Fun times with Mariano Rivera and friends

Funny quotes from Ed Randall’s Fans for the Cure event honoring Mariano Rivera:

David Cone on Mariano striking out Jay Buhner in the 1995 division series, then quickly being removed from Game 5 by then-Yankees manager Buck Showalter: “He should’ve brought [Mo] in earlier. Should have kept him in longer. Buck Showalter would still be managing the Yankees.”

John Flaherty talking about feeling confident about facing Mariano as a hitter because he knew Mo would throw him all fastballs: “Three pitches and I was back in the dugout. Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.”

Larry Rothschild talking about facing Mariano as the first manager of the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays: “We didn’t see him a whole lot because the games weren’t that close.”

Rothschild on calling Mo after he became the Yankees pitching coach: “There’s no use calling him, he’ll never call you back.”

Mariano on reports that he only needs eight innings of work in spring training to be ready for the baseball season: “That’s plenty. I try to cut it down.”

Mariano on his reluctance to travel to away games in spring training: “They have all these young boys and they want to send me to Winter Haven or Fort Myers. All that traffic. I did that when I was young.”

Mariano on going for the save: “If I’m there for 10 minutes, I’m in trouble.”

Flaherty on thinking he would fit right in with the Boston Red Sox because of his name: “When you hit .190, they don’t love you that much.”

Ed Randall on how players joining the New York Yankees immediately adopt the Yankees professional way of playing the game of baseball: “Locker next to Derek Jeter and see if he pulls that crap, BJ Upton.”

Cone on the Yankees beating the Atlanta Braves in the 1996 and 1999 World Series: “Twice we snatched away team of the decade from the Atlanta Braves. Every time I see [John] Smoltz, I let him know."

Cone on the New York Mets using the Baja Boys song “Who let the Dogs out?” for inspiration during the 2000 World Series: “Jeter goes all right. We’re all looking at each other and going ‘are you kidding'? This is the World Series. Jeter goes up there first pitch: whack, gone.”

Mariano on sitting next to Yankees legend Don Mattingly after he was first called up to the big leagues: “I was afraid to breathe.”

Cone on the Yankees winning tradition: “There’s always someone in the Yankees organization who can put you in your place. The Core Four [has] the great five rings. And then Yogi [Berra] walks in the room.”

“He lets you know,” Mo said of Yogi’s 10 World Series titles.

Mariano on his tweaked nickname for his former catcher Flaherty: “I call him White Flash. We have Tom Gordon—that’s Black Flash.”

Mariano Rivera feeling good just in time

Mariano Rivera is feeling good and that’s the most important news of the day.

I had the pleasure of attending Ed Randall’s Fans for the Cure event honoring Mariano Rivera last night. After an introductory video highlighting Mo’s legendary career, the first question Randall posed to Mo was to ask how he is feeling. The long-time sportswriter and radio host spoke for all New York Yankees fans in and out of that room when he asked Mo to please say he is fine. Luckily, Mo said he is feeling really good.

But I felt so bad for Mo because the next thing he said was that it was torture watching the Yankees play without him after that terrible knee injury last year. As the evening went on, it became clear that Mo is a fierce competitor and was haunted by the fact that he couldn’t be there for his teammates.

“I felt powerless,” he said. “I wanted to do everything, but I couldn’t. It was painful.”

Mo talked about how he desperately tried to rehab in time to help the Yankees last October. I hadn’t realized that Mo was trying so hard to return for the playoffs. Not that he could have helped the nonexistent Yankees offense against Detroit.

But he’s been there for his teammates so many times, as we saw from the career highlights that played throughout the evening. The wonder in the voices of former teammates David Cone and John Flaherty, and even a competitor who beat him in Luis Gonzalez, is obvious when they talk about Mariano. Gonzalez insisted that he got lucky in blooping that base hit over Derek Jeter’s head in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, but praised Mariano’s humility and graciousness in giving Gonzalez and the Arizona Diamondbacks full credit for that victory.

“What you see is what you get,” Cone said. “Whatever you think about this man, you’re thinking right because he is an exceptional person as well as a pitcher.”

"He's kind of the Superman of baseball," Gonzalez said in a taped interview. "I'm sure as soon as his time comes for him to hang up that number 42, he will be the next one to go into the Hall of Fame."

Mariano and his friends regaled us with stories about game situations and manager Joe Girardi’s stress over Mo’s relaxed pace of getting ready to get into the game. Mo never rushes through his routine, not even at the request of his hyperactive manager. It was obvious that the guys love to mess with Girardi.

“You have to have fun,” Rivera said. “The game is too hard not to have fun.”

Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready with my camera when Mo walked right past me on the way to the podium – he is so much taller than I expected – and I was a bit too far from the stage to get a great picture. But I did manage some decent photos of him and his friends: Cone, Flaherty and pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

It was really cool to be there for such a fun and funny conversation. I’ll post some of the funnier lines from the evening tomorrow. Needless to say, just being there for an event honoring my favorite baseball player was the ultimate thrill.

Congrats to Santana and long-suffering Mets fans

Congratulations, New York Mets fans! Your suffering is over. No longer will you be mocked for never experiencing one of the greatest accomplishments in baseball history.

The Mets have been overachieving all season, surpassing all expectations and playing to within a game of first place in the National League East (and one game better than the New York Yankees). Now a Mets pitcher has finally accomplished a feat that some people doubted would ever happen: Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in franchise history. After all the near misses and the agony of watching former Mets throw no-hitters and perfect games for other teams, this one has to feel good.

It seems right that Santana is the guy to make Mets history, especially considering how well liked he is all across baseball. The congratulations quickly started pouring in when word of his no-hitter got around and the praise all seemed quite genuine, with many of his former teammates expressing pure joy at their friend’s feat.

Santana has had a terrific career, winning not one but two Cy Young awards. The Mets have had so many terrific pitchers over the years, namely the great Tom Seaver. But Santana is the one to finally put the Mets on the map when it comes to no-hitter pitching history. He did right by the Mets and by Mets fans, saluting them for their support that night and through his struggles with that injured shoulder. He also made a short and simple clubhouse speech that choked me up a bit when he told his teammates that they all did this together.

And a big bravo to Terry Collins for having the guts to let his “hero” stay in that game despite the possible damage throwing so many pitches could do to Santana’s surgically repaired shoulder. It was not an easy call. Yankees fans remember when Joe Torre pulled David Cone from a game against the Oakland Athletics with a no-hitter through seven innings in his first start coming back from an aneurysm. Collins wasn’t going to do that, not to his ace, not in front of those long-suffering Mets fans, who have stuck by the team through September collapses and Bernie Madoff.

Congratulations to Johan Santana for a feat 50 years in the making. And to those hard-core Mets fans, including my uncles, who stood by the Mets through all the tough times. You all deserve this moment.  

Hughes can handle the Hughes Rules

David Cone said something incredibly insightful about Phil Hughes yesterday on Mike Francesa's talk show. Cone said that the young right hander is evolving and showing the ability to adapt to all situations. This will be an important trait for him over the next few months, with the coming of the Hughes Rules.

Designed to protect the young pitcher from blowing out his arm, the rules are well-intended by the New York Yankees. But as shown with Joba Chamberlain last year, it's easy to mess them up and disrupt a young pitcher's development. While not coming out and criticizing the Joba Rules, his interview yesterday with Francesa was quite telling. "It's nice not to have any rules," Chamberlain said.

But Joba has high praise for Hughes, who Joba said has handled everything that's happened in the last two seasons perfectly.

"He could have folded when they put him in the bullpen," Chamberlain said. "He did a tremendous job and that speaks a lot about him as an individual. Not only as a baseball player. That speaks for itself. But for an individual to do one thing his whole career and ... to go to the bullpen and embrace the role. I think the things he did last year carried over. He doesn't give in and he always has a plan and he knows what he's going to do."

Cone and Chamberlain believe Hughes can handle anything that comes his way. I agree. Hughes has shown a maturity uncommon in young players, something he learned under the tutelage of the great Mariano Rivera last year. But he has taken it to a new level this year and that has contributed to his tremendous success, unlikely to be derailed by the Hughes Rules.

Yanks should step up on health care

The Yankees have three goals for the last two games of the season: get players tuned up and ready for the playoffs, see how players on the bubble respond to game opportunities and avoid getting anyone hurt. The team has dealt with some recent injuries that have caused concern: Jorge Posada’s neck, Dave Robertson’s arm, etc. Fortunately for these guys, they work for an employer in the New York Yankees that can afford the best health care available. The rest of us are not as lucky.

People are losing their jobs, sometimes illegally, and filing for bankruptcy because of crushing health care bills. Under pressure from the sustained recession, employers are cutting benefits, increasing premiums and laying off workers who cannot afford to pay the full premiums that would allow them to stay with their employer’s health plan. Of course, there are a few bad employers who will take drastic, illegal action. But as a journalist who covered health care issues for a magazine directed toward employers, I know that most of them do want to be able to provide health insurance to their employees. But they want to do it in a way that does not undermine their business and that's what they are struggling with right now.

There will never be a better opportunity for health care reform than now, which is why it’s incredibly frustrating to sit back and watch Congress squander it. Every day legislators continue to bicker about a public plan versus private insurance is a lost chance to stop the bleeding.

I speak to people in Canada and the UK regularly for work and they just can’t grasp what the hell we’re fighting about. For them, the idea that people have to fight to get basic health care is unimaginable. Yes, their systems have problems such as long wait times for certain procedures. But the system is generally there when they need it the most and they don’t have to lay awake every night wondering how they will pay that $100,000 hospital bill while keeping up with their house payments and buying clothes and food for their kids.

The Yankees have done good work in the community on health care issues. Johnny Damon is following in the footsteps of great Yankees like Don Mattingly and Bernie Williams as the ambassador for the Children’s Health Fund, which provides quality health care to low-income and homeless children. David Cone, the current Yankee broadcaster and former Yankee great, and his wife Lynne have been long-time supporters of The Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, which treats kids with serious illnesses and injuries.

But I’d like to see more athletes and other celebrities stepping up to the plate to lobby Congress to get health care reform done. It amazes me when I see celebrities tirelessly advocate for causes such as greening the environment or saving Darfur, but on the health care issue they are shockingly silent. Whether we like it or not, celebrities get the most attention and have considerable influence just through their routine interactions with policymakers. I challenge the Yankees to use that influence for a good cause and lobby Congress and the administration so that the working class people who make up the bulk of their loyal audience can afford the quality health care that their players are used to.