PLAYER OF THE GAME: MARIANO RIVERA, 2 IP FOR THE WIN (Pain for John Delcos)

John Sterling's pick on Yankee radio can come from either team, and tonight it was Mariano Rivera who pitched 2 innings, in a tie game for the win v Pittsburgh at the Stadium. Sterling notes Mo also pitched 1 and 2/3 innings yesterday. MEMO TO ESPN EXPERT & BASEBALL AWARDS VOTER, JOHN DELCOS. PLEASE UPDATE YOUR ABYSMAL FILES OR RESIGN FROM BASEBALL WRITING. IF THE INTERNET "MOB" is out there, you're falling down on the job. SINCE OBVIOUSLY THERE'S NO OVERSIGHT IN THE BBWAA.

• Delcos on an ESPN "Poll," June 1, 2007 CAMPAIGNING for Trevor Hoffman:

"Unfortunately for Hoffman and other relievers of his era, they are compared to Rivera's body of work in the playoffs. There's no denying Rivera's greatness, but had the Yankees had Hoffman instead, I believe they would have been just as successful.''" -- John Delcos, The Journal News (New York)

• GET OUT YOUR VIOLINS, FOLKS. Delcos, you'd need at least 2 Trevor Hoffmans or any of these "unfortunate" other relievers whose names you fail to supply, to do what Rivera did in just the past 2 days. Your guy would've been warming the bench--he never pitches more than 1 inning and certainly never pitches multiple innings coming in with runners on base. He did some of that in earlier years, but was able to rest during the long off-season. (Not to mention missing almost the entire season in 2003). If it doesn't mean anything, why doesn't he do what Rivera does? Rivera's pitched 2 saves in 1 day 5 times, if you want to talk about "saves" to the exclusion of everything else. Hoffman's had that "opportunity," has he taken it? He had postseason "opportunities" as well, Delcos. If you look them up, you'll find he just didn't do that well.

John Delcos' elite ESPN/BBWAA mob statement in article/poll by Jerry Crasnick, 6/1/07. The way to stop this: ESPN and Journal News advertisers could withdraw their dollars.

• P.S. The ESPN/BBWAA voter here cannot come up with enough to support the guy he's supposedly selling. So he goes to Plan B, which is to knock another pitcher. All approved by ESPN.

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