On July 21, in picturesque Cooperstown, New York, four former Major League Baseball players, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, and Mariano Rivera, will get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rivera is the only one of the four, and the only one of all 323 inductees of all time, to be unanimously voted in.
Rivera’s induction is no surprise, but the unanimity of the writers is startling considering that of the 226 former players in the Hall of Fame, only six of them were relief pitchers. What is it about Rivera?
Thirty years ago, Rivera was playing sandlot baseball wearing a glove made of folded cardboard in his poor fishing village of Puerto Caimito, Panama. The Yankees farm system signed him for a relative pittance, and he initially sat in the shadow of his cousin Rubén, who was thought to be a can’t-miss talent. In the minors, Mariano Rivera was in danger of getting released at the Class A level following an arm injury. Instead, he returned with added velocity and began the path that led to his becoming Major League Baseball’s greatest relief pitcher.
Over 19 major league seasons, Rivera finished a record 952 regular-season games, recording saves in 652 of them. Even more impressive, Rivera holds the major league record for adjusted earned run average, a statistic that accounts for ballpark effects and the average ERA of the pitcher’s league.
“He is the greatest closer of all time, even greater in the postseason,” says Pat, visiting the Yankee Stadium bleachers from Newburgh, New York.
Rivera wasn’t invincible, but his rare failures inspired him to reach even greater heights. After allowing Sandy Alomar’s single to tie the score in game four of the 1997 American League Championship Series, or ALCS, Rivera proceeded to pitch 33 scoreless innings in 24 consecutive postseason appearances from 1998 through the 2000 ALCS. He was named the MVP of the 1999 World Series, one of only four relief pitchers to be awarded that honor over 64 years.
Overall, Rivera saved a record 42 postseason games. His career postseason ERA is an otherworldly 0.70. More men have walked on the moon than scored an earned run against Rivera in 96 postseason appearances totaling 141 innings. Most impressive, these numbers were achieved against the best teams in baseball.
Rivera’s never hidden his devout Christianity. After teammate and current Yankees manager Aaron Boone hit his famous pennant-winning home run against the Boston Red Sox in 2003, Rivera avoided the pile-on of ballplayers, instead, running to the pitcher’s mound and collapsing. He told WFAN’s Sweeny Murti, he did so to “thank the Lord in the place I work.”
Rivera and his wife Clara are also philanthropists. They have spent $3 million through their charitable foundation to restore the Refugio de Esperanza church in New Rochelle, New York. The “Refuge of Hope Church” is a multicultural congregation where Clara Rivera serves as senior pastor. The Riveras bought the 107-year-old building that sat empty since the 1970s for $1 million with the promise to restore it. Their foundation has also funded church construction in Panama, Mexico, California, and Florida.
“[Mariano Rivera] set the right example of what a baseball player should be,” says Dan of Glen Rock, New Jersey, on Yankees Old-Timers’ Day, 2019, where Rivera returned for a Yankee Stadium exhibition game to pitch an inning and hit an inside-the-park home run, to the unrestrained glee of tens of thousands of fans.
When Rivera announced his retirement before the 2013 season, he received farewell gifts from each team at their stadium, a now-common occurrence for departing superstars. However, Rivera did something unique at each park: Before the games, he met with a diverse group of concession workers, ticket takers, custodians, and office clerks — the unseen and unappreciated people who keep baseball running smoothly.
On April 15, 1997, Major League Baseball retired the uniform number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson but allowed contemporary players wearing it to finish their careers without changing numbers. After 2003, Rivera was the lone player wearing 42 during his final 10 seasons, always understanding the responsibility he took on by volunteering to be the last man to wear the number. At the end of his career, he joined Robinson’s widow Rachel and daughter Sharon to unveil a plaque honoring Robinson at Yankee Stadium.
“He carried himself with dignity and grace,” Rachel Robinson told ESPN, “and that made carrying the number a tribute to Jack.”
Rivera is the first unanimous Hall of Famer, not only because he is unarguably the greatest relief pitcher and arguably one of the greatest pitchers of all time, but because he has demonstrated the humility, faith, unselfishness, integrity, and moral awareness required to shoulder such a monumental accomplishment.
Nathan Wurtzel is a veteran GOP political consultant and the owner of Reprise Consulting.
