With the announcement that Mariano Rivera became the first unanimous selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, anyone and everyone is telling their favorite Mo story. Former teammates, opponents, writers and athletes from other sports are all getting in the mix, as expected for a legend like Mariano, the greatest closer in MLB history. While each story is great, some are much better than others.
The best so far has come from Michael Young, a seven-time All-Star who spent the majority of his career with the Texas Rangers. From 2000-2012 Young played all over the infield in Texas, but most of his years came at shortstop after Alex Rodriguez went to the New York Yankees. Playing in the American League, Young saw plenty of Rivera in his career, including in the 2010 ALCS, which the Rangers won 4-2. Between 2001 and 2011, Young faced Rivera 24 times and had eight hits, only one of them extra bases, and three RBIs, per MLB.com. His career .333 average vs. Mo is as respectable as it gets.
On Wednesday, Young tweeted out his Mariano story, and it could help explain why he was able to get to him as many times as he did:
So basically, the Rangers had to cheat to get a hit off Mo. This explains a lot as they were notorious "Yankee-killers" for awhile there in the late 2000s. I'm still mad about that 2010 ALCS, which the Yankees had an epic comeback in Game 1 in Texas when they were down 5-1 and came back to win 6-5. They then proceeded to lose four of the next five. Letdown city. Anyway, let's watch some highlights of the GOAT and forget that ever happened:
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