Fitz and Vig. Real Sports Guys.

If you follow Fitz and Vig you know that we’ve talked a lot about Mariano Rivera this baseball season. He’s Vig’s favorite player, and Fitz is starting to get concerned that Mo is on a downward trend. However, neither of us is arguing with his performance this year, and every year since 1996 (The year he recorded his first save). Last night against the Seattle Mariners, Mariano had another strong performance to ice a one run win and give a rare second half victory to Average Joe, AJ Burnett. If you watched the game, you know that it ended on a caught stealing of Ichiro Suzuki. Smart move to try and steal by Ichiro in that situation if you ask Fitz, but it’s only a good move if you don’t get caught. Kind of like cheating on the SAT’s. That was only the 4th time a game saved by Rivera ended on a thrown out base thief. Next on the horizon is save 601, to tie Trevor Hoffman’s all time record, and then 602 to take the record as his own. Since Mariano is the best ever, I would find it classy if any closer in the future that approaches his record takes themselves out of the closer role and retires as not to eclipse the great Rivera’s imminent all time mark. The same way Lou Holtz stepped down as coach of Notre Dame with 100 victories as he approached Knute Rockne’s 105 win record.