46 JULY 2019 • BASEBALLAMERICA.COM
HOF CLASS OF 2019
Rivera also rubbed off on Dellin Betances, who was a
Yankee for two games in 2011, none at all in 2012 and six in- After Rivera retired, Betances developed into one of the
best relievers in baseball for the next five seasons.
“No matter what, the way he bounced back after a tough
game—and he didn’t have many of them—it was like noth-
ing really happened,” Betances said. “I didn’t ask many
questions. I just felt I had to pay attention to what he did.
“The poise he had out there on the mound. Nothing was
really fazing him.”
When it came to advice from a future Hall of Famer to a
pitcher developing from a failed minor league starter to an
elite reliever, it was simple in voice but not easy.
“His biggest advice to me has always been: attack the
strike zone,” Betances said. “Your stuff is too good, but (you
have to) be ahead in the count.”
Brett Gardner remembers a teaching moment—and
Rivera’s accountability—from his rookie season of 2008.
“I was out there playing where I was supposed to play and
he gave up a broken-bat hit and the ball fell in front of me,”
Gardner said. “He told me afterward, ‘Hey, I want you to play
in the infield. If I give up a hit, somebody barrels me and they
hit in it the gap over your head. It is my fault. But if I break
somebody’s bat I want you to catch it.
“He was obviously a guy who got a lot of weak contact.
There were times when he was in the middle of the plate and
the ball didn’t cut and got hit, but more times than not he
was going to make his pitch and he didn’t want to get beat by
a cheap hit.”
Of course, Rivera got beat just that way by the
Diamondbacks in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of
the 2001 World Series. With the infield in and one out, Rivera
shattered Luis Gonzalez’s bat and the ball landed in short left
field as Jay Bell scored the winning run for the D-backs.
“He was the ultimate competitor, always prepared. He was
the same guy every day. You couldn’t tell if there were two
outs and nobody on base or bases loaded with nobody out,”
said Gardner, who was part of the last Yankees’ World Series
title with Rivera in 2009. “He functioned in a high-leverage
environment for so long. That allowed him to be successful.”
That was true even after Rivera suffered a right knee inju-
ry early in 2012. He had converted five of six save chances
when he was shagging during batting practice at age 42 in
Kansas City. It was a staple of Rivera’s pregame routine, so
nothing was out of the ordinary. But when Rivera crumbled
to the warning track in left-center at Kauffman Stadium, it
was easy to see he was severely injured. He required surgery
to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Still, Rivera said he would return for the 2013 season.
Asked if the Yankees would want him back at 43, Rivera
said quickly, “They will want the old goat back.”CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45“I DON’T THINK YOU ARE GOING TO SEE ANYBODY
GET CLOSE TO THOSE SAVE NUMBERS.”
—Yankees reliever Zack Britton on RiveraMike
MussinaThe No. 8 prospect available in the
1987 draft coming out of Montoursville
(Pa.) High, Mike Mussina fell to the
Orioles in the 11th round because he
demanded a $350,000 bonus. He didn’t
sign and went on to a distinguished
career at Stanford.
Mussina fell once again in the 1990
draft—this time as the No. 26 pros-
pect—before the Orioles snagged
him with the 20th pick. He signed for
$250,000 and the guarantee he would
begin his career at Double-A.
Mussina shot through the minors
so quickly that he ranked as a Top 10
Prospect for the Orioles only once. He
ranked No. 2 heading into the 1991
season.
Mussina made his big league debut
that August. BA correspondent Tim
Pearrell wrote about Mussina earlier
in 1991, when the 22-year-old was still
sharpening his mind and repertoire,
including his trademark knuckle-curve-
ball, at Triple-A Rochester.
Mussina taught himself a knuck-
le-curve as a high school sophomore.
“I never had a curveball,” he said.
“I never needed one. I just threw it
by people. I was always throwing theknuckleball just goofing around. I made
an adjustment from that. It’s much
more consistent now than it was then.”
Mussina’s analytical take on baseball
carried him to 270 wins in an 18-year
career spent entirely in the rugged
American League East with the Orioles
and then Yankees.
—Matt EddyHOF
FOCUSMike Mussina
earned his place
in Cooperstown
on his sixth
ballot. He stood
out for his control
and outstanding
knuckle-
curveball.Roy
HalladayThe Blue Jays drafted Roy Halladay
17th overall in 1995 out of high school
in suburban Denver. He debuted that
year in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast
League, where he ranked as the No. 5
prospect. He jumped to high Class A
Dunedin in 1996 and ranked as the No.
3 prospect in the Florida State League.
Halladay began 1997 at Double-A
and quickly advanced to Triple-A.
He made his big league debut as a
September callup in 1998 after two sea-
sons in the International League.
Halladay’s outlook for 1999 appeared
bright, and he ranked as the Blue Jays’
No. 1 prospect for the third straight sea-
son. Tracy Ringolsby’s scouting report
reads in part:
“His fastball is solidly in the mid-90s,
and he has the endurance to maintain
his velocity... He has developed a
hard-biting slider that may be his best
pitch.”
While Halladay stumbled out of thegate in Toronto by running up a 6.01
ERA through his first two seasons, he
completely remade himself during a
minor league demotion in 2001 that
took him all the way down to the FSL.
He emerged later that season as a big
league ace.
From 2001 to 2011, Halladay was the
best pitcher in baseball. He accumu-
lated 65.5 wins above replacement in
those 11 seasons, ranking him first by a
mile against direct contemporaries Roy
Oswalt (51.2), Johan Santana (50.7) and
CC Sabathia (49.9).
—Matt EddyHOF
FOCUSRoy Halladay won
Cy Young Awards
in both leagues
and was the best
pitcher of the
first decade of
the 2000s. That
helped make him
a first-ballot Hall
of Fame selection
roughly a year
after he died in a
plane crash.CONTINUED ON PAGE 48 FOCUS ON SPORT; NICK LAHAM. ICONS: HALLIDAY BY JOHN LEYBA/THE DENVER POST. MARTINEZ, RIVERA AND MUSSINA BY ALEX TRAUTWIG/MLB PHOTOS. ALL VIA GETTY IMAGES