The Closer: My Story is a 2014 book by Mariano Rivera with Wayne Coffey. Rivera is statistically the best pitcher in baseball history. The Closer: My Story is 279 pages long, and it was written in Panama, where he is from and resides. This book will undoubtedly interest baseball fans, and Rivera’s inspirational faith should appeal to everybody. The book is fascinating in that it shows how he discovered the best pitch in baseball history by accident while playing catch in the outfield. It is also fascinating how poor Rivera grew up and the heights of stardom to which he rose. Can you imagine a more rags-to-riches story?
The Closer: My Story Rags to Riches
It is absolutely amazing how Mariano Rivera was so poor as a child. In The Closer: My Story, he tells how he was raised a fisherman and used to fish for his meals. He spends the first two chapters on this experience. His tryout with the Yankees is also interesting. He tells that story in the book. He had to ride on two buses to get to his tryout in a dusty stadium in Panama. He threw only nine pitches. of warm-up and then threw three innings, striking out five in a harbinger of things to come. Despite the low pitch count, he threw well enough to earn a shot in the minor leagues.
Then, he talks about his minor-league experience. What is impressive about this otherwise humdrum experience is that he played with many famous and infamous players. In A ball, in Tampa, he played on the same team as Brien Taylor, the ill-fated lefthanded Yankees No. 1 overall draft pick. Rivera was then promoted to Greensboro. There, he played with Derek Jeter. There, the Yankees made him a starting pitcher, and his big-league debut came in 1991, filling in for Jimmy Key: he wore number 42. He lost 10-0. He and Jeter were sent back to the minor leagues.
He was called up for good in July of 1995. As he writes in The Closer: My Story, the Yankees moved him to the bullpen, where he would stay, throwing 1,096 games of relief. The Yankees almost traded him to the Seattle Mariners in 1996. They did not, thankfully. Rivera writes in his book that he became the Yankees closer in 1997 when John Wetteland left in free agency. The rest is history. Rivera put up some great numbers, which were the best ever.
Mariano Rivera Statistical Achievements
It would not make sense to prattle off Mariano Rivera’s career statistics. He was, by quantifiable metrics, the best pitcher ever. It is difficult to pick out in his book, but he had a 2.21 earned run average for his career and 652 saves, more than anyone. Earned Run Average plus, or ERA+, is Earned Run Average adjusted for the stadium the pitcher pitched in.
Rivera’s ERA+ is 205. He is No. 1 in this category by a wide margin. Somebody named Bill Foster is second with a score of 164. Jerry Reuss has a score of 100, which is average. Mariano Rivera won 4 World Series and was unanimously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019. He is the only player to be unanimously elected.
The Closer: My Story Wisdom
There is a lot of wisdom sprinkled throughout The Closer: My Story. But, the best piece of wisdom in the book is that one needs to forget about bad outings as soon as they happen and move on. This is always the way it is in life. We tend to dwell on our failures but must not. It is important for us to move on.
Conclusion
Mariano Rivera is, sadly, in the news. There are reports out of Panama that he and his wife Clara (who he writes extensively about in The Closer: My Story) covered up childhood sexual abuse. On Thursday, January 23, the Riveras’ lawyer, Joseph A. Ruta, released a statement which, per the NY Post, read, “Mariano and Clara Rivera do not tolerate child abuse of any kind and allegations that they knew about or failed to act on reports of child abuse are completely false. The very first time they heard about these allegations was nearly four years after the alleged incident.” If true, the allegations would be heartbreaking.
