed hitter - but maybe you had a chance to get to first base then, whereupon your team would still lose.
To be fair cutter to the 4 corners is close to being 4 different pitches
Because he really located it 1 inch in or off the plate
Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersly, Goose Gossage and God help us Bruce Sutter all came in on a regular run on second, third nobody out save the came. Came in in the seventh or eighth to face the best hitters on other teams. He was great for his empty bade start an inning era
greatest pitcher ever. no doubt in my mind that he wouldn't have been able to pitch 6 innings and give up 1-2 runs
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ is Mariano
and yet it is not a true one-trick-pony because he did it from 1996-2013 (bullpen) and with the cutter from mid-1997 to 2013. That is something you should be able to adapt to, if it is, in fact, a true one-trick-pony. The real key was the WAY he modified it and commanded the pitch to destroy at bats and BATS themselves 6:48
You should do the one AMAZING year that Kuo had as a closer for the Dodgers in 2010
Get off degroms nuts, he will go down as a guy in baseball history who had the best stuff for a small period and a high risk asset/stock that didnt pay dividends….
Sorry bro
Mo might never be passed on greatness. I have nothing against him cause he blew a couple big saves against the Sox. Mo is the GOAT
It’s hard to believe that Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, & Willie Mays, did not get as high a percentage as Ty Cobb. 0:06
Can you do Eric Gange? And maybe Dice-K?
Wins is generally a bad stat for closers since it usually comes after they blow a save and their team ends up winning it in the bottom half of the inning.
the funny thing is NONE of these guys today or during or BEFORE Rivera came CLOSE. Rivera does not care if you swing and miss or make contact and break your bat. THE GAME IS OVER... 0:50
I'd have to say, I don't think Mariano Rivera was better than I think because I grew up throughout his whole career and know how good he was. There's no thinking on how good he was. His last couple years he wasn't so lights out in the playoffs but that's okay
I’m just gonna say a player that is the only 100% vote in cannot be underrated especially when there are so many better players that didn’t get that title.
Underrated by the masses not by HOF voters, two complete different populations
He’ll never be in the conversation with anyone for greateat pitcher of all time, but there’s arguments you could make where Rivera could be the greatest pitcher of all time. Case and point this video, if Rivera came in you might as well shut the tv off and go to bed because you just KNEW the game was over
Hmmm...DeGrom should be the second character in this video; absolutely no disrespect to DeGrom but...if you're plagued with injuries for most of your career from max-effort pitching, you're no better than a paper-weight sitting on the bench taking up cap space and possible prospect $.
Rivera never was a max-effort pitcher unless he was actually upset (which was very rare). I've seen his FB clocked in the upper 90s a few times after giving up a walk or base hit (again which was rare).
I will say however, pitching in the 80s and 90s was a magical time for me to watch even though baseball wasn't my primary sport. I also find it boring compared to gymnastics. But as a gymnastics coach and knowing the ins and outs of the human body, the number of injuries sustained in today's game due to the pressure of throwing hard and putting max-effort is really destroying arms. DeGrom's included. It's not worth it. I'd rather throw 90-93 with 15+inches of break than 97-100 MPH and blow out your arm or constantly having season ending surgery.
(Ohtani is another great example of another train-wreck waiting to happen if he doesn't lower the intensity.)
He was a great pitcher, no doubt about that. It's because he was so great that I went to bed early, going into the bottom of the 9th inning, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, because I believed he would dominate my Diamondbacks. Little did I know that he would blow his first save since April of 1997 (before the D-backs had ever played a single regular season game). I didn't know what had happened until the next day. How I wish I had stayed up to watch history being made.
He's the most clutch athlete of all time in any sport!
I miss Mo. Every reliever I make in a baseball game always has a Cutter.
Kind of ridiculous that Griffey jr and some other greats didn’t get 100% HOF votes
You knew what was coming and were still hard put to do anything with him.
This Red Sox fan says: Rivera was the GOAT.
I grew up watching mo from day one, I didn't realize how inferior everyone else was until he got hurt the year before his retirement and the rest of the bullpen had to fill in. 😳
Griffey has a career war of 83+ 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Jesus.
Every time he came in, you got this feeling the game was just over. It was like 4th quarter Tom Brady amplified 100x.
Starters need to pace. Relievers go 100% for 1-2 innings. Put degrom in his prime as a closer and he'd destroy records. Reason yankees used Rivera in the pen was because of arm surgery early in career
He's the only man in the world who has carry on their CUTTER
GOAT
In my opinion 96 was his greatest season. He was the setup man. 7th and 8th inning. Sometimes come in the 6th.
I would rather have Rivera as my closer than deGrom as a starter on my team, period. Not hate at all. Rivera does not even have a true COMPARABLE 7:47 and Rivera could pitch in any inning and was often used for 2 innings, and at times, even three.
and what about his 141 innings in the PLAYOFFS!!! HE CLINCHED MULTIPLE WORLD SERIES 3:04
Yessir
Degrom isn’t the best in human history. If he got good earlier and stayed healthy then that argument would have a lot more ground to stand on.
For real. He's a nasty pitcher when he's actually playing. I think he's averaging 11 starts in the past 4 seasons
Fist bump fail at 8:04
When I hear a debate about who’s better: Michael Jordan or LeBron James, it makes me think that Jordan is somehow underrated as well. Just the fact that that debate is happening at all makes it so.
I love mo and I appreciate everything he did but the 100% hof ballot always puzzled me. I know it's worthless really but I don't think any primary relief pitcher should ever be voted in that highly. Suggesting he was more worthy of hof than so many players. I just think it's a bit crazy.