There's nothing that's left to be said about Mariano Rivera that hasn't been said. He's taken an incredible physical talent and turned it into an art. He's done something that most teams would be tickled to have a guy do for three years and done it for 16. He has done it better than anyone who ever did it has done it before, and in all likelihood, better than anyone who will follow him, at least for a very, very long time.
But let's put that aside.
What's important with an artist isn't the fact of the art. It's not output. It's not the number of paintings Picasso finished, or the sheer volume of work Mozart completed. Numbers don't tell the story with true artists, and that's what Rivera is.
It's style.
Mariano Rivera is quite possibly the greatest stylist in the history of baseball. He has performed at a high level for an impossibly long time, at an impossibly advanced age now (for baseball--in life terms, he's a kid) and he has the statistics to prove it. But it's the WAY he's done it that sets him apart from everyone else.
Rivera used to be able to blow batters away. He could throw that speedball by ya, make you look like a fool, boy. But what's interesting is that since he's lost a few miles per hour on his velocity, he hasn't lost a lick of effectiveness. He's still as good now as he was then, give or take a strikeout.
And he's dominated a sport--entirely, to the point that David Ortiz of the Red Sox, a team not noted for its kindness to the Yankees, would choose Rivera as the one player in baseball history he'd sign to be on a fantasy team. First.
But through all that, with the 602 saves and the 0.71 ERA in the postseason and the countless broken bats and the whole shmear, Rivera has never been a showboat on the mound. He doesn't do that ridiculous vulture face Papelbon does. He doesn't pump his fist and pretend to have a heart attack the way Joba Chamberlain does. He never shows up the opposition. He doesn't make them look foolish.
He just beats them. Almost every time.
Consider this, and I think it's no small point: The greatest players in the sport have their detractors. Babe Ruth? The called shot was a way of showing up the opponent. They didn't care for it. Ty Cobb? EVERYBODY hated him, even his own teammates. Joe DiMaggio? Some teammates were not huge fans; he treated Mickey Mantle very badly.
Mariano Rivera? Try to find someone in the sport who will be willing to say something--anything--negative about him. Go ahead. Try.
Other pitchers will ask how he throws his trademark cutter, and Rivera will patiently show them. None of them can do it the way he does, anyhow. Watch him in the middle innings, and he's out in the bullpen, invariably talking to one of the younger pitchers, imparting advice. It's not talked about, but it seems obvious that David Robertson learned a bit from Rivera during those talks. Chamberlain, too. A good number of others.
Position players will sometimes hear from Rivera when they're not performing up to expectations. Not in a scolding way; Rivera will let them know what's expected of them, and why it's important to the whole team that they improve. Asked about his massive individual accomplishments, and Rivera says, "I don't talk about myself. I'm a team player."
Maybe so. But teams are made up of individuals doing their jobs well. And there are few, if any, who do their job as well as Mariano Rivera.
That's his style.
No comments:
Post a Comment