Mariano Rivera has announced his retirement and will no longer play baseball for the New York Yankees after 19 seasons. He was part of the “core four,” which included Jorge Posada, Andy Pettite, Derek Jeter and Mo himself. Posada has since retired, Jeter has not played very much this season, and Pettite is retiring at the end of this season. He has career statistics that back him as the best closer in baseball, and has the most saves even though he started his career as a starter. His first two years in the big leagues he was a starter, but in a bullpen session with former manager Joe Torre his fastball had started to move and Rivera was not able to control it. Torre, on the other hand, saw the potential in the pitch, and right there the greatest pitch in baseball was born.

Rivera has been on a retirement tour where he has received gifts from all of the MLB teams. He has received a chair of broken bats, a portrait of himself, a personalized cowboy hat and matching boots, a gold-plated deep-sea fishing reel, a sand sculpture of himself inscribed with “Enter Sandman” and with him surrounded by the New York skyline, the bronzed broken bat, the bullpen rubber from Boston’s Bullpen, and a Golden Record of Enter Sandman. He also received almost 100,000 dollars for the Mariano Rivera foundation.

Rivera’s career is a divisive topic among Stamford High students. Senior Gianni Carpanzano said, “Mariano Rivera is the best closer ever and is probably the best pitcher since Nolan Ryan.” Senior Ryan Gibb, on the other hand, thinks that “there are pitchers that are much better than Rivera” and that “the Yankees and Rivera are garbage”.

Regardless of your opinion, Rivera has 82 wins, 1173 strikeouts 1282 innings pitched, a whip of 1.00, an era of 2.21 and a strikeout per nine innings of 8.2 plus the all times save record of 652 so far in his career. These are some of the best stats for any pitcher in any MLB history. He is hall of fame bound and has had his number already retired at Yankee stadium.