Mariano Rivera torn ACL

[Small Town Guy]

Obviously it's in the baseball thread but figured he deserved his own.

Since moving to NYC in 2004, I've seen seven Yankees home games and Rivera got the save in every one of them. The music, the jog, the crowd - filled with Yankee fans I normally wouldn't be able to stomach - rising, the inevitable conclusion, such a cool moment. The first time I saw it and the last time. If he is able to come back, and wants to, it'd be quite the scene the first time those bullpen doors open again and No. 42 strolls out.

Jayson Nix, welcome to footnote history.

A-Rod's reaction will be replayed forever.

Rivera's press conference was gut-wrenching. Although at the same time, you do think that he'll be one guy who can handle his post-retirement life. But hopefully that's still not for a few more years.

 

[Tom Petty]

RIP, MR.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

****.

 

[Bubbler]

A shame. Class act. No-brainer Hall of Famer.

Oddly, Mariano Rivera blew a save in the the only game I attended at old Yankee Stadium.

 

[buckweaver]

Oddly, Mariano Rivera blew a save in the the only game I attended at old Yankee Stadium.

Same here. But then O'Neill and Justice hit back-to-back homers off D-Lowe (when he was a closer) to beat the Sox. Pretty awesome experience

Baseball got a lot less classy tonight. Very sad.

 

[Bubbler]

Oddly, Mariano Rivera blew a save in the the only game I attended at old Yankee Stadium.

Same here. But then O'Neill and Justice hit back-to-back homers off D-Lowe (when he was a closer) to beat the Sox. Pretty awesome experience

Baseball got a lot less classy tonight. Very sad.

KC's Jose Guillen went yard off of him in my trip. Someone named Yosuhiko Yabuta got the win for the Royals.

 

[wireguy]

Oddly, Mariano Rivera blew a save in the the only game I attended at old Yankee Stadium.

Same here. But then O'Neill and Justice hit back-to-back homers off D-Lowe (when he was a closer) to beat the Sox. Pretty awesome experience

Baseball got a lot less classy tonight. Very sad.

KC's Jose Guillen went yard off of him in my trip. Someone named Yosuhiko Yabuta got the win for the Royals.

I remember that game. It was June 9, 2008. Two days earlier he gave up a game-tying home run to David DeJesus but was the winning pitcher in a 12-11 game that Johnny Damon had six hits in.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

This is very bad, but if anyone can come back (not till 2013 of course), it's him. Greatest pitcher in Yankees history. A Yankee Sox fans never booed (too scared of him to do so).

 

[The Big Ragu]

Watching him talk was one of the hardest things to see. Class act. Best at what he did. Sorry it has to likely end that way.

 

[Steak Snabler]

If this is the end for Rivera, there have been very few Baseball Hall of Famers whose careers ended so suddenly:

1. Lou Gehrig (diagnosed with ALS)
2. Roberto Clemente (died in an offseason plane crash)
3. Roy Campanella (paralyzed in an offseason car accident)
4. Kirby Puckett (suddenly went blind in one eye during spring training)
5. Ed Delahanty (died in a drunken accident/suicide when he fell/jumped from a bridge at Niagara Falls)

That's about it. Nolan Ryan retired suddenly after tearing a ligament while pitching in September 1993, but he was going to retire at the end of that season anyway.

There were a few others, like Babe Ruth, Mike Schmidt and Sandy Koufax, who retired abruptly in midseason or in the offseason, but they probably could have continued had they chosen to.

Anybody I'm missing?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

 

[93Devil]

Honestly, I never wanted to see him turn into a 5.00 ERA closer, so there might be a silver lining in all of this.

 

[UPChip]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mariano Rivera drifted back to the outfield wall, just like he'd done in batting practice so many times before, baseball's greatest closer tracking down another fly ball with childlike joy.

---

Childlike joy? Come on. If this had happened to Jeter, would there have been North Korea-quality weeping from the press corps?

 

[TigerVols]

It's amazing that there's pro-quality video of MR blowing out his knee.

 

[TigerVols]

I wonder if it really is his end? After all, it's not like Tommy John surgery or something...hell, even I have recovered from ACL surgery in about a year. And although it was supposed to be his last season, that was a self-imposed deadline...and he was still pitching well, no?

So who's to say he won't be back on the hill next April or May?

 

[Hokie_pokie]

He'll be back. Even fat ****s like me are able to come back from ACLs and play basketball and tennis these days.

I'm sure it will be a significant psychological hurdle in the short term, but Mo is still getting people out. He'll work his ass off and come back so his final act in baseball isn't blowing out his knee and writhing in pain on the warning track in freaking Kansas City.

 

[93Devil]

A few big ifs here, but if Rivera can come back a save a few games in the Series this year and Jeter hits some crazy number like .360 this year, God help the sports world if the Yankees win the Series and those two things happen.

 

[Hokie_pokie]

I was watching a Yankees game the other day with my son, who's 14 and a huge baseball fan.

So Jeter comes up and the announcer mentions Jeter's career hit total, and my son says, "I think he's gonna play long enough to break Pete Rose's record."

My first thought: Could my son be Manky Jimy?

Nah, he's just 14 and still naively optimistic.

 

[Gehrig]

If this is the end for Rivera, there have been very few Baseball Hall of Famers whose careers ended so suddenly:

1. Lou Gehrig (diagnosed with ALS)
2. Roberto Clemente (died in an offseason plane crash)
3. Roy Campanella (paralyzed in an offseason car accident)
4. Kirby Puckett (suddenly went blind in one eye during spring training)
5. Ed Delahanty (died in a drunken accident/suicide when he fell/jumped from a bridge at Niagara Falls)

That's about it. Nolan Ryan retired suddenly after tearing a ligament while pitching in September 1993, but he was going to retire at the end of that season anyway.

There were a few others, like Babe Ruth, Mike Schmidt and Sandy Koufax, who retired abruptly in midseason or in the offseason, but they probably could have continued had they chosen to.

Anybody I'm missing?

-Ralph Kiner had to retire at age 32 because of a back injury.

-Mickey Cochrane never played again after he was almost killed when he was beaned by Bump Hadley.

 

[TigerVols]

Nick Adenhart pitched a helluva game, once.