TAMPA, Fla. -- A rumor began floating around media circles on Thursday morning, one that said Mariano Rivera had been involved in a fatal automobile accident on Wednesday night, but the story turned out to be false.
General manager Brian Cashman received an inquiry about the rumor on Thursday morning from a reporter, so the GM -- who couldn't locate the closer's number -- tracked him down through his agent, Fern Cuza.
Cuza got in touch with Rivera's wife, Clara, who told him and Cashman that everything was fine and that there had been no car accident at all. But the story was circulating quickly, and Cashman received several more phone calls from reporters trying to find out if the rumor was true.
"I even got a call from [Mets GM] Omar Minaya," Cashman said. "He was worried about it. It made its rounds everywhere."
"Today, it got a little out of hand," Rivera said of the story. "It got to Panama. My family called me, worried. Friends from New York. I'm fine, thank God."
The story likely came from someone reading up on the details of Reggie Jackson's car accident from last week, as the other party involved was a man named Miguel Angel Rivera. The Yanks' Rivera said that he was approached at church on Sunday, and was told by fellow church members that they had heard he was involved in an accident.
Rivera said that he received more than 40 phone calls on Thursday, as friends and family from New York to Tampa to Panama checked in to make sure he was OK.
"I had to call home, tell my parents that I was OK," Rivera said. "I called before, so when they heard, they knew it wasn't true. It's pretty scary. My family was scared."
Joe Torre heard about the rumor when he arrived at Legends Field on Thursday, but he didn't think much of it at first.
"I have no clue where that stuff comes from," Torre said. "I'd have to believe if that was the case, I would have heard about it long before somebody mentioned it in my office."
Rivera pitched a scoreless inning in Thursday night's win over Toronto.
Sajna nem érkezett meg... lehet hogy véletlenül kitöröltem, mikor törölgettem kidobáltam a szemetet néhány napja. Küld el még egyszer erre a címre (a biztonság kedvéért esetleg a nagylangi@citromail.hu-ra is), és ezúttal remélem meglelem.
Szerintem tök mindegy, mivel zárjátok a Spring Traininget... az sem igazán érdekel, hogy milyen az eredmény az első hónapokban. :) Majd augusztus környékén megnézem a divíziót, és ha esetleg nem vezetnétek, akkor majd onnantól odafigyelek a Braves-re, de addig úgyis fölösleges :))
Ezer örömmel csatlakoznék, köszönöm az invitálást!
Érdekességek a tavaszi előszezonból: -a Cards 3-0-ra verte az idei év lehetséges meglepetéscsapatát, a Marlins-t, Pujols megütötte első homerunját. -Beltran szintén ütött egy home runt-, Sosa viszont a tegnapi homerunja után, egy umpire-ral veszett össze egy strike-on és végül kizárták a meccsről :) -a White Sox 10-0-ra alázta az Arizonát, a Yankees szoros csatában 9-8-ra kikapott a Tigerstől, de mivel a dobókat egyelőre minden csapat teszteli, ezekből az adatokból nem lehet sokat levonni.
How many future Hall of Famers do the 2005 New York Yankees have? Of those players, which do you think will go into the Hall as a Yankee?
Off the top of my head, I think Randy Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are the most likely current Yankees to wind up in Cooperstown.
Should Jeter and Rivera find their way to the Hall of Fame, they will obviously represent the Yankees, having never played for any other club.
Johnson will probably go into the Hall with a Diamondbacks cap on his plaque, having won four Cy Young Awards with Arizona as well as a World Series MVP award. Of course, three Cy Young Award seasons and two or three rings from 2005-07 would certainly create a debate, but those things are a long way off.
As for A-Rod, it's too early to tell what cap will don his plaque. He has won a batting title with the Mariners, an MVP award with the Rangers and posted spectacular numbers with both clubs. But his contract has him in pinstripes for the next six years, so he has a chance to establish himself among the great players in Yankees history. Should he continue his stellar career -- and pick up a ring or two -- he should have an interlocking NY on his plaque when Cooperstown calls his name.
Other potential Hall of Famers on the current roster include Mike Mussina, Bernie Williams and Gary Sheffield, though none are as close to being a sure thing as the first four.
Gondold el a manager mit érezne ha a 42 éves, 18 milliót érő sztárdobója lesérül az első meccs második inningjében és nem tud játszani a szezonban többet :D
Es ha igy van, miert kurtolte vilagga? Csak ugy lenne eselye, ha nem szamitanak ra. Most, ha basere kerul es szabad az elotte levo base, biztos figyelnek, hogy megy-e.
Ez vicces volt:
"You ever see his leads?" Biggio said. "My kids aren't allowed to take leads yet, and I think they get a bigger lead than Roger gets."
Találtam egy nagyon jó beszélgetést Randy-vel az MLB.com oldalon. Ezek a részek tetszettek belőle a legjobban: :-)
"MLB.com: Do you already feel the added pressure to win that comes along with being a member of the Yankees?
Johnson: I don't feel pressure. I feel that everything is a challenge. I really do. That's pretty much the way I go about my job. It's not pressure.
MLB.com: You have played with three other organizations. How do opposing players around the league view New York and the Yankees. Is there a lot of anti-New York sentiment?
Johnson: I don't sense that. The Yankees are always a good barometer to see how good you are and how good your team is. When you're the best, people are trying to beat you.
I always remember something my mom said to me when I was young. She said if I wanted to get good at something, I should play against somebody who is really good at it and have them push you. I enjoyed tennis, I'd play with my friends, I played in high school, but I mainly played people I could beat. It wasn't much of a challenge, so I wasn't getting any better by doing that.
One day, my mom said, "Why don't you play the guy down the street? He's a tennis teacher." I got my lunch handed to me, but by watching and learning from him, I became better. When you have good players on a team -- and we have a lot of them on this team -- more is expected. But when a visiting team comes in to play the Yankees, it's a good barometer."
