Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer in baseball history, just became a first ballot MLB Hall of Famer. He is the first player ever to be unanimously voted in by the BBWAA, which says all you need to know about how dominant he was. But stats are fun too.
652 Saves (1st all-time)
0.70 Postseason ERA (1st all-time)
42 Postseason Saves (1st all-time)
1999 World Series MVP
13x All-Star
5x World Series Champion
The most amazing thing about Mo is that he dominated for two decades with essentially one complimentary pitch, his devastating cutter. For the better part of 19 years, professional hitters basically knew what pitch was coming when they faced him, and still couldn’t touch it.
The image that is synonymous with the Rivera Cutter is the broken bat. Many of those who had to face him and were able to actually make contact with the pitch were left holding onto a sawed off nub. The only thing that might be scarier than facing him as a hitter is playing on the same infield, not knowing when you might have the sharp end of a broken bat flying at your face. A great demonstration from the 1999 World Series, in which Rivera received MVP honors.
It’s so interesting to hear some of the best hitters in the game marvel about Rivera and talk about trying to hit this pitch..
Rivera was joined by some amazing players in this years induction class (Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina), but nobody who truly dominated and owned more real estate in their opponent’s heads than Mariano Rivera did throughout his career with his legendary cut fastball.
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