A Brief Summary Of Mariano Rivera's The Closer

The Closer was written about Mariano Rivera, a small town fisherman's son turned into big time baseball player. Mariano Rivera, or "Mo," played baseball on a small beach in Panama growing up. Once Mo grew up, he played professional baseball in the USA for the New York Yankees. One of my favorite parts in this book was when Mo described pitching in the eighth inning of game seven in the World Series, "All I think about is throwing the best pitch I can. The first hitter, Mark Grace, hits a broken-bat looper into center for a single. David Dellucci pinch-runs for him, extra speed that is important because the next hitter, catcher Damian Miller, is surely bunting. Miller squares and taps his bunt almost straight back to me, an easy force at second.

I pounce on it and fire it to Derek, but my throw sails into right center field." (Pg 192) I included that excerpt from the book because it showed how important baseball actually was to him, the way he remembered every single little detail.

Mo truly was one of the greats.

What I liked was all of the in depth thoughts from real life situations of a Major League Baseball player, that was easily my favorite part of reading this book. I liked that because it kept me interested, just because of how much I liked Mo and the Yankees. "But the more I practice with the Gulf Coast Yankees, the more I know I can compete with them. When we run and field, I am right there with everybody. And when I am on the mound I discover that, as skinny as I am, and as underwhelming as my 86- or 87-mile-per-hour fastball is, I can do one thing better than just about anybody else: Put the ball exactly where I want." (Pg 62) What I didn't like was reading about the injuries of Mo. I didn't like that because I hate that such a great player's historic career was not as historic as it could've been. "I let the words sink in for a moment: Torn ACL. Torn MCL. Surgery. Out for the year. They are hard to take in. Three hours earlier, I am romping around the outfield, doing what I love most, maybe in the last season I'll ever play, savoring every moment. Now I am looking at major reconstructive knee

surgery and a long, grinding rehab. I thank Dr. Key and wait in the clubhouse for the game to end. We lose. 4-3. I stand in front of the whole team. I am fighting tears and not winning. I share my diagnosis with them: Shredded Knee. Major Surgery. Goodbye, 2012." (Pg 291) What made me think was just how different American life was from life in Panama. This made me think because everything that is normal in America might not be so normal somewhere else. Also, what would it be like if I were Mo? If I were the one moving to a foreign country where I didn't fully understand the language or the culture? "The Tampa airport is less hectic but the same amount bewildering. All of the signs are, of course, in English. Bagel? French fries? Home of the Whopper? What do these things mean? Baggage claim? Lost and found? Ground Transportation? Can somebody please explain? Luis and I keep walking. Our goal is to find a guy in a Yankee hat and a Yankee jacket. This is all they tell us: 'Look for a guy named Chris wearing Yankee stuff. He's sort of a roly-poly guy in his late thirties. You can't miss him.'" (Pg 59)
Would I recommend this book or not? Yes, if forty people asked me if I recommended this book, I would tell eighty-seven people to read this book. There honestly isn't anywhere in this book you could read and not be interested. I could have opened to a random page of the book, read the page, and discuss that one page for twenty minutes. This book is easily the best autobiography/biography I have ever read. I mean, it's about a Yankee. What can go wrong? The only thing I didn't like about this was the part where his injuries were covered. It wasn't that I wasn't interested in the injuries, it was the fact that I didn't want to hear anything bad happen to Mo.