Torii Hunter
Outfield
Playing Career
Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Angels, and Detroit Tigers since 1997
Career Statistics
2,091 games, 2,170 hits, 314 home runs, 1,227 runs batted in, .279 batting average, .335 on-base percentage, .466 slugging percentage
Torii Hunter
Year Date Result
2000 9/3 Walk
2001 5/10 Strikeout (Swinging)
2002 5/17 Strikeout (Swinging)
2003 (Postseason) 10/2 Strikeout (Swinging)
10/4 Ground out
2004 9/29 Strikeout (Looking)
2005 6/3 Single
7/28 Strikeout (Swinging)
2006 4/15 Strikeout (Looking)
2008 8/1 Single (1 RBI)
2009 4/30 Single
9/23 Strikeout (Swinging)
Postseason 10/16 Walk
10/17 Strikeout (Looking)
10/19 Fielder’s choice
10/25 Ground out
2010 4/13 Strikeout (Swinging)
2011 6/5 Ground out
8/9 Ground out
2013 4/7 Strikeout (Swinging)
8/9 Ground out
Torii Hunter facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)
3-for-14, 0 extra-base hits, 1 run batted in, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts, .214 batting average, .267 on-base percentage, .214 slugging percentage
Mo Cred
Hunter is a five-time All-Star and nine-time Gold Glove Award winner.
MY FIRST HIT [facing Mariano Rivera] was a single to center at Yankee Stadium when I was with the Twins. I got a couple of base hits [off Rivera] with the Angels, but I haven’t had much luck lately. He got me to end the game earlier this year.*
The first time he threw me two-seamers instead of cutters was in the 2009 postseason. He blew my bat up [with a two-seamer], and I said to myself, “He’s not going to do that again.”
But I faced him again—and he blew me up again.*
Even now, hitters hate facing him. When you have a pitcher and hitters talk about him like he’s a ghost or a monster that they are afraid to see, that’s impressive. I definitely include him as one of the best pitchers of all time.
We spent time together [at charity events] during the All-Star Game in New York [in 2008]. That was the longest conversation I had with him away from the field. He’s just a good dude. He talked about his family. His wife was there. He just loves the right stuff. You’ve got to love a guy like that. Once you get to know Mariano, you respect him as a person more than as a player.
He’s such a competitor, and such a good player; you’d think he’d have an attitude. But he’s so down to earth. He shook everyone’s hand. He had a conversation with everybody. He wasn’t standoffish. That opened my eyes that this is a great man. He treats all people the same. He didn’t have a bodyguard. He’s genuine. He isn’t a fake—this is who he is.
That moment [for Rivera at the 2013 All-Star Game] was powerful. For the young players to see a guy who started off in the major leagues when he was 20-something years old and now he’s 40-plus, tipping his cap at his last All-Star Game in the last year of his career, everybody’s going to get that. The young guys who look at that say: “Man, I want to do that one day.”
It motivates all the young guys—it motivates me and I’ve got a couple years left [to play]. I’m going to be [in that position] one day so for me it was very special. I hope that I can go out like that.
He’s been one of the best in the game, so he deserves it. I’ve seen this guy do some damage in this game. For me as an athlete, a guy that’s been playing 17 seasons, I’ve got to tell you, his craft is unbelievable. I respect the craft. Even though he broke all my bats, he killed me. My [best] bats are all gone but I still admire than man.
Raul Ibanez
Left field
Playing Career
Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Angels since 1996
Career Statistics
2,071 games, 1,993 hits, 300 home runs, 1,181 runs batted in, .276 batting average, .338 on-base percentage, .471 slugging percentage
Raul Ibanez facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)
2-for-16, 0 extra-base hits, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts, .125 batting average, .300 on-base percentage, .125 slugging percentage
Mo Cred
Ibanez hit two doubles off Rivera as a member of the Phillies in the 2009 World Series.
THAT WORLD SERIES was my best memory and my worst memory, too. It was tough watching the Yankees celebrate. It felt so close you could touch it. Not to be able to walk away with that victory for the city [of Philadelphia] and for the [Phillies] organization was one of the more difficult times in my career.
When you play this game in your backyard as a kid, nobody is saying: “5-4 game, bases loaded and it’s April.”
Raul Ibanez
Year Date Result
1999 8/6 Ground out
8/7 Fielder’s choice
8/29 Pop out
2000 4/8 Fly out
8/30 Ground out
Postseason 10/11 Ground out
10/13 Line out
10/17 Fly out
2001 4/2 Walk
4/11 Strikeout (Looking)
2003 8/20 Single
2004 5/15 Pop out
8/14 Fielder’s choice
2005 5/9 Ground out
5/16 Walk
8/29 Strikeout (Swinging)
8/31 Fly out
2007 9/5 Strikeout (Swinging)
2008 5/2 Strikeout (Looking)
5/25 Strikeout (Swinging)
2009 5/24 Single
Postseason 10/29 Double
11/4 Double
2013 6/8 Walk
6/9 Walk
You’re always envisioning being a part of the last team standing, the one that’s on the pitcher’s mound, celebrating that final victory. That’s why you play the game. To have that opportunity is a blessing.
Mo’s broken a lot of my bats. He’s broken a lot of everyone’s bats. He keeps the bat companies in business. The approach, I think, has to be to hit the ball on the barrel. He’s obviously missed a lot of barrels in his career. I don’t know how many people have figured him out. I don’t think many people have figured him out at all.
Not just is he the greatest closer ever, he’s one of the greatest human beings I’ve had the privilege of knowing. He’s humble. He’s a fierce competitor. He’s the kind of man I would want my own son to grow up and be like, and that’s the highest compliment I can give a person.
A few years ago, when I was with the Phillies, we played a spring training game in Tampa against the Yankees. After the game, my son [R.J.] wanted to meet Rivera, but Mo was already in his car and getting ready to leave the ballpark.
I said, “Mariano, would you say hello to my son?”
Mo got out of the car and called for my son to come out of my car. My son shook his hand, and Mo said, “Where’s the camera? Who has the camera?”
My wife scrambled to grab her camera phone. She took a picture that my son cherishes. That’s just a great gesture for a superstar to do that. It made a huge impact on my son and my own life. My son still has the picture. He’s very proud of it.
Reed Johnson
Outfield
Playing Career
Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Atlanta Braves since 2003
Career Statistics
1,190 games, 965 hits, 63 home runs, 380 runs batted in, .282 batting average, .339 on-base percentage, .409 slugging percentage
Reed Johnson facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)
2-for-11, 1 extra-base hit, 1 home run, 2 runs batted in, 4 strikeouts, .182 batting average, .182 on-base percentage, .455 slugging percentage
Mo Cred
Johnson hit a home run off Rivera on June 18, 2011.
Reed Johnson
Year Date Result
2003 7/11 Strikeou
t (Swinging)
2004 7/26 Ground out
2005 8/23 Single (1 RBI)
9/25 Strikeout (Swinging)
2006 7/20 Line out
7/22 Pop out
2007 7/18 Fielder’s choice
9/21 Fly out
9/22 Strikeout (Swinging)
2010 6/27 Strikeout (Swinging)
2011 6/18 Home run (1 RBI)
I HIT A HOME run off Mariano Rivera when I was with the Cubs in 2011. I was leading off the ninth inning, we’re down two runs; I was trying to get on base to start a rally. I hit a line drive and I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a home run. I knew it had a shot to go out. I was hustling around first base when [the ball] went over the wall. I knew I’d done something—in Wrigley Field, against the Yankees, with Mariano Rivera pitching. The crowd was going crazy; it was a special memory. At the time, in the moment, I didn’t hear the crowd. After the game, I watched a replay and listened to the audio. Of course, Mariano ended up doing what he does best, which is finishing the inning and collecting another save.*
He always gets ahead of me by throwing cutters middle-away and then he tries to mix it up by going inside with front-door cutters. There were two strikes on me, and then I fouled off two quality pitches to stay in the at-bat. The first was a fastball up in the zone. On the next pitch, I figured he might run one away from me; he did, and I fouled it off, too. I had a feeling he was going to try to get me [out] with a front-door cutter. He had gotten me on that pitch a few times before. Baseball is about trying to recall what guys have done in the past to get you out. When it’s a pitcher like Mariano, the best closer ever, you’re not going to forget [your at-bats against him]. Some guys, like [Toronto teammate] Carlos Delgado, keep a book on pitchers.**
Once I got two strikes on me, I was guarding against the front door cutter, the one he starts at your front hip if you’re a righty batter. Most times [the right-handed hitter] will give up on that pitch. You have to mentally force yourself to trust the pitch is going to come back over the inside part of the plate. That’s a tough plan, but if you can follow through, that’s your only shot [to succeed against Rivera]. I was looking for an inside cutter, and I got exactly what I was looking for.
I have the video of that home run on my iPad. At the end of the year, the team will give you a video of all your best hits from that season, so you can look back and see what you were doing right, mechanically. So that video is always going to be there, and the home run is something that I’ll remember. I also had a go-ahead base hit off him in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium when I was playing for Toronto, but we ended up losing that game. Those two hits are the only at-bats I remember; you want to forget everything else.*
Adam Jones
Center field
Playing Career
Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles since 2006
Career Statistics
946 games, 988 hits, 140 home runs, 481 runs batted in, .279 batting average, .322 on-base percentage, .460 slugging percentage
Adam Jones facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)
3-for-11, 1 extra-base hit, 1 home run, 2 runs batted in, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, .273 batting average, .333 on-base percentage, .545 slugging percentage
Mo Cred
Jones hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning off Rivera, on July 7, 2013.
THAT WAS THE biggest hit I’ve ever had in my career, hands down, in terms of who it was hit against—Mariano—and that it was a game-winner. It surprised the hell out of me. I took the first pitch.
You can’t swing at the first pitch off him, that’s a bad idea, because you don’t know if he’s going in or out, and you’re going to guess wrong, and ground into a double play. I was taking to see how he’d work me. He threw a first pitch two-seam fastball inside [for strike one]. I said, “Okay, look inside.”
Adam Jones
Year Date Result
2008 4/20 Strikeout (Swinging)
5/20 Single
5/27 Strikeout (Swinging)
5/28 Strikeout (Swinging)
9/19 Ground out
2009 5/21 Ground out
2010 6/3 Strikeout (Swinging)
9/17 Pop out
2011 4/24 Walk
5/18 Single
2013 4/12 Fly out
7/7 Home run (2 RBI)
You have to pick a side of the plate against Mariano. The next pitch was in the same spot. I cleared my hips, I didn’t over-swing, and I put the barrel on the ball. I felt it leave my bat, and I’m thinking: “Get up; you better get up.”
When I saw the ball clear the fence, inside, I was as happy as a two-year-old that you give a sugar cane to. I showed no emotion rounding the bases, but I’m telling you, inside, if I could have showed emotion, I would have been jumping up and yelling like we just won the championship.*
I know he’s blown some saves this year, but it wasn’t like Mariano didn’t have it that day. What does that mean? Those words don’t even formulate together. That’s not even a sentence that you can write. That’s almost illegal in the game of baseball to write that Mariano didn’t have it that day. You always give credit to a hitter. It’s hard enough to hit a baseball. Like Ted Williams said: “You try to hit a round ball with a round bat and square it up.”
He’s still having a pretty damn good year. The only reason he’s retiring is because he hates to travel, not because he can’t do it anymore. He’s tired of all the travel. Traveling ain’t easy, man. You think it’s nice planes and fancy hotels, but it’s not all that. You’d rather have your own bed, not so many different hotel beds.
The first thing I think about when I hear that music, “Enter Sandman,” that song he comes out to, my thing is: “Does he even know that song? He doesn’t know that damn song! Mo ain’t going home and listening to Metallica!” You know when he comes in the game there’s a 99.9 percent chance the game is over. I can’t give it 100 percent because there’s always a chance, as you’ve seen, you never know how baseball works. But you’re facing the most dominating relief pitcher, arguably the most dominating pitcher, period, in the history of baseball. And he throws one pitch—the cutter—the same pitch every time, and you can’t hit it, because he can put it wherever he wants. That’s the crazy part.
I know I didn’t have success against him at the beginning, but who does? You say I started off one for eight [facing Rivera]. I didn’t know my numbers. He’s not an uncomfortable at-bat. He’s not going to have one slip out of his hand and come up and in. I felt I had good at-bats against him, just couldn’t do no damage. You say I’m two for my last three with a walk, including the homer? That’s legit. I’m getting more mature as a hitter. I’ve tried to have better at-bats, especially late in the game. I want to thrive in late-inning situations, because that’s the time in the game when I can help my team the most. When a closer comes in, I have to raise my level of play, especially when Mariano comes in. It’s not about raising your level; your level is already raised; your heart is pumping when you’re facing him.
Since Buck Showalter came along [as the Orioles’ manager] he’s helped me, and he’s helped everybody feel more confident. He never doubts his players. He gives you that extra vote of confidence that you’re going to get the job done. Since we know that as a team, we go up to the plate in any situation with the most confidence, because we feel our manager has our back, our fans have our back, so let’s go out there, give it our all, and get the job done.
After [hitting the home run off Rivera] I saw Buck kick his leg up, which was the funniest thing ever. We’ve played that [video] clip over and over. You don’t ever see Showalter show emotion. Even after the biggest hits, he’s stone faced. That’s Showalter. But he knew the situation, he knows baseball, and you don’t get many opportunities to get Mariano to blow a save, so that was unbelievable.
Mark Kotsay
Outfield
Playing Career
Florida Marlins, San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves, Boston Red So
x, and Chicago White Sox from 1997 to 2013
Career Statistics
1,914 games, 1,784 hits, 127 home runs, 720 runs batted in, .276 batting average, .332 on-base percentage, .404 slugging percentage
Mark Kotsay facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)
0-for-7, 2 strikeouts
Mo Cred
Kotsay was the final out of Rivera’s 290th career save.
I DO RECALL BEING rung up on a fastball off the plate away when I was playing with Oakland to make the last out of a game. The ball was far enough away for a hitter to say it’s a ball, and close enough for the pitcher to say it was a quality pitch.
The home plate umpire who rung me up was Bill Welke. The next day, I was running out to center field and I ran right by him and said: “That pitch was a ball.”
Umpires are really reluctant to say, “Yeah, you’re right.” But he said: “I was caught up in the moment.”
Mark Kotsay
Year Date Result
1998 6/6 Ground out
2004 4/29 Strikeout (Looking)
5/5 Fielder’s choice
8/4 Fly out
2005 5/6 Strikeout (Looking)
2006 6/11 Ground out
2008 8/28 Fly out
So it does help to be Mariano Rivera.*
It’s definitely not fun trying to hit off him. In my 17 seasons as a major league baseball player the most difficult at-bats that I had were against Mariano. I don’t know if I ever got a ball to the outfield. When you don’t have success, you try to forget those at-bats. The only advice I ever gave a teammate [facing Rivera]: “Good luck.”
I tried everything. I tried a smaller bat; I tried moving up on the plate; moving up in the box; moving back in the box. He might have won the battle against me even before the at-bat! But you have to make adjustments to compete at our level; if you’re not willing to make changes you won’t stay around very long. I even tried moving while he was in the windup, coming towards the plate, to give him a different look, but nothing seemed to work. No matter how far you got off the plate the ball still found the inside portion of the label of your bat.
Facing Mariano Rivera Page 11
