MARIANO RIVERA NAMED DHL DELIVERY MAN OF THE YEAR--MLB

NEW YORK -- At the current pace, the DHL Delivery Man of the Year Award may eventually be renamed after Mariano Rivera.

That's because the Yankees closer picked up the honor for the second time in the award's two-year history, beating out nine of the best relievers in baseball.

The Delivery Man of the Year Award is officially sanctioned by Major League Baseball, recognizing the most outstanding relief pitcher of the season as voted on by the fans. From Sept. 25 through Oct. 9, fans cast nearly 90,000 votes for the award on MLB.com.

• The eight-time All-Star also earned the save in the American League's 3-2 win in the 77th All-Star Game. The save was Rivera's third in the Midsummer Classic, tying him with Dennis Eckersley for the most in Major League history.

Rivera's 413 career saves are the most ever in the AL, ranking him fourth on the all-time list. He also holds the records for most postseason saves (34) and appearances (73), posting a minuscule 0.80 ERA in the playoffs over his career.

"Mo has done things that nobody else in the history of the game has done," said Derek Jeter. "We wouldn't have the success we've had without him. Only a few teams in history have had the luxury of having someone they can count on every single day. He's been pretty much automatic."

• Rivera beat out San Diego's Hoffman, Chicago's Bobby Jenks, Minnesota's Joe Nathan, Boston's Jonathan Papelbon, the Angels' Francisco Rodriguez, Toronto's B.J. Ryan, the Mets' Billy Wagner, Seattle's J.J. Putz and Detroit's Joel Zumaya for the award.

To create the ballot, an initial list of 15 relievers was compiled by the editorial board of MLB.com. The 10 finalists were chosen from this list of nominees by a special "yellow-ribbon" panel consisting of newly inducted Hall of Fame pitcher Bruce Sutter; former manager/player Lou Piniella, Mike Bauman, national columnist for MLB.com; Jerome Holtzman, the official MLB historian and a member of the writer's wing of the Hall of Fame; and Bob Watson, MLB's vice president, on-field operations.

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