Last night in a freak accident, Mariano Rivera tore his ACL last night before a matchup against the Royals. At 42 years old, the recovery time will likely be longer than most. It is almost a sure thing that Sandman will not play the rest of this season.
During batting practice, most of the pitchers are on the field to shag fly balls. Apparently, Bob Gibson back in the day played 3rd base in BP to work on his defense and his reaction time. In today's game the pitchers are usually forced to be in the outfield. They use this time as a fun way to get loose and get the legs stretched out before the game. According to teammates, Rivera does this before every game and has for his entire 20 year career.
It was painful to listen to his press conference after the game to announce the ACL has torn, with all of his teammates around him trying to put on a strong face. Inside, though, they were wondering what everyone else was, would this be Mo's last time on a baseball field as a player? The odds are definitely against a comeback, especially since it was likely this would be his last year anyways, but how can the greatest closer the game has ever seen go out like that. Will his last appearance as a big leaguer be in front of about 1,000 Royal fans during batting practice when half of the team was still in the dugout? I certainly hope not.
Mariano Rivera deserves his last outing to be in New York, at Yankee Stadium. As much as I hate the Yankees, he deserves to be on the mound for a save opportunity in the post season one last time. He deserves to get 3 easy outs with the pitch that he invented, and walk off the mound as a warrior, a winner, a Yankee great, with 50,000 appreciative fans and the teammates that he saved so many victories for.
Please don't let this be exit Sandman.
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