Rivera joins Yankees to start stellar career
He was a 20-year-old fringe prospect from Panama, and on Feb. 17, 1990, Mariano Rivera received a $3,000 bonus to sign with the New York Yankees.
It was the first step on a wholly unlikely journey to Cooperstown.
Growing up in the Pacific Ocean-village of Puerto Caimito, Rivera fell in love with soccer before going to work on his father’s fishing boat. He was soon playing for a local amateur baseball team as an outfielder – and had already been dismissed by some scouts as non-big league material.
But when he was asked to pitch in a game in 1989, Rivera found his calling. Soon, Yankees scout Herb Raybourn convinced Rivera to try his hand at professional baseball.
“I was not surprised at how Mariano turned out,” Raybourn said, “because nothing scared him.”
The Yankees sent Rivera to their rookie ball team in Florida, where he dominated younger competition with his live fastball. But an arm injury in 1992 led the Yankees to leave him unprotected in that year’s expansion draft. Neither the Rockies nor the Marlins, however, were interested.
In 1995, Rivera was still a starter and not considered to have much of a baseball future. But that summer with Triple-A Columbus, his fastball went from 91 mph to 96 mph over a few appearances.
“I said, ‘Whoa! Where did this come from?’” Yankees general manager Gene Michael told the New York Daily News. “I called down to our people there and asked if those numbers were accurate, and they assured me they were.”
The uptick in velocity earned Rivera a promotion to the big leagues that year, and by 1996 he had become the primary setup man for closer John Wetteland. The Yankees won the World Series that year, and Wetteland – who won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award after saving all four New York wins – left for free agent riches with the Rangers after the season.
Rivera was now the closer, and in the middle of the 1997 season he perfected the cut fastball that would define the rest of his career. Soon, Rivera would become essentially a one-pitch pitcher – throwing the darting cutter that every batter knew was coming but few could barrel up.
Rivera also had a virtually perfect closer’s mentality with a slow heartbeat and limitless courage.
“I was so struck by how he showed absolutely no emotion,” former Yankees closer Goose Gossage told the Daily News. “I said, ‘This kid is going to be awesome.’”
Gossage may have actually underestimated Rivera, who would lead the Yankees to four more World Series wins, earn 13 All-Star Game selections and save a record 652 games. He saved 42 more games over 96 postseason appearances, posting an 0.70 ERA over 141 innings.
His career regular-season ERA of 2.21 ranks first all-time among pitchers who began their career in the Live Ball (post 1919) Era.
In 2019, Rivera became the first player in the history of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Hall of Fame voting to be unanimously elected.
“I feel humbled that I was the one the Lord blessed,” Rivera told the Associated Press of his unanimous selection. “It won’t change my life, but it’s something that you know that you were the first one. That is special.”
Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
