Mariano Rivera has been very good for a very long time
Kevin Kennedy offered an interesting anecdote Monday on his daily Sirius XM baseball show regarding being in the opposing dugout as the Red Sox' manager one day early in Mariano Rivera's career.
(Derek Jeter makes a guest appearance in it.)
Click below for that, via Sirius XM.
Kennedy: “I’ll never forget this as long as I live; it’s a true story: We’re in New York, the old Yankee Stadium, Rivera comes in and he just blows it by Mo Vaughn, [Jose] Canseco, Reggie Jefferson, whoever. He went through us in the seventh and eighth inning like he was facing little leaguers. And you’re talking about the [1995 AL] MVP [in Vaughn].
"I’ll never forget after the eighth inning, I think he struck out Mo, and I saw Derek [Jeter] cover his glove over his mouth and Rivera happened to get the ball and look at him, and Derek just kind of shook his head and laughed. Now, he covered his mouth out of respect because he wasn’t laughing at the Red Sox. He was laughing like, ‘I can’t believe how good this guy is, how dominant this guy is. I’m glad I’m not facing him.’
"It was a respectful thing. I knew what Derek was doing. It wasn’t about, ‘Oh, we’ve got you guys.’ It wasn’t about that. I’ll never forget that, watching that from the visiting dugout, and I’m thinking the same thing on the bench.
"Now, all these years later, did I know Rivera would have 500 saves and be able to do this for, you know, 15 years in a row? No, but I did know there was something special we were watching that year in ’96.”
E-mail
Facebook
Digg
Delicious
Comments (3)
Thanks to that clown Joe Morgan, due diligence must be completed when an old-timer starts telling stories of yesteryear. Kennedy's tale -- unlike Morgan's recent accounts on Sunday Night Baseball -- is at least plausible.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1996/B09220NYA1996.htm
Kevin Kennedy never met a good story that he wasn't a part of...You would have thought that he was a 20 year vet of MLB. My question is...How does Kennedy really know what Jeter is thinking, especially given the fact that at that point (1996) when few knew much yet about Jeter's character?
Someone with plenty of time on their hands should look up this particular game and see if, in fact, Mo Rivera was as dominate as Kennedy says. More than likely KK was too busy watching tail in the stands than noticing Jeter's smirk out at shortstop!
>>Someone with plenty of time on their hands should look up this particular game and see if, in fact, Mo Rivera was as dominate as Kennedy says. >>
Uhh, Mark, Iook at the link to the box score and play-by-play posted above.