Sports Endings

John Elway finished his career by winning the Super Bowl as the MVP of the game. That’s how we want all sports greats to end their careers.

Sadly, it rarely happens.

My favorite Yankee, Mariano (Mo) Rivera, tore his ACL catching fly balls during batting practice yesterday. It was widely assumed that this was going to be Mo’s last season, so it’s quite possible this is a career ending injury.

Non Yankee fans are probably wondering why the greatest closer of all time was catching fly balls during batting practice. He did this every day. Mariano is a great athlete and always joked that he wanted to play center field. Defensively, he had the skills (offensively, not so much).

Mike Lupica of the NY Daily News wrote this today:

I would stand with him in front of his locker and say, “Who’s the best outfielder on this team, really?”

Mo Rivera would smile and say, “You know the answer.”
And I’d tell him I wanted to hear him say it. So he would.

“I am,” Mo would say.

So it was a freaky injury, but he got hurt doing something he loved. Could be worse. But not the way you want to see a great player go out.