The last man to wear #42 was the first unanimous choice to enter the HOF!
I am not one to get into too many HOF discussions, because they tend to go the lowest common denominator. My opinion is that the HOF has too many people (Harold Baines...really?) I am just waiting for the next person to say, well Harold Baines got in so shouldn't so and so get in? Anyway, that is the other spectrum and Rivera deserves to be in. I do get the argument about a reliever not making as much impact as a starter or an everyday player, however, a closer gets in during high leverage situations and never faces a crappy hitter. Facing the better teams in the postseason, Rivera was spectacular with an 8-1 record to go along with a 0.70 ERA in 96 appearances and 141 innings. That is insane, especially when you think about if he came into a postseason game and allowed 20 straight runs without getting an out, his ERA would still be below 2! Coincidentally, Rivera has 42 postseason saves! BTW, 14 of those were 2 inning saves and that is more saves than all other relievers combined in the postseason while he was active.
There are so many great stats and I am sure if you are reading this you probably have many of your own favorites. The Genius Maker deserves his name and his unanimous vote! Hats off to you Mo!
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Wow, a unanimous vote. There's no doubt he deserved it, but there's always a writer or two who believes that no one should receive a 100% vote on the first ballot and casts a negative vote just to make sure. No one dared do it this time, and I love it.
ReplyDeleteWho cares if he's a reliever? He is so head and shoulders above any other reliever it's not funny. You cannot make an argument for anyone else without looking like a total fool. Mariano's cutter should be in the Hall too, as the first pitch ever to be voted in. :-)
We all know how special Mariano was. It's so nice to have the voters for the Hall recognize it too. I was in a bar playing music tonight, and when the news came on the TV, I wasn't the only Yankee fan with tears of joy in my eyes. Especially when they played the highlight of Jeter and Pettitte coming to the mound to take Mariano our from his last game--that gets me every time. It was a privilege, Mariano.
Oh, and my favorite stat is that, in those 141 post season innings, he only let up 2 home runs. I doubt that there is anyone in baseball with over 100 innings pitched who has a home run rate even twice as low as that, regular or post season. Mariano's regular season stats were about 1 HR every 18 innings, and that is very, very good. 1 HR every 70 innings is absolutely insane. Without the post season numbers, he's still the greatest closer of all time, with them, and well, 100% first ballot and then some.
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