Almost a week has passed since the news of Mariano Rivera’s injury broke and I still can’t get used to hearing the words, “Mo is out for the season with a torn ACL”...read HERE. That sentence is basically written in a foreign language to me, this has never happened for as long as I have been alive. I’m still processing, my brain understands that this year I won’t see Mo in the bullpen, but my heart doesn’t. My brain also knows that I won’t be hearing “Enter Sandman” rock Yankee stadium in the 9th inning….at least, not this season.
After the accident, the next day I walked into work, and it felt like Mo was the most popular person on the planet because everyone knew…everyone from rival baseball fans to the lacrosse player that sits a few desks away from me. I heard everything from, “I’m sorry to hear that about Mariano” to of course…”Why on earth is your 42 year old closer in the outfield chasing down fly balls? That is not smart.” To the last remark I wanted to say, “clearly…you don’t know Mo,” but I didn’t. Sure, some may call that risky but these days crossing the street is risky….but we still do it. Mo loves to chase down fly balls, it’s what he does. It is what we have seen him do for years, to us it is normal and as much as he loves doing it we love watching him do it. Then again, I have loved watching everything he has done for years now and I can’t be mad at Mo for this, and I hope no other Yankee fan is either. As demanding as this sport is, he has been available for us for 17 seasons now, not many other players can share this achievement. He isn’t a superhero, even though we all think he is because he comes in and saves games for us when we need him the most. Now I feel like Mo needs us. He already feels like he let his team down and if I could tell him that neither his team nor his fans feel that way I would.
It felt good to hear Mo speak out and say that he would be back. I grew up with a special group of athletes that we call the Core Four, and if I only knew back then what I know now I would stop and appreciate how rare and special this is. It is unlikely that any sports team will ever have a group of athletes like this again. As I have grown older I have watched them win it all together and then start to separate and start new journeys in their lives. I cried when Andy Pettitte retired, and I cried when Jorge Posada left us last year but the one thing that comforted me was that they both left on their own terms. Before Mo said that he would come back I was even more emotional because the uncertainty of everything upset me. If he wasn’t able to come back and was forced to retire that just wouldn’t be fair. Mo has been a class act and he deserves a better fate. As hard as it is to accept that Mo won’t be on the mound this season, I have some relief knowing that he will be back…Mo doesn’t give up so easily and neither will this team. We continue to fight, but we also look forward to when Mo returns.
Until Mo comes back the closer duties are in the hands of a very capable David Robertson, and you can be sure that Mo is standing behind him. It won’t feel the same without Metallica energizing the fans this season, but I look at this as a brief hiatus. We can still win it all this season and we will make Mo proud when we do and as Mo has said before, “someone will pay” and when he comes back….you can bet on it.
--Jeana Bellezza --BYB Writer and Editor
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