Book Review of “The Closer” — (19/52)
Mariano Rivera’s autobiography details his transcendent rise to a Yankees legend
Who would have ever thought “a Panamanian boy who was going to be a mechanic” would one day become the greatest closer in all of baseball? Not many. And, certainly not the “Panamanian boy” himself, Mariano Rivera, who came from a country that essentially represents a “curvy strip of earth at the southern tip of Central America that doesn’t look much wider than a shoelace when you see it on a map.”
Panama, Rivera’s home nation, contains almost 4 million people. But, it is known worldwide for a famous canal.
“[The Panama Canal] meanders for forty-eight miles and connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, a shortcut that saves the world’s ships about eight thousand miles of sea travel.”
— “The Closer,” Page 13
Rivera hails from a town called Puerto Caimito that is roughly twenty-five miles away from the canal (on the Pacific Ocean side of the country). The local economy has everything to do with the fishing industry. And, growing up Rivera has fond memories — and some moments of heartbreak — of assisting on his father’s fishing boat. According to Rivera, Puerto Caimito is simply a representation of “the humble soul of a village where people are trying to eke out a living from the sea.”
Life in Puerto Caimito was tough at times for Rivera and his family. However, I believe that these tough circumstances helped the young Panamanian boy thrive in the trimmed, pampered fields of Major League Baseball.
The young Mariano was a stellar athlete and he displayed prodigious talent on the soccer and baseball fields of Puerto Caimito. He always played in the outfield during baseball games. However, during one fateful outing, the pitcher on Rivera’s team was getting torn apart by the opposing team and, hoping to make some changes, the manager for Rivera’s team insists that Rivera come in from the outfield and pitch the remainder of the game.
The manager’s advice to a befuddled Rivera?
“…all we’re looking for is for you to throw strikes. Don’t worry about anything else. You throw the ball over the plate and you’ll be fine.”
Hardly words of great comfort for someone who’s never pitched before.
But, beyond all expectations, Rivera takes over in the second inning and goes the rest of the way. Moreover, he shows great command in placing the baseball within the strike zone and he doesn’t allow a single run.
These surprising turn-of-events lead to a tryout for Rivera from the New York Yankees, a famed baseball club that has won twenty-seven World Series championships as of June 2015. Rivera, unknown to him and the Yankees at the time, would undergo a successful tryout, which would result in him earning a spot on the Yankees’ minor league team and, in due time, Rivera would play a pivotal role in the last five of the Yankees’ twenty-seven World Series titles (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2009).
Leaving Home for the Americas
But, before all of that unprecedented success in the MLB, Rivera had to confront the fact that he would have to move to the United States in order to play for the Yankees organization. Since his family was rooted in Puerto Caimito, Rivera would have to leave them for a large portion of the coming years if he was to make good of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Arriving to the United States empty-handed, Rivera was immediately thrown into the day-to-day bustle of American life. While the paved roads of Tampa, Florida (Rivera started his career playing for the Yankees’ minor league affiliate based in Tampa) were a welcome replacement to the dirt roads of Puerto Caimito, Rivera still struggled at grasping the English language.
“Bagel? French fries? Home of the Whopper?
What do these things mean?
Baggage claim? Lost and found? Ground transportation?
Can somebody please explain?”
— Page 41
Slowly but surely, Rivera begins to acclimate to his new surroundings and, pretty soon, he is exciting scouts and crowds alike with his consistent pitching performances. But, his dormant potential is still going unnoticed.
“I am the twenty-sixth rated pitcher in the Gulf Coast League. I do not make the All-Star team. I am as anonymous as you can get. I take home $310 every two weeks, after taxes, and save it to give to my parents when I get back to Panama.”
— Page 46
Moving Upwards and Onwards
Mariano has a splendid first season in the Minor Leagues, but he’s keen to improve on his great foundation during his first off-season. In his first year, Rivera also realizes how tough it is to move up to the big leagues. He notes that of the thirty-three guys on that Gulf Coast Yankee team, “only seven would make it to the majors, and only five [including Rivera] would have careers of any substances.”
But, the long odds didn’t faze the skinny, wiry twenty-year old from Panama. In fact, the fact that there were odds in the first place propelled Rivera to take every advantage of his opportunity to improve and get better as a baseball pitcher.
“If I don’t make it to the top, it isn’t going to be because somebody outworked me.”
The Mindset
In every book I have ever read that is by or about a great athlete, it is abundantly clear that they all have a great mindset and perspective not only about their sport, but life as well. For Rivera, his tough mindset came from his harsh and impoverished upbringing in Puerto Caimito. Additionally, since he aspired to be a mechanic while growing up in Panama, once he arrived to the U.S., Rivera began to see his baseball playing opportunities from a mechanic’s mind-set.
“If you’ve got a problem, you find it and you take care of it. The process isn’t always pleasant, but it is simple, and straight-forward. You do yourself no good by worrying or projecting, letting thunderheads of gloom set up in your head.”
— Page 60
In fact, if I have learned anything from Rivera’s book, it is this: Keep things simple. Simplicity is the modus operandi of Mariano Rivera. Whether on the mound at Yankee Stadium or during one of life’s vicissitudes, Mariano Rivera has approached things with simplicity in mind.
Another ballplayer that keeps things on the baseball field simple is Derek Jeter, who Rivera met while coming up through the Yankees’ minor league system in the early 1990s. Jeter and Rivera both had similar frames and both yearned to improve and make something great come out of their Yankees opportunity.
The Big Leagues
In May 1995, Rivera earns a call-up to the highest level of professional baseball. The New York Yankees are pleased with Rivera’s performances, but Rivera still doesn’t have the capacity to thrive in the big leagues as a starting pitcher. So, the Yankees send back Rivera and Jeter, who also got called-up shortly after Mariano, back to the AAA level.
In 1996, Rivera has found his way back to the Yankees after solid performances in AAA the previous season. The Yankees have also called-up Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte, a twenty-four-year-old ace. This trio will power the Yankees through five world championships in the coming seasons.
At the start of that season, new manager, Joe Torre, and the Yanks decide to shift Rivera from his starter role to a set-up role in the bullpen. This transition brings the best out of Rivera over the 1996 season as he enthralls both the team and the fans with his relief appearances.
In the 1996 World Series, the Yankees knock out the Atlanta Braves, who have a starting pitching triumvirate of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz (all of whom would all go on to become Hall-of-Famers).
Over the next few seasons, Rivera shifts from a set-up role (where Rivera pitches an inning or two before the closer, John Wetteland, comes to save the game in the ninth and final inning) to a full-time closer role since Wetteland signed with the Rangers during Free Agency.
In 1998, 1999, and 2000, the New York Yankees pull out a historic three-peat as the World Series champions and this run of success gives Rivera and Jeter their fourth World Series titles in their first five years of big league ball.
Exit Sandman
The Yankees’ PA department experimented with a few songs for Rivera’s entrance music for when he joined the game during his long run from the bullpen to the mound. However, they quickly settled upon Metallica’s Enter Sandman, a song that is now as closely associated with Mariano Rivera as it is with the band that created it.
In the years between 2000 and 2009, the Yankees experienced some successes, but these successes also came along with a litany of heartbreaking playoffs losses. Rivera, in those intertwining years, built up a solid stream of pitching performances from his closer role.
But, in 2009, the Yankees finally found a way to become World Champions once more by beating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games in the World Series. This 2009 World Series win marked Derek Jeter’s and Mariano Rivera’s fifth championship, a mark that would clearly enshrine them in the annals of Yankees and MLB history.
Rivera would continue to play until the 2013 MLB season, after which, at the age of forty-three, he decided to walk away from the game of baseball. The atmosphere at Rivera’s final game for the Yankees was absolutely electric and the grandeur of the event was cemented when Rivera’s teammates, Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter, walked towards the mound in the ninth inning to allow an emotional Rivera to have his final walk towards the home dugout.
For a man who had little expectations of a historic big leagues career, Mariano Rivera serves as the hallmark of a player who played the game “the right way” till his very last pitch. He approached the game with humility and a ferocious affinity. But, his lasting legacy from his playing career will always be his grace under duress.
There was simply no one who outperformed Mariano Rivera when the stakes were the very highest. Rivera’s career playoffs record is a testament to his unyielding determination and desire to win.
141 innings pitched, 2 Home Runs allowed, 110 Strikeouts, and an ERA of 0.70
Simply put: Rivera is the best closer that the game of baseball has ever seen.
Sources
Rivera, Mariano, and Wayne R. Coffey. The Closer: My Story. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Notes
This is the NINETEENTH post (out of 52 in total eventually) that is a part of my 2015 Book Reading Challenge.
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