Mariano is so successful with one pitch, but he’s got that championship attitude and that winning way about him, and he knows how to win. Plus, the simple fact is, this guy has ice in his veins. If you ask a million people I think there may be less than one percent that thought he wasn’t going to close that game out, especially with the lead and knowing his record in postseason play.
[Yankees’ manager] Joe Torre brought the infield in. Some people question that. Mariano breaks a lot of bats, and with the bases loaded, I think Joe figured if I got jammed and hit a slow roller, the infielders would not have been able to turn a double play, and the winning run would score. With the infield playing in, if I do hit a slow roller, they have a chance to force the lead runner going from third to home. Joe got exactly what he wanted—the jam shot—but it went over the infielder’s head; it wasn’t a ground ball.**
You dream about hitting a home run in that situation or a line drive in the gap. I hit 596 doubles in my career. I would have loved to shoot a ball in the gap, but in reality, facing a guy like Mariano, I’ll take the jam shot that just barely got out of the infield. I’ll be honest with you. People say that hit off Mariano was lucky. I’m not disagreeing. Sometimes you’d rather be lucky than good. I never got a hit off him before, and how many consecutive saves did he have? Maybe it was his one time to fail, and my one time to get a hit off him. The stars aligned and I was able to come through. I’m pretty sure that was my final at-bat against Mariano. Baseball is a strange game. They say when you go to the park you’ll always see something you’ve never seen before, so expect the unexpected. That was certainly true on that day.
I never have [spoken to Mariano about the hit]. For the Arizona fans it’s a thrill, and a moment I’ll never forget in my life, but I have the utmost respect for that guy, and for everything he’s ever done for the game. He’s not only a great closer; he’s also a great person. By no means would I ever say to him, “I got the game-winning hit off you, and the bat is in the Hall of Fame.”
I was fortunate. I did run into Mariano in the offseason a few years later. I grew up in Tampa, Florida, and that’s where the Yankees have spring training. I went home to Tampa and was walking around at the International Mall, and Mariano was in the mall, too. I said, “Hi, how are you, what’s going on?”
I didn’t want to bring it up, and I’m sure he didn’t either. We were both very cordial, very professional.
Tino [Yankees’ first baseman Tino Martinez] and I have spoken about it. He and I played Little League together and we played together in high school. I played second base; he played first. That was another thrill for me, and for our high school coach, to have two players from the same high school on the same field playing for a World Series title. Later on, in the evening after Game Seven, the first message on my phone was from Tino, saying, “Congratulations, it was a hell of a World Series, enjoy the moment, because you don’t know how many of these [experiences] you’re going to get.”
That World Series was unbelievable from start to finish. The drama of being in New York after the tragedy of 9/11, there were a lot of different story lines that were being played out in that World Series. Tino’s home run was crazy. After losing those three games in New York the way we did, it was a very quiet plane ride back to Arizona. We were confident, but we were worried at the same time. When you played the Yankees of that era, they had so many great players, and so many unsung heroes on that team, and they all gelled well together and they were good. Those guys knew how to sniff blood and they knew how to win games. We felt like we outplayed them the whole World Series, but good teams find a way to win, and that’s what they kept doing. We tried to hit them with a knockout punch but they’d bounce off the ropes and hit us back three or four more times.*
If you look back, it seems one hundred percent of the relief pitchers are never really the same type of reliever after a tough [World Series] loss. You have to be mentally strong and Mariano is. Especially playing in New York City, where if you sneeze the wrong way your picture shows up on the front page of the tabloids. For him to stay out of the limelight says a lot about him as a person. He stepped right in and took over as their closer, and he’s been the main guy there for a long time. He’s played on some fantastic teams with great players, and he’s earned the confidence of his teammates and the fans.
I watched the [2013] All-Star Game at home with my family, and my son was sitting next to me. It was a pretty cool moment to see [the tribute to Mariano]. That just goes to show you, when certain players have an impact on the game, as Mariano has, it’s pretty incredible. I was surprised he didn’t get emotional on the mound. Although he’s been in bigger situations, like the World Series, I can guarantee his heart was pounding a million miles a second. He is truly the ultimate professional. Whether he wins or loses, he has the same reaction. The only time I ever saw him get emotional was the time he laid on the mound after the Yankees won Game Seven [of the 2003 American League Championship Series] against Boston.*
He carries himself with dignity, on and off the field. I respect his demeanor. He doesn’t show guys up from the field, he’s not pointing up at the sky, or yelling at guys. When you see today’s generation of players—relievers with their crazy antics on the mound, and batters who take twenty minutes to round the bases after hitting a home run—and you watch Mariano go about his business, he just gracefully does his job; he doesn’t show a lot of flair. I think he’s a perfect role model for every pitcher that wants to be a closer. They should follow in his footsteps. He’s a true, blue-collar guy, and that’s why he has such a strong following among the players who play with him and the players who play against him. All players respect him.
Curtis Granderson
Outfield
Playing Career
Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and New York Mets since 2004
Career Statistics
1,187 games, 1,157 hits, 217 home runs, 606 runs batted in, .261 batting average, .340 on-base percentage, .488 slugging percentage
Curtis Granderson facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)
1-for-4, 1 extra-base hit, 1 home run, 3 runs batted in, 1 strikeout, .250 batting average, .250 on-base percentage, 1.000 slugging percentage
Mo Cred
Granderson hit a three-run home run off Rivera with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning while playing for Detroit, but it was not enough, as the Yankees won 8-6, on April 29, 2009. From 2010 to 2013, Granderson was Rivera’s teammate on the Yankees.
Curtis Granderson
Year Date Result
2006 5/30 Strikeout (Looking)
Postseason 10/3 Single
2007 8/18 Fly out
2009 4/29 Home run (3 RBI)
7/17 Fly out
WITH HIM, YOU just hopefully hit it before it cuts and keep it fair. Since I never really watched him on TV much, my first chance to see his ball move as much as it does was in the batter’s box. It’s hard to get a read on how much the ball is actually moving until you step in the box.
Even playing [center field] behind him, you still can’t see [the movement] as much as you can from hitting against him, because a lot of pitches he throws are around the zone and you get a lot of swing and misses. You try to figure out why, because it looked like the batters were right there on it, but it’s the deception and the amount of movement the ball has. You can start to understand more why there is a lot of swing and misses when you’re facing him.
[His saves record] is absolutely amazing; it’s probably going to be something that’s never going to get touched ever again. And to get a chance be a part of it as a Yankee, I couldn’t have written a better story for myself. He definitely is, no doubt about it, he’s a Hall of Famer. He’s the all-time saves leader and he’s still got plenty more left with the rest of this [2013] season and hopefully the postseason.
He’s the guy we want out there. Hopefully when he’s coming into the game that means we got the lead and that means we’re going to be winni
ng games and hopefully making the postseason.
Gabe Gross
Outfield
Playing Career
Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, and Oakland Athletics from 2004 to 2010
Career Statistics
657 games, 349 hits, 40 home runs, 186 runs batted in, .239 batting average, .330 on-base percentage, .385 slugging percentage
Gabe Gross facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)
3-for-10, 0 extra-base hits, 1 run batted in, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts, .300 batting average, .364 on-base percentage, .300 slugging percentage
Mo Cred
Gross hit a game-ending single in the eleventh inning against Rivera on May 13, 2008.
Gabe Gross
Year Date Result
2004 8/26 Strikeout (Swinging)
9/21 Single
10/2 Pop out
2005 9/16 Ground out
2008 5/13 Single (1 RBI)
9/13 Single
2009 6/7 Strikeout (Swinging)
7/29 Walk
9/7 Pop out
10/4 Ground out
2010 4/20 Double play
I REMEMBER THE WALK-OFF very well. It was a tie score in the bottom of the eleventh inning. [Cliff Floyd singled] and Jonny Gomes pinch ran for him. Jonny stole second base. Now, with the winning run on second base and no outs, my objective completely changed. I had to move the runner over to third. I remember thinking: “There is no way Mariano is going to throw me an inside cutter and let me break my bat and ground out to second base and advance the runner.”
Because that’s what you did against Mariano as a lefty batter. It was a normal occurrence for him to jam you with a cutter, and all you can do is hit a weak ground ball to the right side.*
I remember stepping out of the [batter’s] box and thinking: “He’s got to throw a back door cutter to the outside part of the plate.”
I was looking away; I wanted to hook my wrists and pull the ball. Fortunately, he did throw a back door cutter that I’m sure got more plate than he planned, and I was able to do exactly what I wanted. I hit [the ball] back up the middle to center field and Jonny beat the throw home and we won the ball game. It was mid-May and Mariano had not given up an earned run to that point in the season until Jonny scored. The win put us into first place. That fact was not lost upon me at that moment.**
It’s a big deal any time you beat New York, any time you can beat Mariano, and it was a big deal for the team. Tampa then was not the organization it is today. They had been bottom feeders, finished dead last in the division nine years out of ten and next-to-last in the other year. I had gotten traded from Milwaukee to Tampa earlier that season, on April 22, so I had been around the team for about three weeks. I was battling my brains out trying to prove myself to a new team and establish myself amongst my teammates. Soon after I got to Tampa—and this has nothing to do with me—we won eight or nine straight and we were gaining momentum and a confidence was building to the point where we knew we could beat anybody. It was a magical season. That [2008 Rays] team was the first to win the division, first in the playoffs, first in the World Series. Any year in the big leagues is not a bad year, but that year was special. I had three walk-off hits during my big league career playing parts of seven different seasons, and all three happened that year in about one month’s time.
Early in my career I was three-for-six against [Rivera]. Whenever we played the Yankees and I was not in the starting lineup, my manager knew those numbers and would use me to pinch-hit when Mariano came in the game. Trying to get a hit against Mariano when you’re in the game and you have a lather going is hard enough. Trying to come off the bench to do it is another objective altogether. Later in my career my numbers against him waned. That walk-off hit is a highlight of my career. I don’t imagine there are many people who have had RBIs off Mariano in extra innings.*
Facing Mariano is a difficult task not because his cutter is better than anyone else’s, it’s because he doesn’t make mistakes. Whether it’s intentional or unintentional, his ball moves so much that you end up swinging at something that isn’t a strike. You can’t figure out how to hit it. I had a teammate at Toronto, Gregg Zaun, who told me to take pitches until I got two strikes. He didn’t want to swing at a pitch five inches off the plate and get jammed and waste an at-bat. So he would take pitches, hoping to get into a good [hitters’] count, to have a better chance to try to hit a strike. He thought his strategy was better than swinging at a pitch that wasn’t a strike.**
David Hulse
Center field
Playing Career
Texas Rangers and Milwaukee Brewers from 1992 to 1996
Career Statistics
423 games, 336 hits, 5 home runs, 103 runs batted in, .266 batting average, .307 on-base percentage, .337 slugging percentage
David Hulse facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)
1-for-2, 1 extra-base hit, 1 home run, 2 runs batted in, .500 batting average, .500 on-base percentage, 2.000 slugging percentage
Mo Cred
Hulse hit an inside-the-park home run off Rivera on August 1, 1995, the only inside-the-park homer Rivera has allowed.
David Hulse
Year Date Result
1995 8/1 Home run (2 RBI)
1996 4/16 Line out
I DISTINCTLY REMEMBER THE inside-the-park home run I hit off Mariano. I remember all my home runs. I only had five! But the one off Mariano is particularly memorable. It was his first year [in 1995] and they were all saying, “He’s the next up-and-coming kid.”
It was a real long at-bat. He kept throwing me pitches away, away, away, and I kept fighting them off, hitting foul ball after foul ball after foul ball. I had to keep battling. He wasn’t giving in, and I wasn’t giving in, either. That was one of the few battles in my career when I won!*
I liked balls middle-away; that was my strength. So Mariano is throwing pitches middle-away, right into my wheelhouse. He hadn’t developed a cutter yet, or else he would have sawed me off, being I was a left-handed hitter. Like I said, every pitch was away, and I kept fouling them off. Finally, I catch up to one away, and slap it over third base and down the left-field line. Right out of the [batter’s] box I’m thinking double, that the left fielder is going to sprint over to the [foul] line, and come up throwing. But the ball hit the corner of the wall and ricocheted like a shot toward the left-center field gap.
As I’m sprinting to second base, I pick up the third base coach, and he’s waving for me to come on. I wasn’t expecting him to keep waving me on, but I was flying, and I was pumped to go for three bases. I loved hitting triples, because I could run. My speed is the only reason I made it to pro baseball. After I hit the second base bag, I pick up my coach again, and he was waving me the whole time, so I just kept running. The last thing I remember is rounding second and heading for third. From there, it’s like a blur. I remember sliding into home and being safe, but from second on, it was a blur. I don’t even know if there was a play at the plate, I just slid, and then ran into the dugout.
Obviously, I remember it like it was yesterday so it ranks up there very highly in my career. In hindsight, people say: “Dang, you hit an inside-the-park home run off Mariano Rivera, the most dominating closer in the game.”
I gladly say: “Yes, I did.”
But I don’t have to tell people the whole story. They don’t have to know that it was his first year and he wasn’t throwing a cutter yet. As a hitter, that’s not how I tell it!
Mike Humphreys
Outfield
Playing Career
New York Yankees from 1991 to 1993
Career Statistics
54 games, 15 hits, 1 home run, 9 runs batted in, .176 batting average, .283 on-base percentage, .259 slugging percentage
Mo Cred
Humphreys and Rivera were minor league teammates with the Columbus Clippers in 1994.
I WAS IN TRIPLE A Columbus the whole year in 1994. What’s funny is I don’t remember ever
playing a game with Mariano at all. I wish I could remember playing with a future Hall of Famer. I would love to see box scores; maybe that would jar my memory.*
I don’t understand it. I was looking at Mariano’s stats, and it wasn’t like he only pitched one game, he pitched six games [for Columbus] that year. I’ve got no recollection of any of that. I would love to see who he pitched against; I want something to jar my brain.**
My memories of Mariano are from spring training. For three straight years I went to spring training and he always seemed to be coming off injury or having to rehab from an arm problem. I don’t remember him pitching in any spring training games, because he was hurt or had been hurt. At the time you’re thinking, why do they keep this guy around? Now we know!
He’s never been one that’s out front or draws attention to himself. The quiet Mariano that everybody knows, that was the type of guy I remember. He wasn’t loud in the locker room or anything like that. I just don’t remember seeing him out on the field. Obviously, the Yankees saw something in Mariano and thank goodness they did.
That was also the year [1994] that Derek Jeter was coming up. He went through Single A, Double A, and Triple A that year and had incredible stats. We were roommates. It’s always been neat to watch him play, and be able to say, “yeah, that was my roommate in spring training in ’94.”
I remember playing with Jeter, and I played many years with Bernie Williams.*
That ’94 Columbus team was a special group—players like Jeter, Williams, [Andy] Pettitte, [Jorge] Posada. You knew that core was going to be together for a long time and be successful. I remember playing with those guys and I enjoyed watching them play on TV. I watch Mariano on TV, but I don’t have memories of playing with Mariano.
Facing Mariano Rivera Page 10
