[SouthPaw]

By Landon Evanson

By now most of you have heard the rumblings about Mariano Rivera's impending free-agency following this season and how the Yankees will not hold any particular advantages over other clubs for his services should it come to that. Let me see if I can sift through all of this to get to the nuts and bolts--Mariano Rivera suggests that unless the Yankees give him the respect he deserves he could walk?

(Nodding my head) Okay, I can see that.

The New York Yankees, with all their riches, are suddenly going to let the greatest closer in the history of baseball bolt after twelve years and four championships? As Larry Bird once said, "You've got a better chance of seein' God."

Look, baseball fans have been in awe of Rivera since he took over as the closer for the pinstriper's in the late 90s but sometimes it takes something like Mo's comments to realize just how fantastic an athlete someone has truly been. So, I thought I'd take a quick peek into Mo's career before he decides to hang 'em up unlike I did with Barry Sanders once upon a time. Thanksgiving Day still doesn't feel the same. And without Rivera, neither will October. My fall's will be ruined.

Take a look at the numbers--Rivera is 19 games over .500 (59-40) with 413 saves that have him ranked third on the all-time list (Hoffman and Lee Smith). His career ERA is a miniscule 2.29 and seven times--seven times--his season earned run's have registered below two-per-nine. Staggering. And that's just the regular season.

The true legend of Mariano Rivera has been built in October. Mo has gone 8-1 with 34 saves in the playoffs and World Series with a nearly invisible ERA--0.80. One is hard pressed to dig up a superlative worthy of Rivera's brilliance. 73 games, nearly half a season's worth of post-season appearances, and Rivera has raised his game every time out--remarkable considering his regular season career alone is Hall worthy.

Forget Game 7 in 2001, the time the Twins got to him in '04, and Boston's execution throughout the ALCS later that year--Rivera has been as close to automatic as a mere mortal can be. As Buster Olney wrote in the June 2004 issue of New York Magazine, "A summer afternoon of baseball ought to be nothing if not relaxing, and no other player can instill calm in his team's fans as reliably as Mariano Rivera."

For as much as baseball fans despise Steinbrenner's "Evil Empire", none could honestly dispute such a claim. Whether your club is from Boston, Minnesota, or Oakland, when they trail late and you watch as Joe Torre summons "The Sandman" from the bullpen, that nauseatious feeling in the pit of your stomach is not unique--it's the sensation all fans have felt from one time or another--the knowledge that your team is going to lose. Only fans of the Bronx Bombers have been exempt of that feeling for more than a decade.

Which brings us, once again, to the Yankees organization. True, they've won 26 championships and have lost more World Series (13) than any other team has won (St. Louis-10), but they're like professional poker player and ten-time World Series Of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth--everyone hates 'em but they're good for the game.

And Rivera in the 9th (and sometimes 8th) is good for the game. Super Mariano is a true Yankee, along with Jeter, Mattingly, Munson, Mantle, Berra, Joe D, Iron Horse, and the Babe before him--the picture of player perfection that would not look right in any other uniform.

Whether the two sides can work out a contract before the end of spring training or throughout this coming season matters not, because should this situation reach the off-season unresolved, no team on earth will outbid New York. George Steinbrenner will not let the key catalyst to his team's phenomenal success since 1995 walk, no matter the price. The Boss knows it, Brian Cashman knows it, Rivera knows it, and deep down, you know it, too.

So, if by some strange chance any of you out there were fantasizing about Rivera closing for Boston come this time next spring or cross town at Shea? Face reality, the Yankees are the "Evil Empire"--they have finances and a history rivaled by none, so, ask yourself--Could it be possible that the Emperor would stand idly by while Vader turned his back on the dark side?