Miracles happen
Mo won’t rule out return this year
THE SANDMAN will enter again.
A defiant Mariano Rivera vowed Friday that he would overcome a devastating knee injury and return to the mound by next season.
“I am coming back,” the Yankees legend said. “Write it down in big letters. . . . I’m not going out like this.”
The 42-year-old Rivera said he made the decision overnight while pondering his future in a Kansas City hotel room.
“When you love the game and you like to compete, it would be tough to go out like this,” a smiling Rivera added.
With the confidence of a champion, the fearless reliever said he believes there’s an outside chance of him returning this season.
“Miracles happen,” Rivera said. “I’m a positive man.”
Rivera tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while shagging fly balls before Thursday night’s game in Kansas City.
The sight of Rivera crumpling to the ground on the warning track in center field and grimacing in pain, sent a troop of Yankees sprinting to his aid.
“Oh, my God,” mouthed Alex Rodriguez, watching from the infield.
A subdued Rivera said Thursday he didn’t know if he would ever play again.
But a day later, the career saves leader insisted he and his bat-shattering cutter will be back.
“I love to play the game,” Rivera said inside the Yankees locker room in Kansas City.
“To me, going out like this isn’t the right way. . . . I don’t think like that. With the strength of the Lord, I have to continue.”
The freak injury also left Rivera with a torn meniscus.
He plans to see a doctor in New York on Monday and expects to have reconstructive surgery, which typically requires a recovery period of six months.
The greatest closer of all time said he has no doubt he’ll make a full recovery.
“Everything is going to be fixed,” Rivera said.
Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher said he knew Rivera would mount a comeback.
“I’ve known him the last four years and I don’t think that is his style to go out like that,” Swisher told ESPN.
The sudden and shocking injury left Yankees fans across the city crying out, “Say it ain’t Mo!”
Retired teacher Michelle Romano, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, was clinging to a shred of hope that Rivera would return.
“It’s very sad all the way around, but miracles do happen,” said Romano, 61.