Mariano Rivera shocked Yankee fans recently when he told reporters that he knows what his decision will be regarding retirement after this season. It seemed pretty obvious at the time that he was leaning towards retirement, which is unfortunate. Today he said that he will probably let everyone know before the All Star break.
Any Yankee fan knows that Mo has been practically ageless. He has put up some of his best seasons from age 38-41, laughing in the face of baseball mortality. He told the Yankees that he wanted to retire after the 2005 season to become an evangelical minister, so I guess its really just been a matter of time.
Mariano's actions are as close to being completely above reproach as any athletes can be. This obviously isn't Tiki Barber acting like a jackass and detracting from the team in his prime. Mo is 42 now, and even though he could probably keep playing, it looks like he really wants to be a minister and help others. That is fine, but I'd like to ask him this question:
How many people can he affect as a minister in a given year?
I'm sure its a lot, which is great for him. However, I doubt that he could possibly do more for others as a minister than the 15 million dollars the Yankees are willing to pay him for his 70 innings of baseball could do. So why not play for as long as he can, and use that money to help others. Come on Rivera, don't be selfish.
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