Mariano Rivera Archives - Page 2 of 37

Game 117: Mariano Rivera Day

August 14, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

This has been a pretty fun weekend, hasn’t it? Friday night was Alex Rodriguez’s farewell game, and then yesterday there was the 1996 World Series team reunion and the debuts of Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge. That was an awful lot of great stuff to pack into a 24-hour window.

Today, the fun continues with Mariano Rivera Day. The Yankees have already retired No. 42 — they did that in Mo’s honor back in 2013 — and today they’re dedicating a Monument Park plaque in his honor. Needless to say, Rivera is very deserving. He’s the greatest reliever in baseball history and was a key member of five World Series teams.

From what I’ve seen, the ceremony is going to begin sometime between 12pm ET and 12:40pm ET, which is a pretty big window. This afternoon’s game is scheduled to start at 1:25pm ET, so I’m guessing the ceremony will start closer to 12:40pm ET. The Yankees never seem to start these things on time anyway. YES will carry the ceremony, as always.

Once that’s done, the Yankees will play the finale of this three-game series with the Rays. New York is looking to complete the sweep and win their fifth straight game today. If they’re going to make a run at a postseason spot, they need to put together more extended winning streaks like this. Here is the Rays’ lineup and here is the Yankees’ lineup:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
LF Aaron Hicks
SS Didi Gregorius
2B Starlin Castro
DH Brian McCann
C Gary Sanchez
1B Tyler Austin
RF Aaron Judge
3B Ronald Torreyes
RHP Luis Severino

It is again incredibly hot in New York today, though at least there are some clouds in the sky, so every so often we’re gifted some shade. Like I said, today’s game is scheduled to begin at 1:25pm ET. It’ll be broadcast on YES. Enjoy the ceremony and the game.

Injury Update: Brett Gardner (ankle) is going to be out a few days. He’s still feeling it after being hit by that pitch in his first at-bat Friday night. Doesn’t sound like a DL situation.

Yanks announce Rivera plaque coming to Monument Park, ticket sale dates, promotion dates

February 11, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Earlier today the Yankees announced a whole bunch of the 2016 calendar news. First and foremost, individual game tickets will go on sale online beginning Monday, February 22nd at 10am ET. You can walk up to the Yankee Stadium ticket booth and begin buying tickets the following day, February 23rd.

Now that you know when you can buy tickets to get in the door, here’s the big news: the Yankees are dedicating a plaque in Mariano Rivera’s honor this coming season. No. 42 is already retired in Rivera’s (and Jackie Robinson’s) honor, but now he’s getting a plaque too. Pretty cool. The Rivera plaque ceremony will take place on Sunday, August 14th. That’s a 1pm ET game against the Rays.

The Yankees also announced they will have a special ceremony honoring the 20th anniversary of the 1996 Yankees on August 13th, the day before Mo’s ceremony. We celebrated the 1996 Yankees all last week during Retro Week. Old Timers’ Day is scheduled for Sunday, June 12th. The 1996 club is getting their own special day, as they should. No plans for that ceremony have been announced yet.

And finally, the Yankees also announced their full 2016 promotional schedule. You can see it here. The highlights: bat day for the unmarketable Alex Rodriguez on May 14th, Didi Gregorius bobblehead on August 7th, and a Dellin Betances bobblehead on September 10th. I want them all.

1996 Mariano Rivera: From Career Crossroads to the Best Relief Season of the Last 30 Years

February 1, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Welcome to Retro Week. Baseball news is slow this time of the offseason, so we’re going to look back at the good ol’ days this week. Since this is the 20th anniversary of the 1996 Yankees, we’re going to focus on them. Hope you enjoy.

Heading into the 1996 season, the Yankees weren’t quite sure what they had in 26-year-old Mariano Rivera. He had a solid yet generally unspectacular minor league career after signing out of Panama in 1990, and he made his big league debut in 1995 with ten starts and nine relief appearances. Rivera had a 5.51 ERA (84 ERA+) in 67 innings that year.

There was an open spot in the rotation going into the 1996 season, but George Steinbrenner’s affection for ex-stars and needling the Mets meant Doc Gooden got the job out of Spring Training, not Rivera. Gooden joined the returning David Cone and Jimmy Key, the up-and-coming Andy Pettitte, and the free agent signee Kenny Rogers in the starting staff.

Rivera was good enough for the big league team and, at age 26, another assignment to Triple-A didn’t make sense. Not after he finished the 1995 season with solid work in relief. Rivera was in the bullpen with an undefined role to start that 1996 season, which is often the case for players who are not yet established. John Wetteland was the closer and the setup crew included Jeff Nelson and Bob Wickman.

New manager Joe Torre eased Rivera into action — seven of his first nine appearances came with the Yankees trailing — and it wasn’t until Rivera threw a no-hitter that he began to earn more trust. A no-hitter spread across three appearances, that is. On April 22nd, Mariano entered the sixth inning of a game the Yankees were leading by three, and he threw three perfect innings against the Royals.

Four days later Torre brought Rivera into a game with the Yankees trailing the Twins by four. Three more hitless innings followed and the Yankees came back to win the game thanks to a Bernie Williams grand slam. Torre went to Rivera for three innings again just two days later. Mo again did not allow a hit, enabling the Yankees to come from behind for the 6-3 win.

“Only one day off with three innings the other day, it was big for us. We’re knowing him a little bit more. If we don’t have to use him as many innings, he may be able to work on a regular basis for us,” said Torre to Jack Curry following Rivera’s third straight appearance of three hitless innings. “From last year, I keep a lot of confidence in myself,” said Mo to Curry. “I can throw with no doubts. I just do my job.”

Rivera’s no-hit streak did not stop there. He threw two hitless innings two days later and another two hitless innings three days after that. All told, Rivera went 49 batters and 15 innings between hits early in that 1996 season. Only 13 of those 49 batters hit the ball out of the infield. Thirteen struck out. Just like that, Mariano had entered Torre’s Circle of Trust™.

Being trusted by Torre meant working a lot, and Rivera thrived under the big workload. Following the no-hit streak, Rivera threw multiple innings 31 times in 50 appearances the rest of the season, including at least two full innings 26 times. His June workload makes Dellin Betances look babied by comparison:

Date	Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA	BF	W.P.A.
Jun 2	NYY	@	OAK	W,11-4	7-8	H(7)	1.1	2	2	2	0	1	1.42	7	0.073
Jun 4	NYY		TOR	W,5-4	7-8	H(8)	2.0	2	0	0	1	2	1.35	9	0.343
Jun 7	NYY	@	DET	L,5-6	7-8	BS(1)	2.0	2	1	1	0	3	1.50	8	-0.064
Jun 10	NYY	@	TOR	W,5-3	7-8	H(9)	2.0	2	0	0	0	2	1.43	8	0.158
Jun 16	NYY		CLE	W,5-4	6-8	H(10)	2.2	3	1	1	1	5	1.54	12	0.104
Jun 21 (2)	NYY	@	CLE	W,9-3	6-8		3.0	3	1	1	0	5	1.63	12	0.074
Jun 25 (2)	NYY	@	MIN	W,6-2	6-8	H(11)	3.0	1	0	0	1	5	1.54	11	0.228
Jun 28	NYY		BAL	L,4-7	7-9	L(3-1)	2.1	4	3	3	2	2	1.96	12	-0.237

“He’s our most indispensable pitcher,” said Torre to Curry at midseason. “Especially with Cone and Key out and our bullpen the way it is. He gives me protection. I’m not moving him. I can use him three times in five days. I can’t do that if I start him.”

June was not Rivera’s best month so Torre did scale back on his workload a bit. Mo made only six appearances in the span of 18 days from June 28th to July 16th, thanks in part to the All-Star break. He was limited to one inning in four of those six appearances as well. As dominant as he was, Rivera needed a little breather at midseason, and Torre gave it to him.

The Yankees started the second half with a 52-33 record and a six-game lead in the AL East thanks in no small part to Rivera, who emerged as a dominant bullpen force that often single-handedly bridged the gap between the starter and Wetteland. Mariano was not an All-Star but he took a 1.80 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP into the break. He threw 60 innings in the fist half, which is a full season’s workload for relievers these days.

The AL East lead swelled to 12 games by the end of July, but that did not last. The lead dwindled to four games by the end of August and only 2.5 games by September 11th. Rivera was needed more than ever up to that point, and he gave the club 32.2 innings in 21 appearances in the final 52 games of the season. He allowed six runs (1.65 ERA) — four of which were in one game — while striking out 45 and holding opponents to a .179/.232/.214 batting line.

Thanks to a 19-2 rout of the Brewers, the Yankees clinched the AL East on September 25th, in Game 157. Rivera threw nine innings and appeared in seven of the previous 14 games as Torre pushed for the division title. Mariano finished the season with a 2.09 ERA (240 ERA+) in 107.2 innings. His 130 strikeouts were then a franchise record for a reliever. At 5.0 bWAR, it is the most valuable relief season of the last 30 years, since Mark Eichhorn racked up 7.4 WAR in 157 innings in 1986.

As expected, Torre leaned on Rivera heavily in the postseason. Mo threw four hitless innings against the Rangers in the ALDS, four scoreless innings against the Orioles in the ALCS, and he allowed one run in 5.2 innings against the Braves in the World Series. The end result: 14.1 innings, 15 base-runners, ten strikeouts, one run. Opponents hit .196/.268/.235 against him that October. Rivera threw two hitless and scoreless innings in the Game Six win over Atlanta to clinch the World Series title.

Following the season Rivera finished third in the Cy Young voting behind Pat Hentgen and Pettitte. He finished 12th in the MVP voting. The crazy thing? Mariano was not yet throwing his trademark cutter at that point. He was a fastball-slider pitcher in 1996. It wasn’t until the following season that he picked up the cutter. As the story goes, Rivera learned the pitch while playing catch with Ramiro Mendoza.

Rivera was a mystery heading into that 1996 season. He was at a career crossroads at age 26. That’s the age when a lot of guys become afterthoughts if they’re not yet established at the MLB level. The Yankees nearly traded Rivera in Spring Training and even though they held onto him, he did not have a defined role. It took a 15-inning no-hit streak to grab a late-inning role, and once Mo grabbed it, he held on for nearly two decades.

“He basically made my career in ’96 when we came up with the formula of pitching the seventh and eighth inning,” said Torre to David Lennon in 2013. “It was remarkable what we had with him.”

Saturday Links: Stottlemyre, Betances, Didi, Mock Drafts

June 6, 2015 by Mike 325 Comments

Stottlemyre during his playing days. (Presswire)

Once again, the Yankees are playing a Saturday night game this week, though at least this one is on the East Coast. Including tonight, their next three and four of their next five Saturday games are night games. Blah. Anyway, here are some links to hold you over until the Yankees and Angels resume their series later tonight.

Mel Stottlemyre Battling Cancer Again

Former Yankees pitcher and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre is again battling cancer, reports John Harper. The 73-year-old Stottlemyre was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, while on Joe Torre’s staff back in 2000, and he was told he only had 3-5 years to live. He’s outshot that projection by a decade, but the cancer returned in late-2011 and he has been undergoing treatment since.

“It’s been tough because so much of my life is controlled by doctors, by the cancer. And the side effects of the treatment have been nasty, there’s no getting around it. But I’m determined that I can beat this thing. There are times when I have my doubts but it’s not going to get me down,” said Stottlemyre to Harper. Among the side effects from the medication are heart and thyroid conditions, and a form of diabetes. He also has an Achilles tendon issue, but can’t undergo surgery due to chemotherapy.

Despite the cancer and the treatment, Stottlemyre said he is going to try to make it to Yankee Stadium for Old Timers’ Day later this month. “I want to be there in the worst way,” he said. His wife Jean said they are going to try to attend as well, though the travel from their home in Washington might be too much. Either way, let’s hope for the best for Stottlemyre, a longtime cancer survivor who is trying to do it again.

Betances Gets Pointers From Rivera

Earlier this season, when Dellin Betances was really struggling with his command, the big right-hander got some pointers from Mariano Rivera, writes Kevin Kernan. “Towards the beginning of the season when I was struggling early on, Mo told me a couple of pointers that really helped,” said Betances. “He told me he felt like my front shoulder was flying open and he offered some tips. I dropped the shoulder a little bit to stay within a straight line and have a good direction towards home, and I think that has helped me be more successful and more consistent.’’

Betances said Rivera also reminded him to “stay locked in and have confidence,” even while struggling. “Hearing that from him makes such a difference. I’ve been able to use that advice to my advantage,” he added. Dellin’s numbers since his early-April struggles are insane — he went into last night’s game with five hits and six walks allowed in his last 24 innings, with 43 strikeouts. Bonkers. Somehow Betances has been even better than last year. If only Rivera’s words had that much of an impact on everyone.

Gregorius Gets Pointers From A-Rod, Beltran

Meanwhile, the Yankees have turned to two current veteran players to help shortstop Didi Gregorius, who has improved at the plate lately but has struggled overall. In addition to hitting coach Jeff Pentland and assistant hitting coach Alan Cockrell, both Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran have been helping Gregorius in recent weeks, reports George King. “Alex and Carlos had a big hand in talking to Didi,’’ said Pentland.

“You have to have the same approach in the batting cage that you do in the game, and that was something that was missing to me. He is the guy who has to go out and do it. Hopefully he has found something to work with,” said Beltran, who added he considers helping young players part of a veteran’s job. Both Beltran and A-Rod encouraged Gregorius to be “more selective in the (strike) zone” as well. This is the second time Rodriguez has lent a hand coaching Didi — he worked with him at shortstop a few weeks go.

Yankees Invite Whitley For Private Workout

According to Dan Zielinksi, the Yankees had New York HS OF Garrett Whitley in for a private workout before Monday’s draft. (Whitley said he worked out for the Braves and Brewers as well.) I’m not sure if the workout took place in Yankee Stadium or in Tampa, but that doesn’t really matter. Here’s my profile on Whitley, a projected first round pick and one of the highest upside players in the draft. Pre-draft workouts are not uncommon but teams don’t invite just anyone either — they’re usually reserved for players clubs have significant interest in, and, more than anything, the workout is so more members of the brain trust can see the player, including the higher ups. There’s no word on who else the Yankees brought in for a pre-draft workout.

Baseball Prospectus’ Mock Draft v2.0

Over at Baseball Prospectus (subs. req’d), Chris Crawford posted his second mock draft yesterday, and, like everyone else, he has the Diamondbacks taking Vanderbilt SS Dansby Swanson with the first overall pick. That’s not set in stone just yet, but it sure looks like Arizona is leaning in that direction. Crawford has the Yankees selecting Whitley and California HS C Chris Betts with their top two picks, 16th and 30th overall, respectively. Here’s my profile on Betts. (The Whitley profile is linked above.) The Yankees have been connected to both players for weeks now. There’s a decent chance Whitley will be off the board by time that 16th pick comes around, but Betts should still be available.

MLB.com’s Mock Draft v4.0

Meanwhile, Jim Callis posted his latest mock draft yesterday as well. He also has the D’Backs taking Swanson with the top pick. As for the Yankees, Callis has them picking UCLA RHP James Kaprielian and Betts with those 16th and 30th overall picks, respectively. Here’s my profile on Kaprielian. (Again, the Betts profile is linked above.) Callis says the Yankees “want a college pitcher,” but we’ve also heard they want a bat, so who really knows. This draft is very deep in right-handed pitchers, both high school and college, so the best available player for that 16th pick could easily be an arm.

Four Players To Attend 2015 Draft

According to MLB, four players will be at the MLB Network studios for the draft broadcast on Monday: Whitley, Florida HS SS Brendan Rodgers, Indiana HS RHP Ashe Russell, and Pennsylvania HS RH Mike Nikorak. Rodgers is a likely top five pick — he was a candidate to go first overall, but apparently the D’Backs want a quick moving college player — while the Yankees have been connected to the other three guys at various points these last few weeks. Here are my profiles for Russell and Nikorak. Look up a few paragraphs for the Whitley profile. It would be pretty neat if the Yankees drafted a kid who was actually in the studio, wouldn’t it?

Ibanez Changes Agents

Free agent Cuban infielder Andy Ibanez recently changed agents, according to Ben Badler. Ibanez left Praver Shapiro Sports Management and is now represented by Relativity Sports. He has been eligible to sign since February, but Badler says Ibanez is likely to wait to sign until after July 2nd so his bonus (and penalties) get pushed to the 2015-16 signing period. The Yankees have shown some interest in Ibanez, a 22-year-old light hitting/good fielding second baseman, but if he waits until July 2nd, they’ll have no shot to sign him. Part of the penalties for last year’s international spending spree is a bonus cap of $300,000 during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 signing periods, and $300,000 won’t be enough for Ibanez.

Tuesday Links: Pentland, Sleep, Luxury Tax, Rivera

May 5, 2015 by Mike 131 Comments

The Yankees huddled around a small television in their Boston hotel to watch Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. (Photo via @TravelingSec) — The Yankees huddled around a small television in their Boston hotel to watch Mayweather vs. Pacquiao on Saturday. (Photo via @TravelingSec)

The Yankees and Blue Jays continue their three-game series at Rogers Centre later tonight. Until then, here are some miscellaneous links to check out.

Yankees step up after hitting coach’s wife’s health scare

Back in February, new hitting coach Jeff Pentland and his wife Liz received some bad health news, bad enough that Pentland considered resigning one month into his new job. According to George King, Liz Pentland tested positive for a cancer gene and needs to undergo a mastectomy. “She didn’t want me to (resign), but under no circumstances was I going to let her do this by herself,” said Pentland to King.

The Yankees stepped up to help their new hitting coach and his wife, specifically Joe Girardi and head trainer Steve Donahue. They helped arrange visits to the doctor and deal with insurance issues, among other things. Liz will have surgery later this week and Pentland will be away from the team for a few days. Assistant hitting coach Alan Cockrell will fill as hitting coach for the time being.

“Without the New York Yankees, none of this happens. They have been fantastic,” said Pentland. “The doctors are experts in their field, top notch, and we feel very comfortable. We owe a lot to the New York Yankees, Brian Cashman and the whole Steinbrenner family. I guess it was meant to be that I became a Yankee.’’

The Luxury Tax Problem

As you know, the Yankees plan to get under the luxury tax threshold within the next two years. They tried and failed to get under the $189M threshold last year — missing the postseason and losing out on all that extra revenue played a big part in that, no doubt — but appear willing to give it another go in the near future. Like it or not, it’s going to happen.

Nathanial Grow at FanGraphs analyzed the luxury tax and confirmed what has become increasingly obvious with each passing year: the luxury tax threshold is increasing at a much slower rather than league revenues. When it was first implemented in 2003, the luxury tax threshold was set at 90% of the average team’s revenue. MLB and the MLBPA then agreed to switch to a fixed threshold, and now it is only 63% of the average team’s revenue. Here’s Grow’s blurb on the Yankees:

Take the Yankees, for example. From 2000 until 2005, New York’s payroll increased at approximately the same rate as the team’s estimated revenues. As soon as the Yankees faced a 40% penalty as a three-time violator under the new luxury tax framework adopted in 2006, however, the team’s payroll effectively flatlined. This has remained true up to today, even though the Yankees’ estimated annual revenues almost doubled from 2005 to 2014. As a result, today the luxury tax threshold is set at a level approximately less than 40% of New York’s estimated annual revenues.

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires at the end of next season and ideally the next CBA would both tie the luxury tax threshold to revenue and reduce penalties, but chances are that won’t happen. The MLBPA already caved and agreed to a fixed threshold and stiff penalties. The best they can probably do now is increase the threshold. It has to be over $200M at this point and should probably be closer to $220M or $230M. The revenue is there to support it.

Yankees consulted with sleep therapists before staying Boston

I thought this was interesting. Following Sunday night’s game against the Red Sox, the Yankees stayed in Boston and flew to Toronto yesterday morning rather than travel right after the game as usual. They needed MLB approval to do that. According to George King, the Yankees consulted sleep therapists before making the decision to stay in Boston another night.

“You stay on a little more normal sleep schedule. You get here at 4 or 4:30 and we encourage guys not to go to bed at that time unless we are traveling. So (Sunday night) you can go to bed at 1:30 or two o’clock and sleep to 10, 10:30,” said Joe Girardi, who called the extra night in Boston an “organizational decision.” Obviously last night’s game didn’t go too well, but that’s not necessarily evidence the plan to travel in the morning was a bad. Sometimes baseball just happens.

I wouldn’t call it a market inefficiency, but teams nowadays are trying to gain a competitive advantage by getting their players more rest. Several clubs have upgraded their planes to improve travel conditions — the Mariners and Athletics were the first teams to do so, which isn’t surprising since they’re on the West Coast and fly so often — and now the Yankees are consulting sleep therapists to determine the best time to travel.

Mariano to receive Ellis Island Medal of Honor

ThisOn Sunday, Mariano Rivera will be one of 90 honorees to receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, according to the Associated Press. There’s a ceremony and a gala and all that. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor recognizes those “who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate their wealth of knowledge, indomitable courage, boundless compassion, unique talents and selfless generosity; all while maintaining the traditions of their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirit of America.” Pretty neat. Congrats to Mo.

Betances and Robertson give Yankees modern day Rivera and Wetteland

September 8, 2014 by Mike 51 Comments

Just about all summer, Joe Girardi and the Yankees have enjoyed arguably the most dominant setup man/closer tandem in baseball in Dellin Betances and David Robertson. The team has scaled back on Betances’ workload in recent weeks but for the most of the season he was a multi-inning monster who would regularly bridge the gap from starter to closer all by himself. Robertson has been dynamite in his first season as closer, making the transition to the post-Mariano Rivera era relatively painless.

The Yankees had a similarly dominant late-game duo the last few years thanks to the Robertson and Rivera, though Robertson has always been a true one-inning reliever, not a four or five or six out guy. The multi-inning reliever is a dying breed, especially when it comes to late-inning guys. The last time the Yankees had a duo like Betances and Robertson, meaning an overwhelming multi-inning setup man and a shutdown closer, was way back to 1996, when Rivera was setting up John Wetteland.

There are more than a few similarities between the 1996 duo and the 2014 duo. Betances, like Rivera, was scuffling along for much of his early-20s, trying to make it work as a starting pitcher before moving into the bullpen full-time. They both opened the season in an undefined middle relief role before pitching their way into some more responsibility — Rivera threw 15 straight hitless innings at one point from mid-April through early-May in 1996, which is a great way to earn the manager’s trust — and eventually a no-doubt high-leverage role. Robertson has a knack for making things interesting but gets the job done more often than not, similar to Wetteland.

Statistically, there isn’t much of a comparison. Betances and Robertson have been quite a bit more effective this year than Rivera and Wetteland in 1996, at least on a rate basis. Wetteland and (mostly) Rivera did throw a ton of innings back in the day, a workload Betances and Robertson won’t sniff this year:

	Innings	WHIP	ERA	FIP	K%	BB%	K/BB
2014 Betances & Robertson	137.1	0.84	1.97	1.84	39.4%	7.6%	5.18
1996 Rivera & Wetteland	171.1	1.06	2.36	2.57	28.8%	8.0%	3.43

Rivera and Wetteland also excelled in the postseason in 1996, combining to allow only four runs in 26.2 innings (1.35 ERA) during the team’s march to the World Series title. Wetteland saved four games in five days en route to being named World Series MVP. Hopefully Betances and Robertson get a chance to strut their stuff in the postseason next month, but eh. Things aren’t looking too hot right now.

The similarities don’t stop there either. Betances (26) and Robertson (29) are the same age right now that Rivera and Wetteland were back in 1996, respectively. That’s sorta freaky. Robertson is also due to become a free agent this offseason just like Wetteland became a free agent following the 1996 season. The Yankees let him walk and installed Rivera as their closer. The team is going to face a similar decision this winter — do they let Robertson go and hand the ninth inning reigns over to Dellin?

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with re-signing Robertson and keeping one of the game’s most dominant late-game bullpen pairs together for another few seasons. In fact I would prefer it. I don’t mean that as a slight on Betances either. I think he’d be able to close no problem just like I thought Robertson would have no trouble closing this year, but there is no such thing as having too many great relievers. The game has changed a lot in the last two decades. Deep bullpens are imperative these days because no one scores runs anymore and every game is close.

Eighteen years ago, the Yankees had an advantage over every team they played thanks to Rivera and Wetteland. Rivera’s ability to go multiple innings — he went two full innings in 35 of 61 appearances and three full innings eight times — combined with Wetteland’s ninth inning reliability effective made it a six-inning game for New York. Girardi has had the same luxury this year thanks to Betances and Robertson. Both guys are having phenomenal seasons and they’ve been essential in keeping the Yankees in the race this summer.

Mariano Rivera to be honored at Double-A Trenton’s Arm & Hammer Park

July 17, 2014 by Mike 3 Comments

Mariano Rivera will be honored at Arm & Hammer Park on Thursday, August 7th, before Double-A Trenton’s scheduled game against Altoona. Rivera will throw out the ceremonial first pitch and be presented with a check from the MVP Foundation on behalf of his church, Refugio de Esperanza (Refuge of Hope).

You can read more info about the ceremony right here and purchase tickets using this link. Use the special offer code “MVP” while purchasing tickets online and $3 will be donated to the Mariano Rivera Foundation. Special thanks goes out to Eric Lipsman, the Thunder’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Sales & Partnerships, for the heads up and all his help and kindness over the years.