Rivera reflects on his path to Cooperstown

NEW YORK — After nearly two decades of shattering bats, Mariano Rivera is prepared to take his place in baseball immortality.

The 49yearold will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. The alltime leader in saves is the first player to receive 100 percent of the vote and be inducted as a unanimous Hall of Famer.

“No, I’m not used to it (being the first unanimous player voted in),” Rivera said Tuesday at a special event Delta held for the soontobe Hall of Famer at JFK airport.

Being inducted into the Hall of Fame allows players to look back on their careers and reflect on their path to greatness. Some take a different road than others, but they all (mostly) eventually end up in Cooperstown.

“I’m just happy and humbled that I’m one of the boys,” Rivera continued. “It is crazy, I don’t know how to react, I don’t know what to expect because that will not make me a better person, that won’t make my life easier or worse. It’s just something the Lord has blessed me with.”

When Rivera came up to the big leagues in 1995, he was classified as a starting

pitcher and went 53 with a 5.51 ERA. Even he couldn’t imagine what would come next.

“If I tell you yes, I’d be lying,” Rivera said. “I couldn’t have seen this, I was just happy to be in the big leagues and fighting to stay.”

Rivera has always been a payitforward kind of person. The fivetime

World Series champion still gives pitching advice to current pitchers just as he did when he was a player.

Even when opponents reached out for his help, Rivera made his perfect mechanics and devastating cutter available for instruction, including a player that will join Rivera in his Hall of Fame class.

“I remember that my guys got upset with me when I was helping Doc (Roy) Halladay and teaching him the cutter,” Rivera

said of the late ace. “My guys were furious with me, (they would say) ‘why would you teach him that thing?’ ”

But the 13time AllStar explained he merely wanted everyone, no matter who it was, to share the same success he did and he has been more than proud to do so.

As a child who grew up in Panama, Rivera went to unimaginable limits just to play the game he loves. This included creating his

own equipment, such as a bat, a glove, and even a baseball, with whatever material he could find — his baseball glove was made out of a milk carton. He hopes his story — becoming the greatest reliefpitcher of alltime was the work of a selfmade man — serves as inspiration and motivation not just for young athletes, but for all younger generations.

When Rivera takes flight for Cooperstown, he will be doing so by boarding a

plane at Gate B42 in Terminal 4 of the airport, which was renamed for him Tuesday during the special ceremony with Delta. The company also unveiled a plaque at the terminal and a sticker on a Delta plane that read: “Mariano Rivera 42 HOF 2019.”

“It’s not everyday that you have a gate dedicated to you,” Rivera said. “I’m humble and happy for that. I don’t think there are words to put something like that in perspective. It is

important to me, and that tells you how much respect you have from others.”

While there are many theatrics that come with being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Rivera will never forget the impact this city had on his career.

“New York is fun, New York is beautiful. The people of New York are amazing, and that’s what I love about them. That’s why the Lord brought me here, he knew that I can do something different here.”

Rivera