Mo: Three moments that help define Mariano Rivera’s illustrious New York Yankees career

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You could look at player, watch them play, follow their career as closely as you can, and think they are good.

You can pick any player you want to be your favorite.

To drive this point even further, you can look at all the borderline Hall of Famers and think they should or should not be in.

That is because a group of sports writers think or do not think they should be in. It is all a little bit of give or take.

The one thing that never lies, the one thing that is hard to rebut, are the facts. A pure, raw, cold, hard fact.

The fact of the matter here is, is that Mariano Rivera is the all-time saves leader in Major League Baseball history.

You cannot argue that.

Not that anyone would, but you would have to look for a technicality to even stand a chance in arguing that.

Mariano has the most saves ever. That proves and undeniably makes him the best player at his position, ever.

His one job is to come out and close out baseball games. He almost always did. Better than anyone too.

That is one of the moments that defines his career. There were the 601 and before this one.

Most of them more important than the one on this particular day vs the Twins.

However, that save proved what mostly everyone thought and proved he couldn’t be denied entry into the Hall of Fame.

He set the record for a player at his position. Fact.

All the moving parts, like needing to be in that position, playing long enough to have that many attempts, the credentials of the stat itself, do not matter.

Mariano sits atop the record book for most saves by a closer. No one else. He stands alone in that and that is what helps him stand alone as 100% a Hall of Fame player.

The numbers do not lie.

Next, is the moment that shows he was one of the best teammates.