a Greater Glory

Being an athlete who excels in professional sports is tough, maybe one of the most difficult things in the world.  That is why there are so few of them.  But something that may be even more difficult than being a professional athlete, is being the coach of those professional athletes.  In no other job are you criticized for the failure of your team and then forgotten about when your team does well.  Being the coach of a professional team is a job that requires you to shoulder the blame when things aren’t going well and then step into the background when your team is doing well. Coaches must love to coach and must be willing to do just that, coach.

While coaching is important, it seems that we have now entered a time in professional sports where a coach can no longer coach or attempt to bring about change on a team.  Typically when a coaching change is made it is a chance for players to hear another person’s voice and allow for the new coach to do some things differently, but how often is to often to change? A New York Times article highlighted the short leash that NBA coaches are on, that article can be read here.

Since when did coaching in any major sport become something that changes when the weather patterns do?  An interesting study although extremely time consuming would be to look at the number of coaching changes that have occurred in the major sports (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) over the past five years. For basketball Jerry Sloan has been coaching since 1988. During that time there have been over 225 coaching changes.  Did you read that number??? That means that there is on average 11 job changes every season.  Remember, there are only 30 teams in the NBA so that is a little over a 1/3 of the teams every season.

By no way am I saying that every coach should be kept, but the firing of Michael Curry that occurred yesterday is a bit frustrating. Curry wasn’t a great coach after only getting the team to a 39-43 record, but look at what he was given.  He had to deal with Allen Iverson in a mid-season trade that was anything but beneficial to the Pistons. Joe Dumars is quickly becoming the Matt Millen of the NBA with 5 coaches now in 9 years.  Dumars needs to make sure he gets it right with this next coach.  Typically, the most successful franchises are the ones who “stay the course”.  In the NFL you have the Pittsburgh Steelers, MLB you have the NY Yankees, in the NBA you have the Utah Jazz.  Does consistency mean you will win and make the playoffs every year?  Of course not, but there is something to be said about consistency.  All I am asking is that given the current state of our country, economy, and speed of life, one would think that consistency and staying the course would be appropriate and important.

It’s hard to believe that over 13 years have passed since Mariano Rivera recorded his first save of his career.  How long ago was this?  Well for starters, Braveheart had just won the Academy Award for best picture, Bob Dole had yet to pick Jack Kemp as his running mate, and I was in Mrs. Hampton’s third-grade class, banging out state capitals like it was my job.  Maybe the most impressive stat of that time was the attendance at Yankee stadium the night of Rivera’s first save:  19,087.  To put that number in perspective, the Washington Nationals are currently averaging 23,030 this year alone.

Anyway, back to Rivera.  It’s difficult to measure his worth to the Yankees over the last decade and a half.  Granted, the save has been a watered down statistic for the past 20 years or so and the modern era has been very lenient on pitching statistics general.  But still, there are several reasons why Rivera has been the MVP for the Yankees (yes, I said it) during their dynasty reign.

Reason #1:  Being the man during the steroid era while pitching in a bandbox

Maybe the main reason why we can say he has ice in his veins.  Rivera broke into the league amidst the pruning of baseball’s biggest juicers.  No names will be mentioned (thanks Raul Ibanez) although we can assume that Rivera pitched against some of the biggest juicers in the American league at that time.  Just in case that wasn’t enough, this guy had to pitch in little-league field they called Yankee Stadium – 315 ft. down the lines and 380 in the gaps.  You wouldn’t be able to tell from the results because he posted a lower than 2.00 ERA in each of his first three seasons as the closer.

Reason #2:  Being the man when it counts:  October

Most people have heard how money Rivera has been in the postseason, but the numbers say it all:  8-1, 0.77 ERA, 117.1 IP, 0.750 WHIP (which is ridiculous by the way).  Again the result is four World Series rings.

Reason #3:  The Cutter

Maybe the most devastating pitch in baseball.  Experts like to talk about Joel Zumaya’s fastball, or Brad Lidge’s slider, Francisco Rodriguez’s curve, or Trevor Hoffman’s changeup.  The difference between these closer’s and Rivera?  He has ONLY thrown one pitch his entire career.  It hasn’t mattered how much film a hitter can possibly watch, he has no chance.  Yankees reliever Brian Bruney sums it up:  “Let’s say you get a guy who comes into the league today, let’s say he throws 110 miles an hour, he will not be as good as Mo because his pitch is better than anything you could ever imagine.”

It’s almost as if this guy was born to pitch.  When asked if he ever feels threatened on the mound, Rivera responded “Never.  I’ve always loved the competition. I’m not afraid of it.”  That’s why we’ve loved to watch you pitch Mo.

Congratulations to Mariano Rivera on his 500th save.  Mariano from all accounts is a committed Christian who is playing in the biggest baseball market in the world. For him to achieve this is monumental and amazing, congratulations to Mariano.