Pitch perfect
Bilingual biography aimed towards youth tells the story of Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera
For his whole Major League career Mariano Rivera pitched for one team — the New York Yankees, and for 17 of the 19 years he was with the team Mariano was its closer, the player brought in to pitch in the late innings to seal the victory.
Mariano is Major League Baseball’s career leader in saves and games finished. He was picked for the American League All Star team 13 times and was a five-time World Series winner. Six years after retiring in 2013 he became the first player voted unanimously into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
At least seven books have been written about him. But the recently published “Mariano’s First Glove/ El primer guante de Mariano” is apparently the first bilingual (English/Spanish) book about the extraordinary baseball player. It covers Mariano’s formative years and continues through his election to the hall of fame.
The picture book, by Robert Casilla, is targeted for ages 5 to 10 and tells the inspirational story of Mariano rising from obscurity to fame.
Mariano grew up poor in the small Panamanian fishing village of Puerto Caimito.
He made his first baseball glove out of a piece of cardboard. He, like many of his friends, fashioned a baseball bat out of the straight branch of a mango tree. For a baseball, they wrapped tape around shredded fishing nets.
The book relates that Mariano’s father wanted his son to become a fisherman as he was. But Mariano was passionate about baseball. He was good at it and he was quick.
An example of his passion for the sport occurred one day when Mariano came home with a swollen left hand, his glove hand, from a hard-hit ball he caught. His father admonished him not to play baseball until his hand had healed.
Mariano persisted: “But, Papa, can I practice throwing with my other hand?/Pero Papá, puedo tirar con la otra mano?”
His father gave in, but told Mariano to be careful. The next day after school Mariano did this: He lined up some empty tin cans on a log and threw the ball at them, imagining they were a catcher’s mitt.
“He tried different grips and ways to pitch the ball. … His aim got so good that he knocked the cans down one by one./Intentó distintas formas de sujetar y lancer la pelota. … Su puntería mejoró tanto que logróderribar las latas una por una.”
After graduating from high school, Mariano worked on a fishing boat with his father. One day when the boat was overloaded with sardines, it began to tip over. From that point on, Mariano focused on baseball.
He joined a local team as shortstop. The team made it to the national championships. In one championship game he volunteered to pitch. A Yankees scout was in the stands and was so impressed with Mariano, he invited the youth for a tryout.
Mariano threw only nine pitches at the tryout, but it was enough to convince the scout to sign him to a minor league contract. That began Mariano’s climb up the ladder of success in baseball.
The book declares that Mariano is still “the greatest closer in baseball history/el mejor cerrador en la history del béisbol.”
Casilla, the author, said he met Mariano Rivera at a baseball clinic his son attended in White Plains, New York, in about 1995.
“At the end of the clinic Mariano signed autographs and took photographs with the kids in the clinic. Then a woman came up to me and said in Spanish that she couldn’t afford to have her son in the clinic but would I ask Mariano to sign a newspaper clipping she had of him.”
Not only did he sign the clipping, but he also autographed a baseball for her son, Casilla recalled. “After that, I became a fan of his for life.”
Casilla, a resident of New Fairfield, Connecticut, has illustrated more than 45 books. He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, of Puerto Rican parents.
“Mariano’s First Glove/El primer guante de Mariano” was named a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book in Spanish for its 2024 list. Arte Público Press is the publisher.