Quote:
Originally Posted by Ricky
I have to agree. Rivera was arguably the best closer ever, but the first unanimous selection ever? Should not have been. Twenty writers left Willie Mays off their ballots. Nine left Hank Aaron off. Ridiculous. The other thing to take into account is, had Rivera been just as good, but had come up with the Milwaukee Brewers or San Diego Padres and spent his career there instead of a dominant team surrounding him like the Yankees, would he have recorded 652 saves? Would he have had the same number of opportunities? How would that have affected the way he's regarded?
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If you watched Mariano's career and all you took away from it was a number of saves, I am sincerely sorry you missed out on so much more. The if and but argument over what other teams he might have played for misses out entirely on the fact that on the biggest stage in the game for the biggest team in the game he excelled to a degree that made him the greatest of all time. How can you discount something like that? Do you think it could have been just anyone out there?