Mo to Grim Reaper: not so fast--Tim Brown, Yahoo Sports

Mariano Rivera pitches in Yankee Stadium vs the Rays, 6/7/09. Final score 4-3. Getty photo.

• "Rivera has defied numbers in his entire career," Anthony McCarron with John and Suzyn on Yankee radio today.

And tonight from Tim Brown, Yahoo Sports, Rivera had been sick and vomiting several hours before the Saturday game v the Rays--not that he used it as an excuse or even mentioned it. Interestingly, a select Yankee blog did not give Rivera the benefit of the doubt in its haste to deep six him. Perhaps the young gent will learn in a few more years. From Brown, Yahoo Sports:

• "For several hours before Rivera took the ball Saturday afternoon in that tie game,

• he’d suffered with a stomach ailment that brought aches and repeated vomiting,

according to one Yankee.

• Rivera had rolled off the trainer’s table, where he’d hoped to sleep it off, and into the bullpen in the eighth inning, when he began to warm up.

So, no, he didn’t have his best command. And, no, he didn’t have his best fastball.

• But, he didn’t sprinkle the Yankee Stadium mound with breakfast, which, in itself, was a small victory, even in defeat.

• “He was so upset afterward,” the teammate said.

And yet, Rivera did not mention it after the game, and he did not reveal it late Sunday afternoon, when it would have played less like an excuse than, in victory, the simple retelling of a trying 30 hours. He did not hang those hittable fastballs or that loss on his illness.

• He did not blame manager Joe Girardi for asking him to pitch in a tie game when a healthier body might have – and probably should have – done.

He accepted the baseball.

That was that....

• “Yesterday was yesterday,” he said.

Today, he ate. And held it down."..."

• Yanks Rivera Never Lost his Mojo," by Tim Brown, 6/7/09

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