Facing Mariano Rivera

by David Fischer

  John Flaherty

  Catcher

  Playing Career

  Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees from 1992 to 2005

  Career Statistics

  1,047 games, 849 hits, 80 home runs, 395 runs batted in, .252 batting average, .290 on-base percentage, .377 slugging percentage

  John Flaherty facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)

  1-for-4, 1 extra-base hit, 1 run batted in, 1 strikeout, .250 batting average, .250 on-base percentage, .500 slugging percentage

  Mo Cred

  Flaherty was behind the plate for 32 of Rivera’s 652 career saves.

  John Flaherty

  Year Date Result

  1995 9/24 Ground out

  1999 7/21 Double (1 RBI)

  2000 7/1 Strikeout (Swinging)

  7/2 Fly out

  WITH MARIANO, IT was never the pitch—it was location. He doesn’t shake off. He’s very trusting of the catcher and what the catcher is feeling or seeing. That was always gratifying because you felt like when he picked up a save, you had something to do with it. Let’s be honest, he can throw the ball wherever he wants and he is probably going to be successful. But from a catcher’s

  standpoint, he makes you feel that you had something to do

  with it.

  You almost have to fight against being overconfident or being too relaxed behind the plate. He lulls you to sleep, because you know the ball is going to be right where your glove is set up. The late life is something you have to be ready for, but I think because of his outstanding control, he was just so easy to catch.

  The hitters know what pitch is coming; they just don’t know where it’s going to be. When a lefty takes a swing and pulls the ball foul, everybody in the ballpark is like, “Oh, he’s all over the cutter.” Mariano is like, “No, he can’t do anything with it, so I’m going to keep [throwing] it.”

  Most closers I had been around didn’t care about anything until the seventh inning, when they got their rhythm going. Mariano pays attention from the first pitch. He cares about the entire club, and who’s playing the right way.

  Darrin Fletcher

  Catcher

  Playing Career

  Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, and Toronto Blue Jays from 1989 to 2002

  Career Statistics

  1,245 games, 1,048 hits, 124 home runs, 583 runs batted in, .269 batting average, .318 on-base percentage, .423 slugging percentage

  Darrin Fletcher facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)

  0-for-6, 3 strikeouts

  Mo Cred

  Fletcher struck out as an eighth-inning pinch hitter against Rivera to leave the bases loaded in a game the Yankees won, 3-2, over the Expos at Yankee Stadium on Don Mattingly Day, on August 31, 1997. Rivera earns his 40th save of the season, marking the first of a record nine times in which he will reach 40 or more saves in a season.

  TO FACE HIS cut fastball is the toughest assignment in baseball to me. He throws it thigh high, inner half of the plate, where most left-handed hitters like the ball, and then it just keeps following you. You think it’s over the inner half of the plate, and it just keeps coming at you. It’s the best pitch in baseball.

  Darrin Fletcher

  Year Date Result

  1997 8/31 Strikeout (Swinging)

  1998 7/18 Fly out

  2000 9/13 Strikeout (Swinging)

  2001 4/19 Strikeout (Looking)

  9/5 Pop out

  2002 7/16 Ground out

  We have this saying that a pitcher “gets in your kitchen.” Rivera’s cutter continually gets in your kitchen, and you cannot get it out. He almost kind of lulls you to sleep with his delivery. It gives you a false sense of security, and then the ball is on you and it’s exploding.

  The best way to approach him, I told myself every year, is to try to make sure the ball is in the outer half of the strike zone, and if it’s not, then take it, and hope for a walk.

  Todd Greene

  Catcher

  Playing Career

  Anaheim Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, and San Francisco Giants from 1996 to 2006

  Career Statistics

  536 games, 397 hits, 71 home runs, 217 runs batted in, .252 batting average, .286 on-base percentage, .444 slugging percentage

  Todd Greene facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)

  2-for-4, 1 extra-base hit, .500 batting average, .750 on-base percentage, .750 slugging percentage

  Mo Cred

  Greene spent one season with the Yankees as Rivera’s teammate in 2001 and was the catcher for five of Rivera’s saves, including career save No. 200.

  Todd Greene

  Year Date Result

  1998 8/26 Double

  1999 6/18 Foul out

  2003 8/7 Fly out

  2004 6/9 Single

  I CAUGHT MARIANO RIVERA’S 200th save. When Mariano was going into the game, I didn’t know it was going to be his 200th save. Afterward, [Yankees’ owner] George Steinbrenner sent a bottle of champagne to the clubhouse to congratulate Mo. It was the good stuff—Dom Perignon—George wasn’t going to send the cheap stuff. Since Mo didn’t drink, he gave that bottle of champagne to me. I took it home and I still have it. I only played with Mo that one year; so for him to share that special moment with me, that was a big deal. The most amazing thing about Mo is that he’s a way better person than he is a baseball player. He’s a solid individual, a great human being, and someone that I was glad to share a year with.*

  He might be the most intense competitor I ever played with. He’d rather bite off his finger than blow a save. It wasn’t visually noticeable to spectators or even to some of his teammates. When he’s on the mound, you look in his eyes, and you know this guy is ready to get your ass out. One of the cool things about being a catcher was that you could look into the pitchers’ eyes, and you could see who was scared and who was not, and who was a gamer and who was not. Mo was as intense as anybody I’ve ever been on the field with.

  I remember how well he handled the loss after Game Seven of the 2001 World Series. There were guys who were very upset; but Mo didn’t shy away from the reporters, he didn’t shy away from the moment. He answered all the questions with grace and dignity. That’s probably not a shock to anybody. Sometimes in baseball the villains aren’t quite the villains they’re made out to be in the media, and the good guys aren’t always quite as good as they’re made out to be, either. But that’s not true with Mo. He’s a class individual. To see him have the same manner in accepting defeat as he accepts success was impressive.*

  The most surprising [aspect] about that game wasn’t the blown save. It was Mariano making a bad throw on the bunt. Mo was the best defensive pitcher I ever played with, and I played with Kenny Rogers, who won [five] Gold Gloves. Mariano was an incredible defender, so for him to throw the ball away was extremely uncharacteristic. The next play was another bunt—Jay Bell bunted the ball back to him—and he had the wherewithal to throw the ball to third base for the out. You have to give credit on Mo’s behalf; he had just thrown the ball away, but then at the very next opportunity he still has the ability to make a great play.

  The final out of his 200th save was a two-seamer [to retire Ivan Rodriguez on a ground out to second base]. I probably called for more two-seam fastballs than any other catcher that worked with Mo. He obviously throws a great cutter, but his two-seamer is nasty, too. Early on, he didn’t use the two-seamer very much because he didn’t need it. I felt it was so good that it was crazy not to use it. I liked to use all the pitches. That was around the time when some teams started to pinch-hit for left-handed batters with their righties. I felt that throwing a two-seamer that comes in on the hands of the righties might eliminate some of that pinch-hitting and we would get the match-ups we wanted anyway, which was with the lefties. But Mo threw the pitches he wanted to throw. If he didn’t want to throw a [two-seam fastball], he would shake
you off and throw a cutter.

  Batting against him, I remember hitting a ball off the right-center field wall off of him in 1998 with the Angels. I could hit a fastball as good as anybody, and Mariano back then was still throwing 95 to 97 miles an hour with that cutter. It’s nice to have good numbers against him; I’ll take it, though in limited at-bats. I wish I had a lot more at-bats against him.*

  Jesse Levis

  Catcher

  Playing Career

  Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers from 1992 to 2001

  Career Statistics

  319 games, 167 hits, 3 home runs, 60 runs batted in, .255 batting average, .336 on-base percentage, .307 slugging percentage

  Jesse Levis facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)

  1-for-5, 0 extra-base hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, .200 batting average, .333 on-base percentage, .200 slugging percentage

  Mo Cred

  Levis faced Rivera as a starting pitcher in the minor leagues and as both a starter and reliever in the majors.

  I FIRST FACED MARIANO in 1994, when we were minor leaguers in Triple A. He was a starting pitcher for Columbus and I was with Charlotte. He had an electric fastball, with late life. When the ball got about ten feet from the hitter it almost seemed to pick up speed. I think he walked me and struck me out in our Triple A confrontations.*

  Jesse Levis

  Year Date Result

  1996 7/4 Ground out

  7/6 Single

  7/20 Walk

  9/25 Ground out

  1997 6/6 Ground out

  6/8 Strikeout (Swinging)

  My first meeting against Mariano as a major leaguer was with the Brewers in Yankee Stadium in 1996. Mariano had just started throwing a nasty cutter. Roy Halladay perfected a cutter early in his career, but back in the mid-to-late 1990s, Mariano was one of the few guys throwing that pitch. His cutter was like no other that I’ve ever seen. The velocity was 95 miles per hour and just as you start your swing then—oops—the ball moves six or eight inches on your hands.**

  He pretty much got into your head as a left-handed hitter because if he locates the pitch properly, like he always did, he could saw off your bat. That’s why switch hitters have [batted] against him hitting right-handed. I remember [Indians teammate] Carlos Baerga doing that. He may have gone up there right-handed because the cutter was so filthy he didn’t want to break his fingers on a jam job.***

  I remember getting a pinch-hit single to left field off Mariano. He left a pitch out over the plate and I lined it into left, a very big base hit for me as a pinch hitter.* After that single, I didn’t get another hit off him. I worked a walk off him one time late in a game. I remember that walk because it was a real tough at-bat. I battled him and fought off pitches. I got to a three-and-two count and he threw a cutter really too close to take. I was fortunate that the umpire called it

  a ball.**

  When I was with the Indians in 1999, I got to play with Roberto Alomar, one of the most talented and smartest players I ever played with.*** He told me to back off the plate and see if Mariano would go back door, to throw the ball toward the outer half of the plate. So I took Robby’s advice and made that adjustment. Sure enough, Mariano threw back-door cutters, which are easier to hit on the barrel of the bat. I grounded out, and I didn’t face him again after that.

  I absolutely loved the challenge of facing the greatest pitchers in the game. Whether it’s Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, or Mariano Rivera, you always hope to give them a great battle. Maybe it wasn’t a battle for them, but it sure was for me! Even though they might have gotten me out, it was quite a thrill and something you dream about as a little kid.

  Russell Martin

  Catcher

  Playing Career

  Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, and Pittsburgh Pirates since 2006

  Career Statistics

  1,052 games, 925 hits, 108 home runs, 473 runs batted in, .255 batting average, .349 on-base percentage, .396 slugging percentage

  Russell Martin facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)

  0-for-1, 1 strikeout

  Mo Cred

  Martin spent two seasons with the Yankees as Rivera’s teammate in 2011 and 2012 and was the catcher for 37 of Rivera’s 652 saves, including the record-setting 602nd save.

  CATCHING MARIANO FOR that [record-setting 602nd] save was definitely a very special day for me. Especially to get the last out on a strikeout like that—on a perfect pitch—we’re probably going to be watching that replay for a very long time.*

  Russell Martin

  Year Date Result

  2010 6/27 Strikeout (Looking)

  That many saves is incredible. He deserves it. He’s one of the hardest-working guys I’ve ever seen and he’s been doing it at a high level for a long time. When you see a guy that works that hard and is that prepared, you expect him to go out there and do what he’s supposed to do. Mo does it consistently every time he goes out.

  It’s funny, because on his 600th save I didn’t even realize it, until everyone started hugging him and giving him high fives. He probably wishes I didn’t throw out [Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki trying to steal second base], so he could get a punch out. We got the win, first and foremost, and he got the 600th save, which is a nice round number.*

  His focus level is amazing. He never really comes out of his game. He never loses focus. He keeps his composure at all times. That’s what amazes me the most about him. How he can stay composed and make pitches, pitch after pitch after pitch. Because he’s a closer, it’s always a tight situation, it’s always pressure filled, but it’s really easy to catch him because of his command.

  My first time catching him was in spring training [in 2011]. We never did a bullpen [session], so the first time catching him was during a game situation, even though it was spring training. He’s awesome the way he can hit his spots [on] both sides of the plate. He has pinpoint control. You don’t move your glove much at all. It was a pleasure catching him.

  He has good life on the cutter. It has very late movement. Once the hitter starts to swing, that’s when it starts moving. That’s the best cutter I’ve ever caught. Normally, you see some sort of spin on the ball. With his, you don’t see the spin, there’s no sidespin. It just cuts. I don’t know how he does it.

  He has command on both sides of the plate. He starts it in off the plate against the righty, and it ends up on the corner. It feels like you’ve got to swing at a ball that is going to hit your front knee and the next thing you know, it’s on the corner. For a lefty, it’s a challenge to keep the ball fair. When he’s on and hitting his spots, you’re not going to do much damage against him.

  It’s better being back behind the plate than being in the [batter’s] box against him. But I got a hit off him in the [2008] All-Star Game.*

  Chad Moeller

  Catcher

  Playing Career

  Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, and Baltimore Orioles from 2000 to 2010

  Career Statistics

  501 games, 315 hits, 29 home runs, 132 runs batted in, .226 batting average, .388 on-base percentage, .352 slugging percentage

  Chad Moeller facing Mariano Rivera (regular season)

  1-for-2, 0 extra-base hits, .500 batting average, .500 on-base percentage, .500 slugging percentage

  Mo Cred

  Moeller, a back-up catcher for the Yankees in 2008, was behind the plate for 5 of Rivera’s 652 career saves.

  Chad Moeller

  Year Date Result

  2000 7/30 Single

  2009 5/20 Line out

  EASIEST GUY I’VE ever caught. Plain and simple, the easiest guy I’ve ever caught. You know where the ball’s going to be every time. And it’s just amazing that everybody knows what’s coming, and nobody’s going to square it up. He’s thrown the same pitch over and over and over, and nobody’s done anything with it yet.

  Facing him you’re just picking a side [o
f home plate]. Not the pitch, you’re just picking a side. He has a two-seam fastball, which he started using for right-handers a little bit, just when I think he really wanted to embarrass them.*

  But he could always lock the right-handers up because he’d throw the ball right at them, and they’d jump out of the way and it was strike three. It’d come right in the front door.

  Gustavo Molina

  Catcher

  Playing Career

  Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees from 2007 to 2011

  Career Statistics

  26 games, 6 hits, 0 home runs, 1 run batted in, 2 runs, .128 batting average, .160 on-base percentage, .170 slugging percentage

  Mo Cred

  Molina, a back-up Yankees catcher in 2011, was behind the plate for 1 of Rivera’s 652 career saves. Molina caught twelve pitches in the ninth inning of a 5-2 win over the Texas Rangers, on April 16, 2011. It was Rivera’s 575th save.

  I FEEL BLESSED [FOR] the chance to catch him. I’ve caught a lot of good pitchers, but he’s the top one. He always said, “Give me a good target, a low target or a high target, and I’ll hit it.”*

  He dominates the whole plate—in and out, up and down—with one pitch. He throws one pitch, a cutter. It’s unbelievable. The batters know what’s coming and they still can’t hit it. It’s impressive on both sides—catching him and facing him. Speed, power, and control on both sides of the plate.

  The most amazing stuff I’ve ever caught. He’s something special. You will never see [the likes of him] again. He’s a machine.

  [When the injury occurred] you knew he felt bad for his team and the organization about what happened. It’s great to see he came back and is pitching so well.

  Mo Respect

  Salvador Perez

  The young Kansas City Royals catcher, who is 1-for-4 facing Rivera, on catching Rivera’s final All-Star Game appearance at Citi Field in New York, on July 16, 2013.