CAREER SAVE
Address to mates proves a winner
KANSAS CITY — Mariano Rivera had played it coy all year when it came to his future, saying he would reveal his plans when he was ready and not a minute sooner. Friday, he was ready. Less than 24 hours after tearing both the ACL and meniscus in his right knee, Rivera announced that he plans to return for the 2013 season, not content to allow his Hall of Fame career to end with a freak accident on the warning track at Kauffman Stadium.
“I am coming back,” Rivera said Friday. “Put it down. Write it down in big letters. I’m not going out like this.
“God willing and given the strength, I’m coming back.”
The future Hall of Famer also got his message through to his teammates.
Rivera addressed them prior to Friday’s game, delivering a message of hope that was well-received.
“He just said, ‘Don’t feel sorry for me, I’m going to come back,’ ” said Dave Robertson, who took a first step in helping to fill Rivera’s shoes in the ninth inning by striking out the side in a 6-2 victory over the Royals. “‘We’re a good team, injuries happen, let’s turn it around, get stronger, go from there.’ ”
Rivera had pondered his future Thursday night in his hotel room, only a few hours after he suffered the knee injury while shagging flies in center field. The pain in his knee kept him up for much of the night, giving him plenty of time to decide this was not the end for him.
“You don’t go out like this,” Rivera said. “I love to play the game. I don’t think, to me, going out like this is the right way. I don’t think like that. With the strength of the Lord, I have to continue.”
Rivera spoke Friday with Dr. David Altchek, the noted orthopedist and Mets team physician. Altchek, who performed Rivera’s shoulder surgery following the 2008 season, told the closer he could be ready to go by the start of spring training next February.
“That’s Mo; he’s a competitor, man,” Nick Swisher said. “The great ones, you have to drag them off the field. I don’t think he could live the rest of his life going out like that. A guy like him, he should go out on his own terms.”
“Mo is all about ending things, right?” Alex Rodriguez said. “I’m sure he wants to end things the right way.”
Rivera’s contract is up at the end of the season, but he said he would only pitch for the Yankees in 2013. When it was pointed out that the Yankees would have to want him back, Rivera smiled and said, “They will want the old goat.”
Rivera, 42, said during spring training that he had made a decision on his future, though he declined to reveal it. Friday, he still wouldn’t let on what that decision had been, saying “everything is out the window” following the injury.
“It will be good for his rehab because he’ll have something to look forward to,” Mark Teixeira said. “We’re going to miss him this season, though.”
Rivera’s wife, Clara, was en route to Kansas City and will escort her husband back to New York Saturday. He’s scheduled to meet with Yankees team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad on Monday.
The closer’s mood was markedly different than it was Thursday night, when he fought back tears while speaking about his injury and his future.
Rivera insisted he never considered Thursday night that he had thrown his final pitch. In fact, he said he was barely thinking about himself at all.
“I’m always in a good mood,” Rivera said. “Yesterday I was a little down, sad, because I was thinking of my teammates; I wasn’t even thinking of myself. I was glad it happened to me and not to one of my teammates. I can handle this. I can handle this.
“God gave it to me, I can handle it. But again, when you’re a positive man, you don’t want it any other way. You deal with it. That’s what adversity is. Deal with it,” he added.
Rivera has always said that he won’t pitch if he’s not at his competitive best. He believes he will be able to rehab his knee and get back to his vintage form.
“I won’t have any hesitation on my leg,” Rivera said. “As long as I do what I have to do and make sure my leg is strong, I won’t have any hesitation. Just do it again, one more time.”