Yankees legend Mariano Rivera will be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, after becoming the first player to be unanimously voted in.
There are plenty of memories of the famed closer from his 19-year career in the Bronx, but his Yankees mates were somehow able to pick out their favorites.
Here are a collection of scenes from a Hall of Fame Career.
Final moment for special trio
Derek Jeter was sent to the mound at Yankee Stadium with Rivera’s other longtime teammate, Andy Pettitte, by manager Joe Girardi to take out Rivera from his final game in 2013.
“That was three guys who kind of grew up together. We shared memories from back in the minors, both on and off the field. That’s why that was so special,” Jeter said. “For me, his approach and mindset were always what stood out. He was always unflappable. You hear that a lot about athletes, but at some point, everyone has some self-doubt. Mo never had it.
“He’s one of the most confident people I’ve ever met. From the first day I met him, he had it. His approach and mindset were what stood out. He was unflappable. You hear that about different guys, but it was really true of Mo. He had a unique ability to forget about the previous pitch or outing. It was true when he was a starter or a closer, in the minors as a young player or as someone who was established in the majors, you could never tell what happened.”







A short memory
Joe Torre was the Yankees’ manager when Rivera, a key member of the bullpen when they won the World Series in 1996, gave up a game-tying homer the next season in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the ALDS to the Indians’ Sandy Alomar Jr. with the Yankees four outs away from advancing. They went on to lose the series.
“That home run in Cleveland that Alomar hit, he learned from that,” Torre said. “The great ones do. They don’t get swallowed up. He was never shaken by anything, but he was different in that way. He was different in many ways. A lot of closers hang around at the end of their career, but to be the same guy the whole time is remarkable. The bright lights didn’t matter to him. Guys like him just got better in moments like that and that’s not always the case. And he was the perfect example of that.
“I had been away from managing for six years between Atlanta and St. Louis [1984-90] and the biggest change in that time was how vital the closer role had become. The last three outs were so important, especially in the postseason. In 1996, Mariano took on the job of setup man and it seemed like every day he would get six outs. He took so much pressure off me in the playoffs.”
Discovering the perfect pitch
Like Jeter, Pettitte spent time with Rivera in the minors and they became key members of the Core Four, along with Jorge Posada. Pettitte saw Rivera as a starter, setup man and closer and watched him build a Hall of Fame career based on one pitch: the cutter.
“I remember when he started throwing that two-seamer. I think it was just to show people that he could use another pitch if he had to,” Pettitte said. “But what stood out to me the most was watching his career progress
, that cutter. I remember seeing him and thinking, ‘OK, he’s gonna have to make adjustments here.’ But when you keep saying that every year, after five, six and seven years and you know you’ve had to make all kinds of adjustments and every other pitcher around you has made adjustments — it was kind of amazing. I was kind of in disbelief watching it.
“That was just kind of part of what made him unique. He was such a different character than most big-league pitchers. Most of them I’ve been around are intimidating and aggressive and he took it the other way. He was relaxed and calm and then all of a sudden, he explodes with that pitch. It looked so effortless and easy. He had that precision and power, but it didn’t look like he’d break a sweat doing it. I don’t think anyone ever dominated the game like he did. He dominated it. You knew the cutter was coming and he was gonna get you with it.”
An unlikely rock star
Paul O’Neill was traded to the Yankees from Cincinnati two years before Rivera’s MLB debut. As impressed as O’Neill was with Rivera’s pitching, it was his ability to make a song he didn’t even know his own that stood out.
“Who’d think a guy from Panama would be as associated with ‘Enter Sandman?’ It became his song and he never even heard of Metallica,” O’Neill said of the song that blared at Yankee Stadium when Rivera entered the game. “I guess that’s what happens when you’re the best ever at what you do and that definitely was the case with him when it comes to closing. It was cool to be a part of.
“For me, as a right fielder, I could just put my glove down when he came in the game. I just didn’t get fly balls my way when he pitched. It was always a great feeling. He was in there for one thing: to close the game. So when we heard that song, it was awesome, because we knew it meant we were in a perfect spot to win the game. As a team, we always felt we had an advantage, especially in the playoffs and the World Series, because of him. We definitely don’t have the rings we do without him.”
Starters knew lead would be safe
CC Sabathia signed with the Yankees to be the ace of the staff in 2009 after leading the majors in complete games with 10 the previous season.
“Here’s how I sum up how I thought about Mo: My mentality before I got here was to finish every game I started,” Sabathia said. “And my mentality once I got here became to finish the eighth inning. Having him back there
. I knew I didn’t have to go nine. I don’t think I really understood how much a guy like that meant until I got here. I felt it right away. You just knew there was someone there to finish things up when you needed it and you could trust him totally because he was so good.”
An easy day at the office
After facing him as a hitter for six seasons, first baseman Mark Teixeira became Rivera’s teammate in 2009 and gained a new appreciation for the closer.
“I knew the game was over, but more than that, I knew I wasn’t getting any hard-hit balls in my direction,” Teixeira said. “There would maybe be a few times a year a lefty would turn on one of his cutters and the beauty of it was it was that if they squared it up, it was almost always a foul ball. I could play in and either deal with a broken bat — which he got plenty of — or a slow ground ball. Even when he lost some velocity, he was almost better because his cutter moved even more. I truly believe he could still pitch now and get hitters out.
“When I played against him, I don’t think he ever blew a save and it was amazing that when I played with him and it happened, you never saw any emotion out of him. It was so unusual for a closer.”
Out of his league
Current Mets first base coach Glenn Sherlock was Rivera’s first manager in professional baseball when Rivera pitched for the Yankees’ Gulf Coast League team in 1990 and gave up one earned run in 52 innings for an ERA of 0.17.
“He pitched a seven-inning no-hitter that year,” Sherlock said. “He wasn’t in the rotation, but we used him in a spot start because he needed to get some more innings in to qualify for the ERA title. So we talked to [scouting director] Bill Livesey and [minor league coordinator] Mark Newman and decided to start him that one game, even though he was a reliever. And that’s what he did.
“He didn’t have that cutter yet. He threw more conventional pitches, but he was a very, very good competitor, even then. He was one of our best athletes on the team and when he came up to the big leagues in 1995, I was there as a coach and it was amazing what he did when he was moved to the bullpen. He got there and there was no looking back after that.”





