Hug Your Children

You live your life as you think it is. You move within the world and your environment as you believe them to be. You interact with space, objects, and people as though they are givens.

You OK, Big Mo?

That's three consecutive outings in which Mariano Rivera has given up at least a run, as the Orioles beat the Yankees 6-3 behind Erik Bedard. It might be time for his annual late-season trip to the 15-day DL. Let's hope not. For once, Joe Torre did the right thing and used his best available pitcher in a tie game, and he was rewarded with negative reinforcement.

The biggest bright spot to come from today's game is Edwar Ramirez's 2.1 innings of 3-K, scoreless relief. He's essentially forcing Joe Torre to take him seriously. And Farnsie stayed on the bench where he belongs.

Shelley Duncan-excitement aside (that was a classic "Holy Cow!" moment if ever there was one), at least Boston lost too, so the Yankees don't lose any ground in the A.L. East. Baltimore has been a huge problem for the Yankees this year, and their pitchers produced 17 straight scoreless innings against the white-hot Yankees' lineup.

In Appreciation of Mariano Rivera

Troubling legacy or no, Mariano Rivera is still one of the best closers in baseball.

It's become a semi-annual rite of passage: Big Mo struggles a little early, especially if Joe Torre fails to get him enough meaningful work. The media pounces, claiming it's the end of his amazing run, and then, when he pitches well May through September, nobody says a fucking word.

Well, guess what? In 30.1 innings since April, Rivera has walked two batters. His WHIP is 0.89. He is 11-for-11 in save opportunities. He has dominated.

Last night, Rivera looked like his old self while pitching the ninth inning of the Yankees' 6-4 win over Toronto in the Bronx. After giving up a leadoff double to Troy Glaus that Melky Cabrera misplayed into a triple, Rivera buckled down, striking out two and stranding Glaus at third. That old feeling of security is back when Mo comes into the game. I love to watch Rivera's reactions when he gives up a big hit, like Glaus's. He looks like he wants to punch himself in the face. I would prefer he use his anger constructively, and punch Kyle Farnsworth in the face after the game.

ARod blasted his 32nd home run to lead the Yankees' offense, which also featured bombs from Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano, along with a clutch bloop single by Nice Guy Andy.

Kei Igawa continues to benefit from amazing run support, and also continues to be one of the most frustrating pitchers to watch in baseball. He must lead the league in hits and walks allowed after starting with an 0-2 count. And after the count is 1-2, the league is hitting .355/.412/.661 against him. I know Brian Cashman says Phil Hughes is no lock to return to the rotation, but come on, Cash. You've already hampered the Yankees' chances to win enough this year with your poor bench construction and refusal to cut ties with Kyle Farnsworth. You're acting like Terry Ryan. Give this team their best chance. That means Hughes.

Also Sprach Rivera

A very telling quote from The Great Rivera, via LoHud's question-and-answer session with the Yankees' closer:

David: What do you think its the biggest difference between the teams when you first came up and the team now?

Mariano Rivera: “The team when I came here had a lot of veteran guys, like we have. But a lot of guys that were—how had I phrase this?—they weren’t just players, they lived the game, enjoyed the game. That doesn’t mean these guys don’t do that. It’s just different.”

When combined with Jorge Posada's going-through-the-motions quote from a couple weeks ago, these are damning portrayals of the current Yankees.

The Troubling Legacy of Mariano Rivera

Greatest closer of all time? Absolutely. Greatest Yankee of all time? In the discussion. Driving force behind four championships? Definitely. Responsible for some of the best moments of my life? Uh huh.

So why do I get a queasy feeling in my stomach every time I look at Mariano Rivera?

For all his greatness, for all his icy nerves, for all the times he's come up huge, Rivera is still responsible for three of the most devastating, painful defeats in Yankees history. Three post-season series that the Yankees would have won if Rivera had been able to shut the door. Three times that Rivera stood on the mound moments away from clinching a deciding game. Three games that I'm still not over, years later and hundreds of converted save opportunities under the bridge.

1) Game 4, 1997 Divisional Series - The Yankees seemed to be on their way to a successful title defense, leading the Indians two games to one in the best-of-five, with Game 4 at Jacobs Field. Leading 2-1 with two outs in the 8th, Rivera gave up an opposite-field, game-tying home run to Sandy Alomar Jr. The Indians went on to win the game and the series.

As Rivera's legend grew, much was made of this game being a necessary lesson in his development as a closer. I'm still not sure what that lesson was. By that time, Rivera had completed a dominant season as a primary set-up man, and a dominant 43-save season as closer, with post-season experience in 1995 and 1996. If losing that series to Cleveland really did somehow strengthen his resolve, and helped lead to his incredible 1998-2000 run, fine, the loss was worth it. But I don't buy it. Rivera simply made a bad pitch at the worst possible time.

2) Game 7, 2001 World Series - Ugh. Three outs away from a fourth straight World Series title. Three outs away from sending Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez out on the right note. Three outs away from not letting that season's stunning late-inning heroics from Martinez and Scott Brosius go to waste.

Rivera defenders point out that there wasn't a hard hit ball in the inning, which is true. But he still allowed a game-tying hit to Tony Womack, made an awful throwing error and hit Craig Counsell, that spastic little gnat, with a pitch. This one is all on Rivera.

3) Game 4, 2004 ALCS - A four-pitch walk to Kevin Millar to lead off the inning of what should have been the clinching game of a humiliating sweep of the Red Sox. Everything that happened after that, from Dave Roberts's steal, to Tom Gordon's Game 5 meltdown, to Curt Schilling becoming even more of an insufferable prick, to the movie version of Fever Pitch, stemmed from that inexcusable walk. I feel ill.

There is little doubt in my mind that, had Rivera done his job in those three games, the Yankees would have won six straight World Series, and Bill Simmons would never have been able to publish his awful book.

Mariano Rivera has a career post-season ERA of 0.80 and has converted 34 of 38 saves successfully. His career ERA+ is 200. I'm not an idiot. I know that most other closers would probably have blown three times the number of big games he has, and that he's provided countless more thrilling moments than horrifying moments. I also know that this post epitomizes what most people hate about Yankees fans.

But is there another closer alive who could have blown those three games and not been labeled a choker? Rivera's legacy was already defined and established before the 2001 and 2004 gag jobs, so he's gotten the benefit of the doubt from fans and the media.

I'm not ungrateful to Rivera. Without him, who knows how the last ten years would have played out. But I'll never be able to get rid of the bad memories, and they stand out more than the good ones. I should love this man unequivocally, but there's too much cognitive dissonance associated with him.

I propose that Rivera change his entrance song from Enter Sandman, in order to better capture my conflicted, guilty and confused feelings about him. A few options:

1. Let Down/Radiohead
2. Rebellion (Lies)/Arcade Fire
3. The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine/Spoon
4. In-Between Days/The Cure
5. Once in a Lifetime/Talking Heads (this will work best if Rivera is willing to do David Byrne's spastic dance all the way in from the bullpen)