mariano rivera

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — New York Yankees reliever David Robertson is not overanalyzing his role as Mariano Rivera's replacement. Robertson is moving from an eighth-inning setup man to closer following Rivera's retirement. He says "Throwing the eighth or ninth inning, you've still got to get three outs...

Former Yankees closer (that sounds weird) Mariano Rivera is on the sidelines tonight at the Giants game. Hopefully the greatest 9th inning pitcher of all-time can help motivate the G-Men to get their first win of the season against the Vikings...

Who says there's no crying in baseball?

Mariano Rivera's great career is coming to an end. The Yankees are not likely to make the playoffs this season, which means Mo will hang up his cleats at the end of September.

Mariano Rivera can even make some of the worst moments in sports look good. That's what he did in 2002, when he breezed through the National League All-Star team in the ninth inning of the All-Star Game, the game that would go down in infamy as the game that ended in a tie.

Before becoming the greatest closer of all time and "The Hammer Of God," Mariano Rivera was a starter looking to lock teams down at the beginning of games. The number 30 moment of our countdown comes from 1995, when he saw his first success as a Major League starter, getting his first win against the Oakland Athletics.

Mariano Rivera has used his legendary cut fastball to break a lot of bats during his career, most of which are presumably discarded like other useless pieces of wood. The Minnesota Twins, however, decided to turn some of those broken bats into a gift for Rivera during this season's farewell tour, making him a rocking chair out of them. The "Chair Of Broken Dreams" is the number 31 moment

Mariano Rivera is one of the faces of New York sports, which makes it weird to think that he spent some time playing in the Albany area before getting his break in the Major Leagues. However, he did just that as a member of the Albany-Colonie Yankees in the number 32 moment of our countdown.

Mariano Rivera was in the middle of his first season as a full time closer in 1997 and he was doing well enough to warrant an appearance in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cleveland. It was his first All-Star Game appearance, his first All-Star Game save, and it is the number 33 moment of our countdown.

Mariano Rivera is one of the faces of the New York Yankees, and has been since the 1990s. But that may have never been the case if he hadn't been undrafted in the 1992 Major League Baseball expansion draft, the number 34 moment of our countdown.

There aren't many hitters that have come through Major League Baseball in Mariano Rivera's career that can be considered truly fearsome. Barry Bonds, however, was one of them. Despite his alleged dealings with performance enhancing drugs over the course of his career, Bonds was still one of the best hitters of all time, and the game's home run king. Whether you like him or not, his matchup with Ma

In life, whether you are the CEO of a big corporation, a famous actor, or a star athlete, you have to get your start somewhere. That is the focus of moment number 37 of our 42 For 42 countdown, when Mariano Rivera got his start in baseball by signing his first contract all the way back in 1990.