Mariano Rivera's 'The Closer' is a 'must read' for baseball fans

If you’re looking for a good sports-related book to read, I highly recommend that you check out “The Closer” by Mariano Rivera and Wayne Coffey.

Released on May 6 and published by Little, Brown & Co., this book has been on the best-sellers lists for over a month and was ranked No. 4 on Publishers Weekly’s nonfiction best-sellers list last Thursday.

Even passing fans of Major League Baseball know that Rivera pitched 19 seasons for the New York Yankees and finished his career as a 13-time All-Star and as baseball’s all-time career leader in saves. However, “The Closer” will probably fill you in on aspects of Rivera’s life that you might not know.

I was surprised to read that Rivera was pretty much a nobody, who wasn’t on anyone’s baseball radar early in his career. The son of a fisherman in Panama and a high school dropout, he grew up in a two-room cement blockhouse and when he wasn’t helping his dad fish, he played shortstop for an amateur team called Panamá Oeste. One day, the coach asked Rivera to fill in at pitcher, and Rivera caught the eye of a scout who got $200 for every player he signed to a pro contract.

Rivera never had any intentions of becoming a pitcher, but coaches and scouts pushed him in that direction despite the fact that he really only had one pitch – a fastball that he could pretty much throw wherever he wanted. (Later, as his career progressed, he learned to throw other pitches, but rarely threw anything other than a fastball or cutter.) Rivera eventually became a minor league player in the U.S. and improved to the point to where he joined the Yankees in 1995. The rest, as they say, is history.

I was also surprised to read that Rivera is a devout Christian. He’s also been happily married to his hometown, elementary school sweetheart for over 22 years, and since Rivera’s retirement from baseball, they spend their time running the Rivera Foundation. This foundation is a Christian-based organization that focuses on a variety of youth programs.

I also think that the casual baseball fan will enjoy “The Closer” because throughout the book, Rivera comments on a wide variety of baseball topics. He discusses a wide variety of other professional players, including his good friends Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano and Joe Girardi. He also talks about the different stadiums around the league as well as performance enhancing drugs. Coming from a well-informed baseball insider, Rivera’s thoughts on these topics are informative and revealing.

Also, as you might have imagined, Rivera also discusses the nuts and bolts of pitching, but he doesn’t talk way over the head of the average reader. In a nutshell, Rivera believes that you don’t have to have an arsenal of different pitches to be successful. You just have to have great command and control and a strong desire to win.

In the end, if you enjoy reading about baseball, I highly recommend that you check out “The Closer.” It retails for $28 and is available at bookstores as well as through online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.