Sports

Time still being kind to Rivera

The most amazing part about what Mariano Rivera has done this year isn’t that he wanted to go out on his terms. Of course he did. All athletes do, even if sometimes they all seem destined to fall into the hidden rabbit holes that seem to litter the grass as they get older.

It’s that he really is going out on his terms.

“I didn’t want that to be the last image people had of me,” Rivera said earlier this year, talking about the night in the spring of 2012 when he wound up sprawled on the turf at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City, his knee blown out, his season over.

Rivera wanted something else. He wanted those parting pictures to be of him at the peak of his powers, mowing through ninth innings, pounding out saves, and that’s what we’ve gotten all across the spring and summer of 2013, Rivera getting the job done in all but two of the opportunities he has accrued, looking every bit as dominant as he ever has.

And what has made this all the more poignant is when you see the various struggles of the other Yankees who have far more yesterdays in their career than tomorrows, all of whom are learning the harsh lesson almost every athlete with rare exception — Rivera, Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain, even Mike Mussina — learns.

Father Time is undefeated.

Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Alex Rodriguez are daily reminders it doesn’t matter what your intentions are: When you hit your late 30s, or your early 40s, your body is going to behave as if it’s in its late 30s or early 40s. Even if it’s spent most of your life behaving at world-class levels.

Forget the drama that’s ahead of A-Rod, the PED reckoning that grows closer at hand — that is of his own doing. It’s the state of his health that is most sobering, especially if you remember what a physical marvel he was even as recently as 2008, the combination of strength and speed and flexibility. Be as cynical as you want about how that all came to be, the fact is, the version we will see (or not see) in the days ahead only is a shadow of that marvel. It happens to all of us.

Pettitte and Jeter simply are following the footsteps of so many others who came before. Whitey Ford barely could feel his fingertips by the time he was winding up as a Yankee. Mickey Mantle barely could walk. Joe DiMaggio’s hair was almost all gray and his gait considerably slower by the end. On and on. Generation after generation.

So we watch Jeter play as hard as he always had, and what that means at age 39 is that it puts his quad muscle at risk. We watch Pettitte pitch with the same heart and the same grit as always, and sometimes it works fine and sometimes it looks like he’s completely exhausted every time he throws a pitch, and it seems he shakes his head in aggravation more than he ever did before.

You wonder if they are ever envious when they watch what Rivera is doing. As he stares down Father Time, knowing even he might have a hard time handling his cutter.

Whack Back at Vac

Bill Dancosse: Ryan Braun didn’t lose $3.5 million in salary. He made $5.6 million. The only way for him to lose anything would be for MLB to make him pay back what he’s already been paid or make him play the 65-game suspension for nothing. Either way, him and the rest of the PED cheats are multi-millions ahead and laughing all the way to the bank.

Vac: Wait, you mean you don’t think Braun has been locked in his room praying for forgiveness all week?

Mike Gijanto: With the trading deadline upon us, should the Yankees handle Robinson Cano like the Red Sox handled Nomar Garciaparra in 2004? That was the start of something that turned out pretty good for the Sox.

Vac: It’s hard to even fathom that as a possibility … until

you take a hard, honest look

at the fact that it really did lead to a happily-ever-after for Boston.

@SomaBoy: I want to see Terry Collins manage for his job this next little run. Stop playing it safe. Squeeze for once! Use Bobby Parnell for four to six outs. Don’t manage not-to-lose.

@MikeVacc: I am officially torn on Collins. If there were an obvious upgrade available, I would encourage the Mets to pursue. But if Wally Backman is the best “upgrade” there is? That doesn’t cut it. Not for me.

Tom Sloan: Seattle was better after A-Rod left. Texas was better after A-Rod left. The Yanks will be better after A-Rod leaves.

Vac: A couple fewer syllables, that would be the greatest haiku ever.

Vac’s Whacks

In the lexicon of Alex (“First-Time, Long-Time”) Rodriguez, “crossing signals” apparently translates to “patently and arrogantly ignoring the rules that every other major league baseball player routinely follows.”

* There have been some great anti-heroes on TV recently. But none is as unambig-uously terrifying as Ben Diamond, played by the great Danny Huston, and for that alone you should be tuning into Starz every Friday night for “Magic City.”

* How is it even possible that it was 20 years ago yesterday than an elegant basketball player named Reggie Lewis had his heart give out on a basketball court in Waltham, Mass.?

* Couldn’t help but think of the late George Carlin this week: “Somewhere in the world is the world’s worst doctor. And what’s truly terrifying is that someone has an appointment with him tomorrow morning.” Unless, of course, he’s making a tour of local media outlets and isn’t seeing any patients.