I got this MLB video clip and embedded it here for you that missed it last night….
It’s the complete Mariano Rivera tribute from last night…
Watch it and enjoy… Joe D.
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As Neil Diamond completed his performance of “Sweet Caroline” in remembrance of the Boston Marathon bombing victims, the real show of the eight inning was brewing below the Shea Bridge. For the final time, he was preparing to take the jog across the baseball field in the mid-summer classic. As he makes for the gate, the familiar building intro of his theme song echoed throughout the bowels of Citi Field. The chicken-wire gate swings open, a crowd of baseball’s luckiest 45,186 fans in attendance rise to their feet. He gazes out to the bright lights, his final chapter in the mid-year match of the game’s greatest is about to be written. He takes a deep breath, looks up from the dark brim of his cap, and with a short hop and a kick is off; Mariano Rivera is in the game.
For the next four minutes following his emergence from the bullpen gate in right, the greatest closer of all time was honored in the most basic, yet impeccable of fashion. While his fight song “Enter Sandman” blared, the All-Stars vanished. Every player and coach retreated to the dugout, making way for Rivera to have his moment. There was no tribute video or owners conceding the World Series, just baseball’s finest honoring the cream of the crop.
As the crowd and the rosters of both leagues remained on their feet in tribute to Rivera, all he could do is smile. Appearing to be holding back tears, the Yankee closer began warming up once his catcher took the field. Then, Mariano Rivera did what he does best; make the opposition look silly, retiring the side on 16 pitches, earning MVP honors and a new Corvette. When given the mic by Erin Andrews and asked to give a few words, the humble Rivera used his moment in the spotlight to thank those who had brought him to where he is today, never forgetting where he came from and what makes all of it possible.
Continuing to to prove why Rivera is one of the great gentlemen of the sport, he took the opportunity in his post-game interview to talk about what an honor it is to be the final bearer of Jackie Robinson‘s number 42 in Major League Baseball.
It couldn’t have been more fitting that a man who has made an entire career out of just throwing one common pitch, was honored by a very simple gesture, with fantastic results.
