Jerry Green

Take baseball analysis with a grain of salt

The guy anointed the best pitcher in the history of baseball is not a craggy graybeard who won 511 ballgames a century ago. He is not Cy Young or one of the other immortals whose faces adorned cigarette packets far back in the history of the sport -- say Walter Johnson or Christy Mathewson. He lacks the savvy and power of Rapid Robert Feller or Bob Gibson or the incomparable Sandy Koufax.

This guy is the classic poster person of what major league baseball has developed into in the 21st Century. He is a guy who toils one inning, perhaps two when his team is in jeopardy. Normally, he warms up in the bullpen during the eighth and emerges in the ninth. His job is to close out victories for other pitchers who might have sweated through the first seven innings.

He is a closer -- the preserver of championships. A smallish relief pitcher who learned his trade in Panama. His name is Mariano Rivera, master of the cut fastball.

And it was a smirky, former manager now between gigs, spouting supposed intelligence for ESPN -- the self-proclaimed worldwide sports leader -- who stamped Rivera as the greatest who ever pitched baseball.

Bobby Valentine said so, unabashedly, with his snarky, know-everything East Coast grin.

"He always rises to the occasion," Valentine told an audience on a recent gab session on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight."

"I absolutely think he's the greatest of all-time."

Not merely the greatest relief specialist in the history of baseball -- but the greatest pitcher in the 134 seasons of major league baseball.

To which this amateur baseball historian, attached to his TV set, responded: "Another load of Bobby Valentine's baloney, deodorized for ESPN. More poppycock."

Not quite perfect

And then I imagined Luis Gonzalez running toward first base, clapping his hands as his single floated above Derek Jeter and into left field. It was the blow that defeated the Yankees in the 2001 World Series.

The pitcher who surrendered Gonzalez's championship single was the supposed greatest pitcher in the history of baseball.

The image of Rivera's anguish at surrendering the losing hit in a World Series remains vivid, his face twisted.

Just as vivid is the single Rivera allowed in the Yankees' historic crash against the Red Sox in the American League championship series in 2004. It was that October, the Yankees ahead 3-0 in the series, ahead by one run in Game 4 in the ninth -- on the brink of the World Series. Then the turning point occurred against Rivera, charged with clinching the pennant for the Yankees:

A steal of second by Dave Roberts.

A single by Bill Mueller to tie the score.

A blown save for Rivera.

Then against reliever Paul Quantirill, a home run in the 14th by David Ortiz to win for the Red Sox, their first victory, post-midnight,

That same night, Game 5, another blown save for Rivera, the second victory for the Red Sox.

And then two more victories by the Red Sox, to beat the Yankees for the pennant, and four more to sweep the Cardinals in the World Series.

Sorry, Bobby Valentine's accolades are laden with poppycock.

There should be no criticism at all of Mariano Rivera. He is just not the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball. Cy Young, Johnson, Mathewson, Feller, Koufax, Gibson, Nolan Ryan -- any of those might be.

It well might be that Rivera is merely the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball. I would not argue against that, although Rollie Fingers or Dennis Eckersley might.

It so happens that Rivera has been the losing pitcher just once in any playoff or World Series game in which he pitched. That was when he surrendered the winning hit of the Series against the Diamondbacks to Gonzalez.

Going 8-1 with a load of saves in postseason games is worthy of a Hall of Fame election for Rivera. His record in key games -- playoffs and World Series -- is superior to those of both Hall of Fame closers Fingers and Eckersley.

It is Rivera's job to dominate the opposition with his cutter. And he usually does. In Game 2 of this current World Series, Rivera saved a much needed victory for the Yankees over the Phillies with two sub-great innings of relief pitching.

So-called experts

What gets to me is the poppycock we are fed when we stay at home and watch the playoffs and World Series games.

Valentine is just the latest, a talking head hired because he managed in the major leagues. We are supposed to receive some acute analysis and otherwise unavailable expertise. Dumped managers or general managers are regarded as learned baseball men, but so many are flawed.

Well, Valentine was a decent manager with the Rangers and Mets. He did manage the Mets into the World Series against the Yankees in 2000. The Yankees beat him in five games.

Valentine also spent two tours managing in Japan. He is now back in the U.S., a supplicant for another job in the majors. He recently was rejected after interviews for the vacancy with the Indians, a job awarded to Manny Acta. Valentine remains one of the candidates to manage the Washington Nationals.

Wherever he might go, he carries a suitcase full of nonsense.

When he managed the Rangers, he got into a violent argument at home plate -- with a groundskeeper at Tiger Stadium. The dirt wasn't smooth, or something.

When he managed the Mets, he was ejected for arguing in a game by umpire Randy Marsh. Valentine returned to the dugout an inning later wearing a disguise. His tomfoolery then cost him a $10,000 fine and a three-game suspension.

He managed to get himself sacked by the Mets after a stormy relationship with the club's general manager. It so happens the general manager was former Detroiter Steve Phillips.

This is same Steve Phillips, who after the Mets, became an analyst on ESPN. He survived until this past week. ESPN gave him the ziggy -- Detroiters should appreciate that word for firing -- for another of the worldwide leader's episodes of sex scandals.

So precious are the ironies of sports.

Another wordsmith named Willie Shakespeare once summed it all up: "Lord, what fools these mortals be."

Retired Detroit News sports writer Jerry Green writes a Web-exclusive column each Sunday for detnews.com.