MARIANO RIVERA’S INJURY
I think that by now, even non-sports fans have heard about Yankees great Mariano Rivera’s possible career-ending injury last week. It happened on Thursday night, but I couldn’t write this column for Friday because I was too devastated. I had to compose my thoughts before I got them on paper.
But nothing has changed. I’m still crying even reading what other sportswriters have written.
Mariano Rivera, immediately after his knee injury. The billboard this happened under read "Walk Off A Hero." Chilling.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, or read about it, this is what happened: during batting practice, even though he’s a pitcher (for the nescient of you,) he was catching fly balls. It’s not only not necessary, but not a great idea, but it’s what he always does, for fun and exercise. [Note: if you really don’t know anything about this greatest “closer” in baseball history, please research him. His accomplishments are truly amazing, the most incorrectly used word in the English language, but absolutely correct in Mariano’s case.]
But he just came down wrong on his leg, which I think is from hitting the warning track unexpectedly, and went down, grabbing his right knee. I told Mr. X right away that I feared a torn ACL, (having had many knee and leg disasters myself,) but was praying I was wrong. The way his teammates carried him off the field could not have helped, either, but I ‘m sure the damage was already done.
The reason it’s so horrible is because he’s probably the one Yankee player who cannot be replaced. Plus, at forty-two, he had just about declared that he was going to retire after this year, which no one wanted to think about yet. He was going to give us fans a year for the idea to sink in. A torn ACL is just about the most serious knee injury there is, and the rehab takes about a year, no matter what great shape anyone is in.
Which means that Mariano would have to work so hard for the year, re-habbing the knee, and then find that fire to come back, just when his mind-set, and body, were all about finally retiring. It’s all so sad. Watching him speak to reporters after the game that night, when he had had the awful news for just a couple of hours, was painful. Mr. X and I were watching with the same shocked reverence that we do when seeing an unexpected celebrity death. And, from everything I’ve been reading in the ensuing days since it happened, so was everyone else. One fan even posted that he’d rather have torn his own ACL than have it happen to Mariano!
Mariano Rivera, prior to Thursday night.
The good news, what little there is, for us fans, and the Yankees organization especially, is that the next day, Mariano announced that he will be back for next season because he just does not want to go out this way. The other okay news is that he’s a pretty religious guy, so he seems to be accepting his plight as “God’s will,” which I think makes it easier for him. And for us, knowing he feels that way, so he’s suffering mentally and emotionally less than should be expected.
Everyone who knows him loves him; he’s considered one of the best, most upstanding guys in sports, and he does lots of charity work. I had the good fortune to have met him, very briefly, at a party for the 2008 All-Star Game, that bore his name. (He co-hosted with Anaheim Angel Torii Hunter, who’s more into that type of thing.) I was actually pretty surprised that he was even hosting a party at a club, but it was for his charity, so there you go. He’s a real family man; not a club kind-of guy at all. He just hung-out with his pals in a booth all night, chatting and laughing.
If anyone can handle this whole horrible situation, it’s Mariano Rivera. So, when we fans get over the shock of it all, there’s nothing to do but keep him in our thoughts, and perhaps send good wishes his way. And pray for the Yankees whose outlook for this season just got a whole lot bleaker. Oysh.
Baron Davis' right knee injury.
[Note: in case you also missed this one, New York Knicks star, Baron Davis, suffered a similar injury just yesterday, in Game Three of his NBA play-offs opening series. (Shockingly, his team went on to win, for the first time in a play-off game in eleven years!) And Baron was unbelievably pleasant through it all. But, you could see a weird dent in his knee, and I can’t imagine a good prognosis. Even the Heat players look horrified! As of now, the diagnosis is a dislocated kneecap, which would be much better to have then Mariano’s situation. But two athletes on New York teams in a matter of days. Not fun for the injured parties themselves, their teams, and Big Apple fans in general. Is perhaps Mercury in retrograde, if only over that city?]
