The milestones for Major League Baseball this year have centered on hitters. Derek Jeter had finally gotten 3,000 hits and Jim Thome reached the milestone of 600 home runs. But along with Jeter there has been another Yankee who has reached an epic milestone, and that is New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. The New York Yankees closer has surpassed Trevor Hoffman as the all time leader in saves with a whopping 602.

Rivera and Jeter came through the Yankees organization around the same time. Whereas Jeter was a highly touted prospect, Rivera was an afterthought. Yankees brass thought so little of him that he was left unprotected by the Yankees in the 1992 Expansion Draft. Good thing he wasn’t drafted to another team as Rivera would go on to have a lights out career. Initially as a set-up man for then Yankees closer John Wettland, Rivera took the closers reigns in 1997 and the Sandman never looked back.

Rivera embodies the word dominance. With the rotating carousel that is the closers job in baseball, Rivera has had a career ERA of 2.22 and has been the most dominant if not greatest postseason pitcher racking up a ERA of 0.71 in 94 games. In addition to his dominant postseason ERA, Rivera also holds the major league record with 42 postseason saves. To put that into perspective, the next closest player has 18.

A closers job is tough, you don’t know what days you are going to pitch and the pressure of trying to close out a game isn’t easy for anyone. And if you have ever ran any fantasy baseball team you know saves can be acquired by anyone who can throw a baseball. That is what makes Rivera’s achievement so amazing; the Yankees pitcher has had a steady career for over 16 years and has been one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball and one of the greatest Yankees players. Mo should be congratulated for his achievement and being 41 and still being this dominant in baseball is an amazing feat.

Shop all Mariano Rivera merchandise and celebrate this epic milestone.

The 2009 World Series. New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies

There is a lot of prestige, legend, lore and dramatic music on FOX surrounding the Fall Classic every year. There are also super long pre-game and inter-game festivities.

None of the last five World Series has gone beyond a fifth game. I need that to change. The best part about post-season baseball is a Game 7. I get nervous at home, in my chair. Even when I have no rooting interest, I still fidget and shift around like my life is on the line.

I can’t imagine what it must be like for the players. Sitting in the locker room before the game, stretching, taking BP, throwing, going over scouting reports, getting ready, I can see how having been there before would really help. That’s good news for the defending champ Philadelphia Phillies. But many of the New York Yankees have been there, too. Not among them is Alex Rodriguez, who has never been in the World Series, neither has Mark Teixeira or CC Sabathia.

The Yankee Locker Room – Before Game 1

Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte sit near their lockers with cups of coffee, reading the morning newspaper, and discussing their families, garden gnomes, and lawn maintenance.

Johnny Damon and Eric Hinske compare the World Series rings they won with the Boston Red Sox in 2004 and 2007, respectively.

Derek Jeter sits in the locker room, in a rocking chair, polishing his World Series rings. A-Rod, Teixeira, and CC sit on the floor, cross-legged, around his chair, having a snack.

A-Rod wears an oversized New York Yankees 1999 World Champions jacket. CC clutches his baseball glove in his right arm, like a child with a teddy bear, and holds six baseballs in his massive left hand. Teixeira sucks on a water bottle and rocks in place, a bat propped up in the bend of his elbow.
A-Rod, Teixeira, and CC ask Jeter questions about what it was like to win the World Series four times nearly a decade ago.

Teixeira: How do you hit in the clutch?

Jeter: Just relax, see the ball, and try to hit a line drive. It helps if you use Gillette Products and wear Nike.

A-Rod: How do I get people to like me?

Jeter: Dive into the stands for a ball and bloody your face. Or intercept a bad relay throw, flip it to Jorge and hope that Jeremy Giambi doesn’t slide.

CC: When we’re celebrating, should we do a choreographed handshake or just do big hugs?

Jeter: You have to be natural about it. You don’t want “Anything is possible!” and Two-handed up-top Wayne’s World high fives aren’t going to do it either. Also, Papelbon dancing should get you beat up.

CC: Hey Captain, if I hit somebody with 98 miles per hour of my awesomeness and he charges the mound, will you have my back?

Jeter: No, your fight is your own. I don’t have any fights.

A-Rod: When we had Kyle Farnsworth, I would just try to get behind him.

AJ Burnett walks over to Rivera, Posada, and Pettitte to show them the ring he won when he pitched 23 innings for the 2003 Florida Marlins, who beat the Yankees without him in the World Series.

Posada: You won that when you didn’t play and your team beat us. Why are you showing it to us?

Burnett: ‘Cause I have one just like you guys!

Posada: You can have Molina.

Then Posada stands up and punches Burnett. He sees Damon and Hinske with their Red Sox rings and he starts marching over to them, obviously angry. Before he can get there, however, Damon and Hinske take off – or Hinske tries to, but he is stuck on the bench. Posada chases Damon but his catcher knees can’t quite get him there. Damon tries to throw a baseball at Posada, but it only makes it half way to him. Damon leaves and Posada returns to his coffee and newspaper.

The three seated around Jeter’s rocking chair are all startled when Nick Swisher bursts in the locker room, cranks up some heavy metal and starts towel snapping people.

Rivera leans over to Pettitte and whispers.

Rivera: I can’t believe this is the guy Joe Buck thinks has changed the culture of our locker room.

Meanwhile, in the Phillies locker room everyone is loose. Almost.

Shane Victorino is throwing darts at a Russell Martin poster.

Ryan Howard is enjoying a meal with Jared.

Raul Ibanez is on his 1,273rd push up.

Jimmy Rollins is going over some game tape with Scott Van Pelt.

Chase Utley and Jayson Werth are throwing playing cards into a batting helmet.

Brad Lidge tucked himself into his locker to take a nap. He had another nightmare about Albert Pujols
and couldn’t sleep the night before.

Pedro Feliz is fielding more questions from Pedro Gomez about the seven seasons he spent playing with Barry Bonds in San Francisco.

Matt Stairs is working on a new power play for the John Bapst Memorial High Crusaders, eh.

Pedro Martinez is on the phone with his daddy in the other locker room.

Cole Hamels is hanging out with his wife. Oreos, anyone?

Carlos Ruiz, in full catcher’s gear, is watching Cole Hamels hang out with his wife.

Cliff Lee wakes Lidge up to challenge Utley and Werth in throwing cards into a batting helmet.
Utley hands Lidge a stack of Albert Pujols baseball cards to use. Lidge sees them and goes into a catatonic state. He’s listed as day-to-day.

Lee beats Utley and Werth by himself and then goes out and pitches a brilliant game in which there was no evidence that he broke a sweat or had his heartbeat rise above 70 beats per minute. Kid has alligator blood.

I want to thank Chase Utley for bringing the Pat Riley look back last night. Let’s get Chase a suit, a tie, John Starks and let’s go lose to the Bulls!

The item of the week is this 2009 World Series Dueling Rosters Tee by Majestic. It commemorates.

The MLB All-Star Game swept through St. Louis last night and all things considered it was a fun event. I bet a co-worker a Twix from the vending machine (that’s how we roll) that the NL would finally get back in the win column after a 12 year absence from being considered a competitive opponent in the Mid Summer Classic. Carl Crawford made the catch and won MVP honors. Mariano closed out another All Star Game. And after all was said and done, I was the loser of one candy bar and the World Series will begin in the American League ballpark again this year. Before I get on a long-winded rant about the absurdity of awarding something as meaningful as home field advantage in baseball’s CROWNING CHAMPIONSHIP to an exhibition fantasy team that is an All Star roster, let’s just politely move on to this week’s topic…

The All Star Rosters were selected by the fans, the managers filled out the rest of the roster, and predictably, there were a number of outcries to be heard about who was left off the roster, who didn’t belong in the first place, and the necessity for the Washington Nationals to even field a player in the game at all. Sorry, Nats fans, but it’s a fair complaint. Until Steven Strasburg gets here that is. Any Nationals fan not aware of this young gentleman, should take a gander at this game. That’s right. 1 game. 23 strikeouts.

So, in the spirit of argument, let’s take a look not at an All-Star Team exactly, but an All Position Team if you will. Combining the best of both teams, I’ve selected which active player is best at his position. Taking into consideration hitting, fielding and base running, your 2009 All Position Team is as follows. Get your seeing-eye glasses out for this one folks, it’s a doozy.

Catcher: Joe Mauer. Mauer plays the most physically punishing position on the field, and at 6’5 it’s sort of ridiculous that he has to squat down behind the plate every game for the Twins. He’s well renowned as an incredible athlete, so perhaps one day he’ll slide over to first base to finish out his career. This year, after missing time with a non-baseball lower back injury, Mauer made up for lost time by hitting .373 with 15 HRs and 49 RBIs. His career high for homers was 13 in 2006. It sort of makes you wonder if that surgery was performed by the same doctors that worked on the 6 Million Dollar Man.

First Base: Albert Pujols. To me he is simply Albert. There have been other Alberts (Einstein had a nice run, Fat Albert was okay) but Albert Pujols will likely go down as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history by the time it is all said and done. He hits for power, he hits for average, he’s nearly impossible to strikeout, he’s clutch, he plays an amazing first base…the list goes on and on. He really does everything you could ask a player to do, and is generally one of the most feared hitters in all of baseball. This year, he rolled out of bed in April and decided he would attempt to accomplish his greatest statistical season yet. He’s hitting .332 with 32 HRs and 87 RBIs. Today is July 15th. In 2008, he hit 37 HRs and had 117 RBI and won the MVP so I don’t know what 3 letter anagram they can award him this year if he keeps this up. Just silly, silly numbers.

Second Base: Chase Utley. There’s no way I’ll be able to hide my bias here, Chase is by far and away my favorite player in the game today because he plays like his shoes are on fire. Whether he’s beating out an infield single, or barreling over a division opponent’s catcher at the plate, he’s always going 110 miles an hour. With his combination of power, speed, defense and leadership; he is exactly the kind of player Phillies fans go crazy for. If anybody can set up a candlelight dinner for Chase and me, that would be swell.

Shortstop: Hanley Ramirez. If Ramirez played for a New York, Boston or Los Angeles team, he would be the most popular player in baseball. He can do a little bit of everything. He has 30 homer pop, he’s stolen 50 bases in a season, he plays the most demanding fielding position and he’s only getting better. Florida was wise to sign him to a long term contract, after acquiring him from Boston in the Josh Beckett trade and he should be the centerpiece that the Marlins will build around while their young pitching rotation develops over the next few seasons. Also of note, my fourth grade teacher was named Ms. Hanley. But she couldn’t play ball like this guy.

Third Base: David Wright. Wright might just be the best all around third baseman in baseball. Once he figures out how to hit for power in that graveyard of a ballpark, he’ll be back at the top of his game. He’s constantly seen on Web Gems, he regularly hits .300 with 30 home runs, 100 RBIs, and 20 or so stolen bases. He happens to play for the Mets, so for me, that’s about as far as I can go in terms of complimenting this amazing player. But I’m happy to provide this video as further proof. Do you have any idea how hard that would be to do?

Left Field: Ryan Braun. Following former greats like Al Rosen and Hank Greenberg, Braun has taken the nickname “The Hebrew Hammer” to new heights. After the Brewers transitioned him from third base to left field, The Hammer has bashed his way to a Rookie of the Year Award, and added a Silver Slugger to his mantle last season. He’ll hit another 40 home runs this year because in the middle of a potent lineup that includes Prince Fielder and Corey Hart, it’s not like you can exactly pitch around him.

Center Field: Torii Hunter. My favorite Torii Hunter moment ever came when he was playing against the White Sox one home game in Minnesota. Living in the Chicago area, I’ve grown up listening to White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson calling games for the Good Guys for years and years. Hawk is a character, and to put it mildly, his calls of “can of corn” “chopper two hopper” “dagnabbit” “sacks packed with sox” and other lovely colloquialisms can start to grind on the ears after a while. His most famous call comes on any White Sox home run. As the ball is heading out, he starts revving up his voice and just as the ball passes over the wall he cries, “YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOARRRRRRRRRRRRD…YES!” It’s at once charming, and incredibly annoying. On this particular day, some White Sock (Sox? Socker? What is the singular of Sox?) let’s say Paul Konerko, drove one to deep center. Hawk was ready to go. The sequence went as follows:

Hawk: That ball is deep, way back, YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOARRRRRRRRRD…

(Torii Hunter leaps up and makes an improbably difficult catch over the garbage bag wall in Minnesota)

Hawk: …OHHHH NO! NO!

Best Hawk call of my life. Oh yeah, and Torii Hunter is great. He’s been a spectacular fielder since the day he stepped on a major league field. Now, entrenched as the Angels most reliable player, his hitting has developed to the point where he is a steady presence in the middle of the lineup, and from everything I’ve read about him, he’s twice the person he is the ballplayer. So put one on the board for Torii…yes.

Right Field: Ichiro. Ichiro is not really my kind of baseball player. His slap hitting style and the fact that he’s already running out of the batter’s box before the pitch gets to the plate just seems wrong to me, but his results are nothing short of incredible. Doubted throughout much of his professional baseball life in Japan and the US because of his small stature and unorthodox swing, Ichiro has proved he belongs in the Big Leagues with 4 seasons of .350 or higher averages, and stealing 30 or more bases in each of his 8 MLB seasons. He’s already got 1900+ hits and if he plays for 5 more years with the Mariners like he says he wants to, he could achieve the 3,000 hit milestone that so many players chase. The only difference is that he’ll have done it starting at age 27 (after amassing 1200+ hits in his career in Japan) whereas most players start at 23 or 24.

Starting Pitcher: Tim Lincecum. Speaking of unorthodox, Lincecum is another player that looks a little different from what most people expect a Cy Young winner to look like. First of all, he stands at 6 foot whatever and 165 lbs, which is about right for an American 14 year old. Secondly, he contorts his body in the most bizarre way to ratchet the ball up to 97 mph with nasty movement. And thirdly, seriously, this guy looks like he’s ready to compete in the X-games rather than take the mound and battle some of the strongest, fastest athletes in the world. But he’s another player who’s results are tough to argue with. A Cy Young Award, a career 2.95 ERA, 35 wins and 564 strikeouts in just over two years of Major League service? If he stays on track, we could be talking about some pretty imposing numbers when we look back on his career as well as a pennant or two for the Giants.

Relief Pitcher: Mariano Rivera. Rivera will likely conclude his career as the consensus for greatest closer in the history of baseball. To be fair, we’ve only counted Saves as a category since the 70’s and Rivera will probably not even hold the record for most saves in MLB history. But what he will have is the reputation as the most dominant post-season reliever ever. What is so remarkable is that he really only throws one pitch. His cut fastball is legendary. Everyone knows its coming. No one can hit it with much success. His 34 saves in 117 innings pitched with a record of 8-1 and an ERA of 0.77 will likely never be topped. He is a World Series MVP. He’s a 10 time All-Star. And if you picked out 10 people in a baseball stadium anywhere, (maybe not including Boston) and asked them if they could have one pitcher to close out a game for them, 9 people are choosing Mariano. The 10th guy will pick Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn. But the 10th guy will be wrong.

So there you have it. If you’ve got ideas of your own, or want to tell me how wrong I am, do so in the comments section. The second half of baseball will be back in swing tomorrow, and before we know it the playoff battles will be upon us.

Item of the week is this throwback jersey that makes me long for mullets and mustaches.