Tribute to Mariano Rivera from a Mets fan

For those who think that a closer's importance is overrated, let me discuss something I usually bring up about as often as I offer tributes to Yankees - the 2000 World Series.

The Mets led Game 1, 3-2, going into the ninth. If they won the first game it could have changed the tone of the whole series. The Yankees were two-time defending world champions. They had swept the last two World Series and had won 12 straight World Series games going back to 1996. The Mets, though, had won 94 games that year to the Yankees 87.  A Game 1 victory by the Mets at Yankee Stadium would have had a lot of people believing that the Mets could win. 

But the Mets had Armando Benitez as their closer. They didn't have Mariano Rivera.

Instead of an important win establishing the Mets as a serious challenger to the Yankees' title, the difference in closers resulted in a devastating loss that might have sealed the Mets' fate right there.
 Imagine if the events of Game 2, where roid-raged Roger Clemens threw a bat shard at Mike Piazza and Mariano gave up a three-run homer to Jay Payton in the ninth as the Mets rallied for five runs, only to lose, 6-5, had left the series tied, 1-1, heading to Shea, instead of giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

Mariano's reputation was already such that the fact that the Mets rallied against him would have added to the sense that the Mets could win the series. (Mariano would never allow another homer in the postseason. In 141 postseason innings, the only other homer he's given up was to Sandy Alomar Jr. in 1997.)  But because of Benitez' blown save, the Mets knew they still had to win four of five from a team that had Mariano at the end of the game.

In Game 4, it was the Yankees' turn to lead, 3-2, going into the ninth. Only the Yankees didn't have Benitez, they had Mariano, who had already pitched a scoreless eighth. In the ninth, Mariano pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. The Yankees now led the Series, 3 games to 1.

Game 5 was tied, 2-2, going into the ninth. Al Leiter gave up two runs in the ninth and left the game after throwing 142 pitches. Manager Bobby Valentine might well have taken Leiter out earlier - if he'd had Mariano in his bullpen.

With the Yankees now ahead, Mariano pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth, picked up his second straight save, and the Yankees won the World Series.

Some of you are probably thinking, so what if Mariano is no Benitez? The 2000 Mets also would have had a better chance if their shortstop had been Derek Jeter instead of Mike Bordick.

But Benitez was actually a pretty good closer. In fact, in 2000, he had a better season than Mariano did:

Benitez:  41 saves; 5 blown saves; 2.61 ERA; 1.01 WHIP; 106 K in 76 IP
Rivera:  36 saves, 5 blown saves; 2.85 ERA; 1.10 WHIP; 58 K in 75 2/3 IP

For his career, Benitez had 289 saves with a 3.13 ERA and 1.22 WHIP.

But in 30 1/3 postseason innings, Benitez had a 3.56 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP.

Mariano, as everyone knows, has spectacular career numbers: 608 saves, 2.21 ERA, 0.998 WHIP.

But his postseason numbers look like typos: 0.70 ERA; 0.76 WHIP in 141 innings with, appropriately enough, 42 saves. 

So for those who think a closer's value is overrated, think of what it means when a pitcher with those sorts of numbers is waiting for you at the end of a postseason game.

***

Three years ago, Squawker Lisa and I saw Mariano get his 500th save in a Subway Series game at Citi Field. It was also the game where Mariano got his first career RBI when Francisco Rodriguez walked him with the bases loaded. Coming only a couple of weeks after the Luis Castillo game, I was pretty fed up, especially when the Mets later sent Mariano the pitching rubber from the game.

But now I'm just sad at the likely end of a great Yankee's career that even I can admire.

Oh no, Mo! Mariano Rivera tears his ACL; career in jeopardy

This is one of the saddest posts I have written for our Subway Squawkers blog since we started writing the blog in 2006.  Mariano Rivera's career may be over, thanks to a torn ACL and a torn meniscus. Geez, it's painful even to write that. I'm still in shock over what happened.

I was out for a walk last night, talking on the phone with one of my brothers, when Squawker Jon kept on trying to call me. After a few times, I finally picked up. Jon then said he wouldn't keep on calling me if it weren't important, and told me that Mariano Rivera was carted off the field after shagging flies. Yikes, talk about a punch in the stomach.

Although Jon did say that Mo was smiling on the cart while leaving the field, as soon as I saw the clip when I got home, I figured his initial reaction indicated a torn ACL, and unfortunately, that suspicion turned out to be correct. What a nightmare.

I was very tired last night, and went to bed before the game was over, so I didn't get to hear the official diagnosis. But Squawker Jon did stay up and watch the postgame, and he sent me an email about it last night, saying that "Just saw Mariano interviewed and he was teary. Even I'm upset." I also heard from some other Met fan friends, sending prayers and positive thoughts Mariano's way.

Needless to say, Mo's absence will be felt with the Yankees. He is the greatest closer of all time, and the Yankees would never have won four rings in five years without him. He is also a great human being, too. I got to meet him a few years ago, and was very impressed with him as a person.

Some in the media are trying to insinuate that him getting hurt while shagging balls was a preventable injury. Nonsense. We're not talking about him jumping on a trampoline; Mo was doing something baseball-related. This is why I have so little patience for those who get injured off the field being reckless; there is enough that can happen within baseball to hurt a career, without going out looking for things!

There will be enough time in a later blog entry to speculate about who will ultimately replace Mo. Today isn't the time for it. I'm still heartbroken over the loss of Mariano Rivera.

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Mets "Schwindle" their fans with slashed payroll

The Mets went into the season with no starting pitching depth. After Chris Schwinden's latest outing, the Mets' inability to spend any money on rotation depth has come back to haunt them.

Schwinden has now given up five earned runs with two homers in four innings in both of his starts. His ERA is 11.25. Even if you give him a pass for his first start being at Coors, you want to see a lot more against the Astros.

But Schwinden is only in there by default. If he gets pulled from the rotation, the other candidates appear to be Jeremy Hefner, claimed by the Mets after being waived by the lowly Pirates, and 41-year-od Miguel Batista, who has already bombed in a spot start this year, giving up six earned runs in 3 2/3 innings against the Giants.

The Mets got an unlucky break when Mike Pelfrey went down for the season, but it's not as if they could expect that the entire rotation could stay healthy all year. Not when Johan Santana is returning from a serious injury, R.A. Dickey is 37 years old and Jon Niese has been on the disabled list each of the last three seasons. Ironically, Pelfrey was the pitcher who never got hurt - until now.

Technically, the Mets do have a backup plan for the rotation - Chris Young, who is recovering from his own serious injury. Young went down for the year after just four starts last season. His last full season was in 2007. Young is rehabbing in the minors, but wouldn't you know it, he just suffered a setback.

At least there's no talk so far of rushing Matt Harvey or any of the other pitching prospects to the majors to fill the hole in the rotation.  Let's hope that doesn't change. Not having rotation depth could be writing off this season - no need to risk the future as well.

Andy Pettitte's Frankie Pentangeli moment

When I heard today about how Andy Pettitte indicated that he might have, um, misremembered what Roger Clemens said about HGH, my first thought was that it was something out of a movie. The Godfather, Part II, that is!

Specifically, I am referring to the infamous scene in which Frankie Pentangeli, who is set to testify as to what he knew about Michael Corleone's crimes, all of a sudden clams up. That's because Corleone has arranged for Frankie Five Fingers' brother to come in from Sicily. Seeing his brother keeps him from testifying -- he tells the Senate committee that he doesn't know anything:

The FBI guys promised me a deal. So I made up a lot of stuff about Michael Corleone. Because then, that's what they wanted. But it was all lies. Everything. They said Michael Corleone did this, Michael Corleone did that. So I said, "Yeah, sure."

The final script of the movie movie doesn't really explain why just seeing his brother would compel him not to testify, other than it being about Sicily and omerta, although Michael tells his wife Kay that "it was between those brothers." (An aside -- Pentangeli's character wasn't in the first movie, and he serves as a replacement for Clemenza after Richard Castellano, the actor who portrayed Clemenza in the movie, couldn't come to terms with Francis Ford Coppola on a new contract. While The Godfather, Part II is a great movie, I think Pentangeli's role would have been much more powerful if he were still Clemenza, like in the first film. But I digress.)

Anyhow, back to Andy Pettitte. According to his Congressional testimony, he told Laura Pettitte of what Clemens said back in the day about using HGH. However, as Ken Davidoff, now of the New York Post, reminds us:

The government’s best weapon to fight back would be to reveal that Pettitte acquired HGH from Brian McNamee, who will say he injected Clemens with illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and that Pettitte shared the details of the conversation with his wife, Laura. District Judge Reggie Walton has closed both doors, however, saying the McNamee connection would be “guilt by association” and the Laura Pettitte testimony “hearsay.”

Oh, great. Thanks, Andy, for potentially helping to set Roger Clemens free, by saying this today in court:

“As you sit here today, you believe in your heart and mind that you very well might have misunderstood Mr. Clemens in 1999 or 2000?” asked one of Clemens’s defense lawyers, Michael Attanasio. “Could have,” Pettitte said. “It’s 50-50 that you might have heard it, might have misunderstood it?” “That’s fair,” Pettitte replied.

The thing of it is, being so ambiguous, and unsure, will not change anybody's minds who thinks that Pettitte was a rat. It will not repair his friendship with The Rocket. But what it could do is give a jury reasonable doubt on finding Clemens guilty. Lovely. Thanks for nothing, Andy!

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Why Brian Cashman is like Kim Kardashian, and other Yankee thoughts

Brian Cashman, the GM who brought us that wonderful Jesus Montero-Michael Pineda deal, took a cue from both "Undercover Boss" and Kim Kardashian with his appearance in the bleachers Sunday. By wearing that same stupid wig/visor than he did while rappelling a building, he had about as ridiculous -- and as obvioius -- a disguise as the bosses do on "Undercover Boss." (An aside -- is anybody on that show ever really fooled? You have some new low-level staffer wearing wigs out of the Harpo Marx Collection, and being followed by a camera crew, and nobody catches on? C'mon now.)

And Cashman was like Kim Kardashian in trying his best to make a spectacle of himself to get publicity. He's been GM since 1998, yet it took him until 2012, after he was finally on the hot seat a little bit, for him to go hang out with the proles in the bleachers? Spare me. It is about as shameless a publicity ploy as Kardashian's faux-mance with Kanye West, where they have hit up nearly every high-trafficked tourist spot in New York to show off their "love." How perfectly fake. Come to think of it, maybe we're going to see Kanye and Kim in the bleachers soon, too. Good grief.

* * *

When the best you can say about Phil Hughes' pitching is that he didn't stink as much as he has in his previous four starts, it is not a good night. Especially when he didn't even pitch as well as Hector Noesi (traded as part of the Jesus Montero/Michael Pineda deal) did last night for the Seattle Mariners.

Speaking of Montero, he went 4-for-4 last night for Seattle, and hit a home run the night before. His batting average is now up to .294 (better than every Yankee starter except for Derek Jeter) and he has hit 4 homers (as many as Jeter and A-Rod) and driven in 13 runs (which would put him at third on the Yankees). Not that the Yankees could use him or anything, especially with Nick Swisher out of the lineup.

Meanwhile, rumor has it that Pineda caught up on his reading, finishing "The Hunger Games" just in time so he could catch the movie in the theaters. Next up, to steal a joke from my friend Sully Baseball, a thrilling game of Sudoku. Good times!


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Why should Yankee players and fans have to keep Mickey Mantle's open?

There was a whole to-do in the media this weekend about how the Mickey Mantle's restaurant is in financial trouble, and may have to close. They haven't paid rent for four months, and may be evicted soon. (Imagine that!)

So Bill Liederman, the former owner of the place, is trying to raise one million dollars to keep the restaurant open. He has been trying to hit up retired Yankee players like Goose Gossage and David Cone for $10,000 each, and current players as well, and seemed annoyed that they weren't jumping to do so. "Their agents just laugh," he complained about the current team.

And this morning, I heard Liederman being interviewed on 1010 WINS asking for fans to donate $1,000 or more each and "band together" and save the restaurant, because "most Yankee fans have been there." To which I say, you have got to be kidding me in expecting fans -- or anybody -- to give money for this!

I guess I missed when a restaurant with an unusable website, serving overpriced, lousy food, with terrible service from wait staff and bartenders alike (check out the reviews online for the place -- they're brutal!), became a charity. Especially when the place's owners haven't bothered to pay their rent for this entire year.

Am I supposed to be outraged that the landlord is trying to evict them? Absolutely not. He's not running a charity, either. Of all the worthwhile things that people can spend their money on, and donate their money to, and Liederman is trying to keep a tourist trap open? No thanks, I'll pass. Especially given what a jerk Liederman is. Let me explain.

I can have a long memory on things. And I remember the stunt Liederman pulled when he owned the place. In 2004, when the Boston Red Sox beat the Yankees in the ALCS, it was naturally one of the most horrible times ever for Yankee fans. So what did Liederman do? He announced that he was renaming the place from Mickey Mantle's Restaurant to Ted Williams' Restaurant through the end of the World Series. He also sold Red Sox hats in the store.

I was appalled over that, as were many, many Yankee fans, who called and showed up to complain. That was a terrible time, and to have the owner of Mickey Mantle's, whose restaurant's existence was based on Yankee fans, do such a thing was ridiculously tasteless. Way to kick your fan base in the stomach, dude.

Then Liederman had the gall to say that The Mick gave him the idea: "His spirit came to me when the game was over and said, 'Bill, let's do this for my favorite player. Let's put Ted's name up there for a week,'" Liederman told the press at the time. How ridiculous.

Since Liederman's "joke" didn't go over well with either the Yankee fan base or with the Mantle family, the sign was pulled down within a few days, and he ended up selling the place within the year.

Now he's back in the picture, trying to get Yankee fans and players to give their hard-earned money to keep it open. To which I say, why don't you hit up your beloved Red Sox Nation for donations, dude? Sell your scheme somewhere else. I ain't buying it.


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Why trading away Jesus Montero will haunt the Yankees for years

Today's a big day for baseball -- one highly-touted rookie is making his major league debuts, and the other got a callup. Bryce Harper, who was Baseball America's No. 1 prospect in 2011, got called up from the Washington Nationals and will make his MLB debut tonight. And Mike Trout, No. 2 on that list, is getting to play today for the Los Angeles of Anaheim (they released Bobby Abreu to make room for him; Trout did get to play a bit last year, but now he's getting a more of a chance). Guess who was No. 3 on that Baseball America list? Jesus Montero, who hit a homer last night. Meanwhile, Michael Pineda (No. 16 on the list) cooled his heels after his visit earlier this week to the Carl Pavano Memorial MRI tube. Thanks for nothing, Brian Cashman.

I was getting some grief on Facebook this week, being accused of "second-guessing" the Montero-Pineda trade. Excuse me? I didn't second-guess; I first-guessed! And one of the reasons I had such misgivings over the trade was this -- that generally speaking, Yankee fans feel much more passionately, and have more invested, in homegrown players. And that it would have been awesome to see Montero hitting up a storm in pinstripes for the next decade or two.

It was exciting last September to see Montero in the big leagues for the first time, and watch him start to show the promise we had heard so much about. Now we will get to see him show that promise in Seattle, while we hear how Pineda is progressing from torn labrum surgery. Lovely.

Yet there are still some Yankee fans and media shills who insist it's still "too soon" to judge the trade. Are you kidding me? Right now, it's as big of a rout as Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf!

Yet the pro-Cashman voices among New York sportswriters -- which is to say, pretty much all of them -- gave Cash a pass. Again. Shocking, I know. Even if you believe Cashman's story, that Pineda wasn't damaged goods, that there were no red flags due to him having a 5+ ERA and losing velocity at the end of last season, you have to wonder what the heck the Yanks were doing with the way they managed -- more like mismanaged -- Pineda.

Like why didn't the Yankees pony up and get the dye-contrast MRI in the first place? It's a true fact that the regular MRI does not catch partially torn labrums. When Pineda was shut down, they should have put him in the dye-contrast version of the Carl Pavano Memorial MRI tube. Why didn't they?

And again, let me remind you of what injury expert Will Carroll wrote on April 4, after Pineda was diagnosed with "tendinitis":

As for Pineda, he might be better served looking to another starter on his staff for a better comp. CC Sabathia had some shoulder issues early in his career. A trip to Glenn Fleisig's lab in Birmingham helped him change some things, and the results speak for themselves. Why Pineda isn't heading down there is beyond me.  

It is also odd to me, given Cashman's insistence that Seattle did not give him "damaged goods," that he would have this conversation with Pineda this spring:

Cashman said he, too, had wondered about the condition of Pineda's shoulder during spring training, when he struggled to get his fastball above 90 mph on a consistent basis.

"I asked him several times through an interpreter if he had ever been in an MRI tube at Seattle," Cashman said. "Each time, the answer was the same.

"Nunca."

Never.

Yet there is not a single voice in the mainstream sports media who covers the Yanks who will criticize Cashman for any of this, or even ask questions wondering about it all. The closest there has been to any criticism came from the New York Daily News' sports media columnist Bob Raissman, who pointed out how much the press is in the tank for Cashman. He notes that this stems from the days when Cashman was "George Steinbrenner's whipping boy," and writes:

Cashman gained the reputation of a humble nebbish who had the misfortune of working for an intransigent bully. In Cashman, the media discovered a sympathetic figure.

Those days are long gone. Cashman is a powerful executive who can mix it up, even taking on some Steinbrenner characteristics. Like playing the role of threatening bully. Yet in the mind’s eye of many who cover him, he’s still seen as the same old sympathetic figure.

Few find fault with the way he handled all aspects of the Pineda deal. Judging by the tone of the stories and commentary, the scribes/voices are dismissive and downright disgusted when any conspiracy theories are even mentioned.

This is why I laugh when people talk about the tough New York media. Because they are a bunch of marshmallows when it comes to Brian Cashman, falling all over themselves to defend him here. The way they did with Joe Torre.

One day, after Cashman is gone, and wields no power, you might actually get a real assessment of what a crummy job he has done over the last few years, but until then, fuggeddaboudit, as they say in Brooklyn.

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