Mariano Rivera

Mariano Rivera

Mariano Rivera is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball pitcher. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Rivera was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its class of 2019 in his first year of eligibility. He was the first player ever to be elected unanimously by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

About Mariano Rivera in brief

Summary Mariano RiveraMariano Rivera is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball pitcher. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Rivera was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its class of 2019 in his first year of eligibility. He was the first player ever to be elected unanimously by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Rivera primarily threw a sharp-moving, mid-90s mile-per-hour cut fastball that frequently broke hitters’ bats and earned a reputation as one of the league’s toughest pitches to hit. In 2013, the Yankees retired his uniform number 42; he was the last major league player to wear the number full-time, following its league-wide retirement in honor of Jackie Robinson. For his philanthropy, Rivera received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, in September 2019. He has been involved in charitable causes and the religious community through the Mariano Rivera Foundation. His career 2. 21ERA and 1. 00 WHIP are the lowest in the live-ball era among qualified pitchers. He is a 13-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, he is MLB’s career leader in saves and games finished. Rivera won five American League Rolaids Relief Man Awards and three Delivery Man of the Year Awards, and he finished in the top three in voting for the AL Cy Young Award four times. Fellow players credit him with popularizing the cut fastball across the major leagues.

Rivera is known for his precise control, smooth pitching motion, and composure on the field. He dropped out in ninth grade to learn the fishing trade by working on a commercial boat captained by his father. He spent three years learning the catching trade, saving money in hopes of opening an automobile repair shop. In 1988, Rivera was lashed by an uncle’s sardines, called the ‘Sardines’ Rivera was more interested in becoming a mechanic, who worked six-day weeks, round-the-clock, year round, on his father’s boat. Rivera has one older sister, Delia, and two younger brothers, Alvaro and Giraldo. As a young man, Rivera played soccer and baseball with his friends on the beach during low tide. Soccer was his favorite sport, and Pelé his favorite athlete. For baseball games, they substituted cardboard milk cartons for gloves and tree branches for bats, and they fashioned balls by taping wads of shredded fishing nets. Rivera said that he stayed out of trouble, although he “was hanging with the wrong people\”. He attended Escuela Victor Pablo Sanchez for elementary school, but he dropped out of secondary school for his secondary education for his high school education. In 2014, MLB named its AL Reliever of the year Award in Rivera’s honor. He was named the 1999 World Series Most Valuable Player and the 2003 AL Championship Series MVP. He holds several postseason records, including lowest earned run average and most saves.