Nothing quite says “Yankee fans” quite like booing Mariano Rivera for blowing the third game of the season.
Who’s Rivera’s daddy now? Though I must say, Simmons is awful cocky here for a guy whose team is 1-2 and who wrote that Keith “Foulke’s gritty October performance vaulted him past Rivera as the premier money reliever in baseball” just a day or so before Foulke got tagged for a walk-off homer by Derek Jeter.
Of course, it’s a long season. But any Yankee fan tempted to boo Rivera should contemplate how all those banners got there the past 9 years.
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Yah, no other team’s fans would EVER boo an established player like that. (Nomar, Sosa…)
Only Yankee fans! We’re all just whiny fair-weather bandwagonners.
You really think Mariano’s contributions to Yankee championships are comparable to the contributions to their franchise’s championships of Nomar and Sammy Sosa?
No, I don’t think there’s another player on any recent team that’s meant as much to a team (in the postseason, at least) that Rivera. Let me be clear: I think booing Mariano Rivera for a blown save in April is lame. I’m a Yankee fan, and I wouldn’t have done it. Most of the Yankee fans I know would not have. A couple hundred in Yankee Stadium that did do not represent all Yankee fans, as much as you might like it to.
Actually, none of the Yankee fans I know would have booed.
Just watching the replay of him being taken out now, and there was a small smattering of boos that quickly quieted out and was overwhelmed by applause.
Again, a couple hundred in Yankee Stadium that booed do not represent all Yankee fans.
Simmons also points out, probably quite accurately, that the large majority booing were probably Sox fans. Foulke and Rivera probably are the two best money relievers in baseball and you don’t make your money in April. I hate it when they have the Sox-Yankee games this early. It’s hard to get excited other than the “thank goodness baseball finally started” excitement. It has to be at least May for these games to really have the import that they should. Do I care that Foulke blew the save yesterday or am I crazed that Rivera blew 2 straight? Nah. It’s game 3 of 162 and I know they all mean the same amount but…
This is obviously not the first game Rivera’s blown against the Red Sox and it’s two days in a row – not as though it doesn’t seem like a given nowadays.
Rivera’s been clear of hard criticism for years due to his past. He was given a walk after blowing game 7 of the WS in 2001, barely took heat after last year’s LCS against the Sox. He can take a few boos for some bad performances, it’s not like there are fans with “Mo Must Go” signs.
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The fact is, we pay pay Mo an 8 figure salary to produce about 70 effective innings a year. We pay him to make us invincible with a lead late in games, especially in the playoffs. He’s human, but the fact that he’s given the Nation the only two legit points for trash talking (the comeback, now that the Sox are in Rivera’s head) is really what burns Yankee fans. Had he blown two against Baltimore, there would be no boos. I wouldnt have booed him, but I understand the frustration.