Background and career
Mariano Rivera (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈɾjano riˈβeɾa]; born November 29, 1969) is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball player who was a pitcher for 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Nicknamed "Mo" and "Sandman", he spent most of his career as a relief pitcher and served as the Yankees' closer for 17 seasons. A 13-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, he is MLB's career leader in saves (652) and games finished (952). Rivera won five American League (AL) Rolaids Relief Man Awards and three Delivery Man of the Year Awards, and he finished in the top three in voting for the AL Cy Young Award four times. In 2019, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and is to date the only player ever to be elected unanimously by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). Raised in the modest Panamanian fishing village of Puerto Caimito, Rivera was an amateur player until he was signed by the Yankees organization in 1990. He debuted in the major leagues in 1995 as a starting pitcher, before permanently converting to a relief pitcher late that year. After a breakthrough season in 1996 as a setup man, he became the Yankees' closer in 1997. In the following seasons, he established himself as one of baseball's top relievers, leading the major leagues in saves in 1999, 2001, and 2004. Rivera primarily threw a sharp-moving, mid-90s mile-per-hour cut fastball that frequently broke hitters' bats and earned a reputation as one of the league's toughest pitches to hit. With his presence at the end of games, signaled by his foreboding entrance song "Enter Sandman", Rivera was a key contributor to the Yankees' dynasty in the late 1990s and early 2000s that won four championships in five years. He was an accomplished postseason performer, winning the 1999 World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award and the 2003 AL Championship Series MVP Award, while setting postseason records that included lowest earned run average (ERA) (0.70) and most saves (42). Rivera is considered one of the most dominant relievers in major league history. Pitching with a longevity and consistency uncommon to the closer role, he saved at least 25 games in 15 consecutive seasons and posted an ERA under 2.00 in 11 seasons, both of which are records. When he retired, his career 2.21 ERA and 1.00 WHIP were the lowest in the live-ball era among qualified pitchers. Fellow players credit him with popularizing the cut fastball across the major leagues. Along with his signature pitch, Rivera was known for his precise control, smooth pitching motion, and composure on the field. In 2013, the Yankees retired his uniform number 42; he was the last major league player to wear the number full time, following its league-wide retirement in 1997 in honor of Jackie Robinson. In 2014, MLB named its AL Reliever of the Year Award in Rivera's honor. A devout Christian, Rivera has been involved in charitable causes and the religious community through the Mariano Rivera Foundation. For his philanthropy, Rivera received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, in September 2019.
Mariano Rivera was born on November 29, 1969, in Panama City, Panama, to Mariano Rivera Palacios and Delia Jiron. Rivera has one older sister, Delia, and two younger brothers, Alvaro and Giraldo. Supported by Mariano Sr.'s job as captain of a fishing boat, the family lived in Puerto Caimito, a Panamanian fishing village that Rivera described as "poor". As a young man, Rivera played soccer and baseball with his friends on the beach during low tide. Soccer was his favorite sport, and Pelé his favorite athlete. For baseball games, they substituted cardboard milk cartons for gloves and tree branches for bats, and they fashioned balls by taping wads of shredded fishing nets. Rivera used this makeshift equipment until his father bought him his first leather glove when he was 12 years old. Speaking about his youth, Rivera said that although he stayed out of trouble, he "was hanging with the wrong people". Rivera attended Escuela Victoriano Chacón for elementary school and La Escuela Secundaria Pedro Pablo Sanchez for his secondary education, but he dropped out in ninth grade. At age 16, he began to learn the fishing trade by working on a commercial boat captained by his father, catching sardines. Rivera, who worked six-day weeks, year round, called the job "extremely hard" and was more interested in becoming a mechanic. He spent three years learning the fishing trade, saving the money he earned in hopes of opening an automobile repair shop. Two incidents on his father's boat validated his doubts about fishing as a career. In 1988, Rivera's uncle Miguel was lashed by an unsecured rope that shot off a hydraulic mechanism, and a month later he died from his injuries. About a year later, at age 19, Rivera was forced to abandon his father's ship after it began capsizing due to a malfunctioning water pump and an overweight load of fish. Rivera continued to play sports during his teenage years but eventually quit soccer around age 17 after a series of ankle and knee injuries. Consequently, he shifted his attention to baseball, though he considered it a hobby rather than a potential profession. At age 18, Rivera joined the Panamá Oeste Vaqueros, a local amateur baseball team, as a utility player. Herb Raybourn, a scout, watched him play shortstop in a 1988 baseball tournament but did not project him to be a major leaguer. A year later, Panamá Oeste's pitcher performed so poorly in a playoff game that Rivera was asked to replace him, and despite no experience at the position, he pitched well. Teammates Claudino Hernández and Emilio Gáez consequently contacted Chico Heron, a scout for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). Two weeks after his pitching debut, Rivera was invited to a Yankees tryout camp run by Heron in Panama City. Raybourn, who had returned to Panama to scout as the Yankees' director of Latin American operations, received a tip about Rivera. Raybourn was surprised to hear he had switched positions but decided to watch him throw. Although Rivera lacked formal pitching training, weighed just 155 pounds (70 kg), and threw only 85–87 miles per hour (137–140 kilometers per hour), Raybourn was impressed by his athleticism and smooth, effortless pitching motion. Viewing the free agent Rivera as a raw talent, Raybourn signed him to a contract with the Yankees organization on February 17, 1990; the contract included a signing bonus of US$2,500 ($6,161 today), according to MLB records.
After signing his contract, Rivera—who spoke no English and had never left home before—flew to the United States and reported to the Gulf Coast League (GCL) Yankees, a Rookie level minor-league affiliate of the New York Yankees. Feeling lonely and homesick, he wrote home to his parents often, as they did not have access to telephones in Puerto Caimito. At that point in his career, scouts considered Rivera to be a "fringe prospect" at best, but he made progress with a strong 1990 season for the GCL Yankees. Pitching mostly in relief, he allowed only 24 baserunners and one earned run in 52 innings pitched—a 0.17 earned run average (ERA). The team permitted Rivera to start the season's final game in order for him to accumulate enough innings pitched to qualify for the league's ERA title (which carried a $500 bonus); his subsequent seven-inning no-hitter "put him on the map with the organization", according to manager Glenn Sherlock. In the offseason, Rivera returned to Panama and tipped Raybourn off about a promising local player, Rivera's 16-year-old cousin Rubén, whom the Yankees consequently signed. In 1991, Rivera was promoted to the Class A level Greensboro Hornets of the South Atlantic League, where he started 15 of the 29 games in which he pitched. Despite a 4–9 win–loss record, he recorded a 2.75 ERA in 114+2⁄3 innings pitched and struck out 123 batters while walking 36 batters. New York Yankees manager Buck Showalter took notice of Rivera's strong strikeout-to-walk ratio, calling it "impressive in any league" and saying, "This guy is going to make it." A minor-league scout for the Cincinnati Reds filed a report that season about Rivera that said: "long arms w/ slender strong body, loose actions...will challenge in velocity...maturity is a question, consistency is a question...consistency will need to be maintained to improve and advance." In 1992, Rivera was promoted to the Class A-Advanced level Fort Lauderdale Yankees of the Florida State League (FSL), but he missed the first third of the season with elbow stiffness. He started ten games for Fort Lauderdale, compiling a 5–3 win–loss record and a 2.28 ERA, while walking only five batters in 59+1⁄3 innings pitched. Ultimately, Rivera was sidelined again after suffering damage to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow. The injury was attributed to him snapping his wrist during his throwing motion in an attempt to improve the movement of his slider. Rivera underwent elbow surgery on August 27, 1992, leading to concerns that he would be out through the 1993 season. Contrary to popular belief, the operation was not Tommy John surgery; Rivera's surgeon, Frank Jobe, determined that ligament replacement was not necessary and instead repaired the frayed UCL. Rivera was left unprotected by the Yankees in MLB's 1992 expansion draft, which filled the rosters for two expansion teams, the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies. At one point in the draft, Marlins general manager Dave Dombrowski was planning to select Rivera with his next pick, but after the Rockies chose Yankee Brad Ausmus, the Yankees were shielded from losing any more players; Rivera went undrafted. During Rivera's rehabilitation, he played catch with former Yankees pitchers Whitey Ford and Ron Guidry, and faced batting practice from his first minor-league pitching coach, former pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. After recuperating, Rivera pitched an abbreviated 1993 season for the Rookie-level Yankees and Class A Greensboro, during which he was kept on a limited pitch count. Hornets shortstop Derek Jeter, who would later be Rivera's teammate in the major leagues, tracked his pitch count during games. In 12 starts, Rivera recorded a 2.08 ERA, walking 16 batters in 43+1⁄3 innings pitched. Watching him recover, the Hornets' official scorer Ogi Overman was not optimistic about Rivera's future, saying, "I thought [he] was on a one-way trip to nowhere." Rivera began the 1994 season with the Class A-Advanced level Tampa Yankees of the FSL. In June, he was promoted to the Double-A level Albany-Colonie Yankees of the Eastern League, followed by a promotion to the Triple-A level Columbus Clippers of the International League in July. Rivera finished his season with a 10–2 record and a 3.09 ERA overall, but he struggled in Columbus, recording a 5.81 ERA in six starts. At the start of the 1995 season, he was ranked the ninth-best prospect in the Yankees organization by sports magazine Baseball America; by contrast, Rivera's highly touted cousin Rubén was ranked the second-best prospect in the entire sport. Mariano's pitching repertoire primarily consisted of fastballs at the time, with a slider and changeup as secondary pitches. He began the 1995 season with Columbus, pitching to a 1–1 record and a 1.50 ERA in four starts.
After being called up to the major leagues on May 16, 1995, Rivera made his debut for the New York Yankees on May 23 against the California Angels. Starting in place of injured pitcher Jimmy Key, Rivera allowed five earned runs in 3+1⁄3 innings pitched in a 10–0 loss. He struggled through his first four major league starts, posting a 10.20 ERA, and as a result, he was demoted to Columbus on June 11. As a 25-year-old rookie just three years removed from major arm surgery, Rivera did not have a guaranteed spot in the Yankee organization. Management considered trading him to the Detroit Tigers for starter David Wells. While recovering from a sore shoulder in the minor leagues, Rivera pitched a no-hit shutout in a rain-shortened five-inning start on June 26. Reports from the game indicated that his pitches had reached 95–96 mph (153–154 km/h), about 6 mph (9.7 km/h) faster than his previous average velocity; Rivera attributes his inexplicable improvement to God. Yankees general manager Gene Michael was skeptical of the reports until verifying that Columbus' radar gun was not faulty and that another team's scout had taken the same measurements. Afterwards, he ended any trade negotiations involving Rivera. On July 4, in his first start back in the major leagues, Rivera pitched eight scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox, allowing just two hits while striking out 11 batters. In five subsequent starts, he was unable to match his success from that game. After a brief demotion to Columbus in August, Rivera made one last start in the major leagues in September before he was moved to the Yankees' bullpen. Overall, he finished his first major league season with a 5–3 record and a 5.51 ERA in ten starts and nine relief outings. His performance in the American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners, in which he pitched 5+1⁄3 scoreless innings of relief, convinced Yankees management to keep him and convert him to a relief pitcher the following season.
Rivera was nearly traded prior to the 1996 season to address the Yankees' depleted depth at the shortstop position. Owner George Steinbrenner considered an offer to send Rivera to the Mariners in exchange for shortstop Félix Fermín, but Yankees management convinced Steinbrenner to instead entrust the position to rookie Derek Jeter. In 1996, Rivera served primarily as a setup pitcher, typically pitching in the seventh and eighth innings of games before closer John Wetteland pitched in the ninth. Their effectiveness as a tandem helped the Yankees win 70 of 73 games that season when leading after six innings. Over a stretch of games between April 19 and May 21, Rivera pitched 26 consecutive scoreless innings, including 15 consecutive hitless innings. During the streak, he recorded his first career save in a May 17 game against the Angels. Rivera finished the regular season with a 2.09 ERA in 107+2⁄3 innings pitched and set a Yankees single-season record for strikeouts by a reliever (130). Baseball Reference calculated his value to the Yankees that year to be 5.0 wins above replacement (WAR), a figure no reliever has surpassed in a single season since. In the postseason, he allowed just one earned run in 14+1⁄3 innings pitched, helping the Yankees advance to and win the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves. It was the franchise's first World Series championship since 1978. In MLB's annual awards voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), Rivera finished in twelfth place for the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award and third for the AL Cy Young Award, which is given to the league's best pitcher. Commentator and former player Tim McCarver said that the Yankees "revolutionized baseball" that year with Rivera, calling him "a middle reliever who should have been on the All-Star team and who was a legitimate MVP candidate".
Yankees management decided not to re-sign Wetteland in the offseason, opting instead to replace him with Rivera as the team's closer. In April 1997, MLB retired the uniform number 42 league-wide to honor the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the baseball color line, although Rivera was among 13 players allowed to keep the number per a grandfather clause. Rivera's transition from setup man to closer in 1997 was not seamless; he blew three of his first six save opportunities and indicated that he was initially uncomfortable in the role. With reassurance from manager Joe Torre, Rivera settled into the ninth-inning role, and he earned his first All-Star selection with 27 saves and a 1.96 ERA at the midseason break. In the 1997 All-Star Game, he pitched a perfect ninth inning to collect his first save in an All-Star Game. That summer, he added a cut fastball to his pitching repertoire after accidentally discovering how to throw the pitch. Rivera finished the regular season with 43 saves in 52 opportunities and a 1.88 ERA. His first year as closer ended with a blown save in Game 4 of the AL Division Series against the Cleveland Indians; with the Yankees four outs from advancing to the next round of the postseason, Rivera allowed a game-tying home run to Sandy Alomar Jr. The Yankees eventually lost the game as well as the next one, eliminating them from the postseason.
