Mo: Perfect

October, 2015. Mt Kisco, NY.

Mariano Rivera is a member of the baseball Hall of Fame tonight.

Shocking, I know.

He was the first player to ever receive a unanimous induction from the writers (special circumstances like Lou Gehrig in 1939 aside).

He'll be joined by Edgar Martinez, Roy Halladay, and his former teammate Mike Mussina, as well as Lee Smith and Harold Baines.

If you know anything about Mo, then you know how handled this.

He praised God. He praised his family. He praised his teammates and the New York Yankees organization.

He thanked the writers and the fans.

It was all about the praise for everyone but him, though you never doubted his confidence.

He'll remain as humble as ever.

Mariano Rivera,  a product of Panama, appeared on the scene in 1995. I remember watching him on the Fourth of July, as he allowed two hits and struck out 11 Chicago White Sox over eight innings to win, 4-1.

By the '95 playoffs -- the Bombers' first appearance since 1981 -- Mo worked 5.1 innings of relief in the five game loss to Seattle. I remember being nervous, but impressed, at how he handled the high wire act of that series.

By 1996, he was the man, as the dominant eighth inning setup man (as for closer John Wetteland, who's in the news for all the wrong reasons, I'm sickened by the charges. Innocent until proven guilt, of course, but still. Sickening.).

Wetteland was gone after '96, and Mo was now the closer. Things went well until the ALDS, when Sandy Alomar Jr. launched a home run to right in the eighth inning of Game 4. The Yankees lost the series in five.

Closers need to have short memories. Mo had that to ponder all winter. Yet '98 turned out just fine.

And '99.

And 2000.

As for 2001 (just as in 2004), well, things happen. Tip your hat to the Diamondbacks who, frankly, were better than the Yankees that year (despite the Bombers being an inning away from winning the World Series). The Red Sox got to Mo in 2004.

Again, it happens. George Brett took Goose Gossage deep in the 1980 ALCS, and Kirk Gibson took the year that been so improbable and did the impossible by homering off of Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 World Series.

He handled it with grace and humor, his faith always sitting in the forefront.

He set the saves record eventually (yes, I know it's a flawed stat).

He otherwise dominated, even recording 44 saves in his last season.

You want good character? Find me a bad thing about Mariano Rivera.

He checks literally every box that a Hall of Famer should.

He is universally loved in and out of baseball.

He'll probably be back next year when Derek Jeter joins him.

He also thinks the '98 Yankees would beat anybody. Just saying.

Welcome to Cooperstown, Mo. I can't wait to see your plaque with my own eyes.

As you probably know, I had the profound pleasure of interviewing him myself back in 2015 on the HAN Network.



I recorded Doubleheader tonight to break down all of the Hall of Fame news and notes.