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Rivera thanks Indians employees for memories
By TOM WITHERS | Associated Press – 6 hrs ago

CLEVELAND (AP) — Before Mariano Rivera answered questions from Indians employees he wanted to personally thank on his last visit to Progressive Field, the greatest closer in history had a request of his own.

"Where's the drummer?" Rivera asked.

He wanted to finally meet the man who has kept a steady sports beat in Cleveland for 40 years, the guy sitting at the top of the bleachers year after year pounding away to spark a rally.

"Right here," John Adams said, raising one of his drum sticks so the New York legend could see him in the back of the room.

"Hey, you the man," Rivera said. "Being loyal, being there day in and day out. I really respect that."

"Thank you," Rivera said.

During his final trip around the majors, Rivera, who is retiring at the end of this, his 19th season with the Yankees, is taking time to visit with team employees who work behind the scenes. On Wednesday, Rivera met with 25 Indians employees — ushers, ticket salespersons, custodians and others — for 30 minutes before the Yankees played the Indians.

They came to say goodbye to Rivera, who answered questions, posed for pictures and handed out autographed baseballs to Clevelanders who seemed in awe of the classy gesture.

"I appreciate what you guys do," Rivera said. "We see mostly what goes on when we're on the field and not what's going on behind the scenes. I wanted to say thank you for everything that you guys do, for the love and passion you have for your team. It doesn't matter if you are a Yankee fan or not. You are a baseball fan.

"Thank you for being here. I know you are busy, but thank you for taking a little bit of time. I appreciate that."

With that, Rivera said he was ready for questions and braced himself to be peppered by some Indians die-hards who have watched No. 42 come in and close out comebacks and dash more than a few special seasons in Cleveland.

"You can say whatever you want now," Rivera said with a laugh.

It didn't take long for one of the employees to ask Rivera for his favorite memories in Cleveland. In 1997, Rivera famously gave up a game-tying homer to Sandy Alomar Jr. in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the AL division series. The Indians went on to win and take the series in five games, denying the Yankees a chance to defend their World Series title.

For Rivera, it was a rare moment of failure.

But looking back, the 43-year-old said it provided motivation.

"Let me tell you something, if you think '97 was bad," he said. "For me, it was the stone where I stepped to push forward because it helped me to become better. If that wouldn't have happened, God only knows where I would have ended up. But because that happened, it pushed me to be better in moments like that and in situations like that."

Rivera recalled facing dominant Cleveland teams of the 1990s, when the Indians had one of baseball's most feared lineups with Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel and Albert Belle.

"All those years it was a battle here," said Rivera, who announced on March 9 that this would be his final season. "It was never easy."

Rivera, though, often made it look so. He has 609 career saves, and has converted his last 17 save opportunities against the Indians since 2003.

Rivera recoiled playfully when Adams told him he's been drumming at Indians games since 1973.

"This is stress relief for me," he told Rivera. "And you've given me a lot of stress."

Rivera plans special goodbyes during the remainder of his final season. Last week in Detroit, he met with a longtime member of the grounds crew who worked at Tiger Stadium and Comerica Park. He also visited with other members of the Tigers' extended family, faces not as recognizable as his own but people he feels indebted to.

He told them Edgar Martinez was the toughest hitter he ever faced, and he grew up worshipping Pele, the Brazilian soccer legend.

At the end of the visit inside the Indians' press conference room, Rivera met with each of the employees, taking a moment to talk about their jobs, families, whatever they wanted to say.

Mary Forkapy has worked for the Indians since 1996, handling the team's payroll. She shook hands with Rivera, posed for a picture with his valuable right arm around her shoulder and accepted a baseball with the signature of the future Hall of Famer.

"It was very genuine, very heartfelt, very nice," she said of her one-on-one time with Rivera. "He told me I was a very important person."

So did this soften her hatred toward the Yankees?

"A little," she said.

As the group dwindled to just a few, Rivera shook hands with Adams, who tried to get the reliever to take a whack at his large drum.

"No, I can't," Rivera said. "That's your thing."

NOTES: With Wednesday night's game postponed by rain, the Indians will also delay a ceremony to honor Rivera. The Yankees were only scheduled to play four games in Cleveland, but will have to come back at a future date for the makeup. .... RHP Ivan Nova's turn will be skipped and Phil Hughes will start Thursday for New York. ... The rainout cooled off Robinson Cano, who went 7 for 10 with three doubles, three homers and seven RBIs in the first two games of the series. He has twice had consecutive three extra-base hit games. The only other Yankee to do that was Lou Gehrig in 1936.

http://news.yahoo.com/rivera-thanks-indians-employees-memories-010727506--mlb.html

Class act.

Guy deserves 100% on his HOF ballot.

I 'hate' Rivera for all hurt he has put on the Tribe, but he certainly has always been a player with a ton of class and one that I hope stays involved in MLB after his retirement.

My favorite Yankee by far. Every time I read about him, he's doing good deeds for others. A HOFer on and off the field.

Masterson is singlehandedly keeping the Tribe from sinking completely. Tonight was his 3rd excellent outing in a row. He has a streak of 19 scoreless innings in a row working.

Now if we could just get another starting pitcher doing something that resembles Major League work ..... we might start to look like a real team.

Indians have moved Ubaldo's start from today to Tuesday, although they and Ubaldo say he's not hurt. If they had someone else, I'd be inclined to move his next start to another team. But right now their options are Kluber, Huff, or Matsuzaka ... bleh. They'll eventually need to think of dealing Asdrubal, Perez, or both for a legit SP if our other starters don't start to produce. Blue Jays SS, Jose Reyes tore up his ankle last night - might be out 3 months - so they might want to talk about Asdrubal. I don't really want to trade him, but we do have Aviles, with Lindor coming soon from the minors.

Dice-K got hurt last night in his first start in Columbus. Carrasco realistically isn't an option with this suspension until September. That leaves your options as Kluber or Bauer. Luckily (hopefully), Kazmir should be back on the 20th for the next start from the 5th spot.

Forgot about Bauer ... duh. Love his arm, but you can't survive walking 2 guys per inning. He has to throw strikes. He's a possible option later in the season, but not right now, imo. I wish we had an organizational pitching wizard to work with him at Columbus - someone like Leo Mazzone. (I'm guessing we don't based on past performance by our AAA prospects.)

Just have to say great game last night. Masterson has some filthy stuff. Good clutch RBI by Swisher in the 9th. Boy did it look cold.

I would trade Asdrubal to the Blue Jays right now for 3 of there top pitching prospects like Sean Nolin LHP, Aaron Sanchez RHP, Roberto Osuna RHP, Marcus Stroman RHP, or Matt Smoral LHP, give me 3 of them and I'd be happy. I was gonna say J.A. Happ but he is 30.

Aviles can play SS everyday til Lindor is ready, which should be next season.

Hell if they will take Ubaldo I would be happy about that to.

Nice outing by McAllister.

Don't look now, but the Indians are back to 1/2 game out of 1st. lol

It's still early, but if we can get some pitching like the past couple of games, we'll be in solid shape. Unfortunately, we still have shaky starting pitchers at the other positions.

zach has looked good in both of his games (despite losing the first).
ok, 2/5 starting pitchers look to be solid.

Fingers crossed for Kazmir to make it 3/5 when he comes back.

Unfortunately, today we have Myers vs Peavy ...

Reverse curse almost worked today - Myers pitched well, 2 runs in 6 innings. Konerko hit his 47th career HR vs the Indians today, with Dunn on base. Indians had a chance to go 3-0 vs former Cy Young winners; it was 1-0 Indians after 5, but we couldn't really solve Peavy today. Can't say I'm happy with Francona's high regard for Giambi, but we'll see. Jimenez goes Tuesday.

JC ... nrtu

Listening to the game today, I was stunned when Tom Hamilton said Adam Dunn has 408 career HR's. I said out loud "what?". I have always thought of Dunn as a ham-n-egger, one-trick-pony, feast-or-famine doofus ... and here he is, 92 HR's from having a strong chance at the HOF. He's only 33 and projects @ 27 HR's a year. I knew he always clubbed the Indians, but never realized how consistent his power production was. It just goes to show you, youneverknow.

I hope when I wake up tomorrow, I click open the Internet, and the first thing I read is that Indians have DFA'd Ubaldo Jimenez. He is terrible, I was all for giving him a break but he has declined rapidly where I don't think he is a major league pitcher any more!

JC (although I agree about Ubaldo).

I went to MLB.com to see if they did staff ERA by inning, because Indians' starters seem to struggle a lot in the first inning. Turns out that while the staff era is 4.74, the starters ERA is 6.23 in the 1st inning. If you back the first inning out of the calculation, staff ERA is around 4.50. What's it mean? I don't know. Maybe it means our bullpen is way better than our starters. Maybe it means our opponents ease up after they get over on our starter. Maybe our starters warm up too long, or not enough, or just ineffectively. Maybe its too soon to tell. But the 1st inning has been a problem, says Capt Obvious.

In other news, the Indians still suck at fundamental baseball.

@ Mark Reynolds.

Got him in the last round of my money league draft, he's been a wonderful bonus.

Nice to see the Tribe bats finally wake up.

The Kasmir experiment is off to a less than stellar beginning. Kluber was solid though.

The Indians HAVE TO get their starting pitching in working order. Aside from Masterson and MAYBE McAllister the rest of the starters are a train wreck waiting to happen.

Myers might be headed to DL. Too bad for him, but it might get Bauer up here sooner than expected, which is a good thing imo. Either that or get Carrasco back up from Columbus so he can serve his suspension and at least be available in 10 days or so, maybe less if he appeals.

Two things: Kluber went 4 scoreless in relief last night, so he may get first crack. But, if I'm the Indians, I call up Carrasco today. With the off-day on Thursday, the eight days would go by without needing a 5th starter and you'd be able to have Carrasco serve it out.

Carrasco in Columbus, by the way: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 10 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 12 K. He's ready for the majors. He needs to mature, but the stuff is there.

I should know this, but is it 8 days or 8 games suspension?

8 games

Santana hitting with power and average as well. Maybe one of the two will punt Swisher from the 4th spot.

Carrasco takes a line drive off his right elbow, arm appeared to bend back from reports. Looks really, really bad.

Carlos Carrasco got hurt in the minors?

That poor kid. He just fought back from arm surgery.

Luckily, its a deep contusion. I'm guessing he'll go on the 7-day DL in the minors and be back in 2-3 weeks.

We should bring him up to serve his suspension ....

Since teams are always looking for catching. The way our two young catchers played. we should trade lou marson for a pitcher. We also have a back load of ss in the minors trade one to the yankees for a pitcher or sign roy oswalt.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Kazmir ... 2 ER in 5 innings, 4 K's last night ... hit 94 on the gun a few times. But we need more length out of him, 5 innings isn't enough - you'll burn up your bullpen. I still think we need to get Bauer and Carrasco up here developing, because I don't think this is the year we contend.

What's the story on Oswalt? Why is he available?

Bauer will be up on Wednesday, I'd guess. Kazmir looked better last night. He went 100 pitches, but it seemed to be a little more under control after the second inning.

Also, Marson to DL with shoulder inflammation. Gomes back up, plus Scott Barnes up for the day for the double-header.

The problem with corrasco is an 8 game suspension. With all double headers we have to play. maybe we call him up send down a position player. Then we burn 2 games in one day. Then we send him down on monday bring in another pitcher to start one game. This keeps our rotation in order. plus we slowly burn through corrascos suspension.

I read somewhere that teams are allowed to have a 26 man roster for double headers. trying to find it ...

"In a rule established in the most recent collective bargaining agreement, clubs can have 26 players on the roster for day-night doubleheaders that occur at least two days after the original game is rained out."

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=..._tb&c_id=tb