Rivera, Mussina ref lect on careers
Players who contributed mightily to the Yankees’ success going into Hall
Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours shy of the crowning achievement in a magical baseball journey, Mariano Rivera calmly sliced his way through a maze of media members at Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown and gracefully handled interviews in both English and Spanish with remarkable efficiency.
Sunday, the man who pitched his entire Major League Baseball career with the New York Yankees and became the all-time saves leader, gets one final chance to close as the iconic reliever will be the sixth and final inductee to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The 2019 induction class features four members selected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America — Rivera, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina — along with Today’s Game Era honorees Harold Baines and Lee Smith. This year marks the 75th time the BBWAA voted on players and it is the fifth time the organization selected four players.
The enshrinement ceremony Sunday figures to draw one of the biggest crowds in history, largely because of the immense popularity of Rivera, who during his illustrious career with the Yankees came from the bullpen during home games to the music of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” Rivera put many a bat to sleep, often splintered.
Rivera became the first Hall of Fame member to land 100 percent of the vote from the
BBWAA as he was named on all 425 ballots submitted. The reliever, who spent part of his 1994 season with the Albany-colonie Yankees before making his MLB debut a year later, struggled at the beginning of his major league career being used as a starter and was briefly sent down along with shortstop Derek Jeter. Rivera was shifted to the bullpen at the end of the 1995 season and spent one full year as a setup man before becoming the Yankees’ closer in 1997.
The 13-time all-star helped New York win seven American League pennants and five World Series titles during a 19-year career that featured 652 saves. The native of Panama was even more brilliant during postseason play, going 8-1 with 42 saves and a sparkling 0.70 earned-run average.
Even with all his incredible success, Rivera did endure a few memorable blown saves in the postseason, including in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Asked how he dealt with such difficult situations, Rivera smoothly said, “That’s part of the game. I understood those moments are going to happen. It happened in the World Series. It happened in the playoffs. It happened during the regular season, so I understood that. You have to forget it and move on. I don’t even remember. What did you ask me? ... You have to have a short memory.”
Mussina, who split his MLB career as a starting pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles and the Yankees, confirmed Saturday he will be the first player to be inducted Sunday. The right-hander, who won 270 games, played his final eight years of his career with Rivera in New York.
“We won a lot. We had high expectations as a group, the front office did and we did as individuals,” Mussina said. “We just went out and played the game at the level we felt we should play at and, hopefully, we’d win a lot of games, everyone would stay healthy and we’d get to August and September and games would still mean something.”
Halladay, who died in a plane crash in 2017, and Rivera are the 55th and 56th players to get elected in their first year of eligibility. Halladay, a right-handed pitcher who won two Cy Young awards splitting his career between the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, asked Rivera to show him how he threw his trademark cutter during free time at the 2008 All-star Game at Yankee Stadium. That was a tutorial about which Rivera took grief from his New York teammates.
Martinez got in on his 10th and final year on the ballot, becoming the fifth player to earn enshrinement in the final year on the BBWA A ballot. He shares that distinction with Red Ruffing (1967), Ralph Kiner (1975), Jim Rice (2009) and Tim Raines (2017).
“I thought Edgar was obviously a tremendous hitter and a tremendous player, the guy you didn’t want up there in a really big spot when you were playing Seattle,” Mussina said. “There were some circumstances and some situations where I would have taken (facing Ken) Griffey over Edgar just because I had better numbers against Griffey.”
Martinez, who is one of just five players to finish his career with a .300 batting average, .400 on-base percentage, .500 slugging percentage, 500 doubles and 300 home runs, was recognized as one of the most clutch hitters of his era.
Baines, like Martinez, spent the bulk of his career as a designated hitter. He finished with 2,866 hits and drove in 1,628 runs over 22 years.
Smith, who when he retired held the saves record with 478, is thrilled to be joining the two players now ahead of him on the all-time list in the Hall of Fame — Rivera and 2018 inductee Trevor Hoffman.
“One thing I really prided myself on was when the manager said, ‘Hey Smitty, can you pitch today?’ Yeah,” Smith said.