TAMPA — If Mariano Rivera has decided this is it, Mike Mussina says that could help his former teammate, even though the all-time saves leader hardly needs another advantage.
Prior to the 2008 season Mussina decided he would retire at the end of the year. He told a few teammates, but mainly kept it to himself.
Monday, Rivera said he has made his decision about next year already, but isn’t prepared to make it public although the hints were toward retirement.
“I think it had a relaxing effect because I wasn’t trying to prove anything to anybody,’’ Mussina told The Post yesterday of his plan to pitch in 2008 knowing there wasn’t going to be a 2009. “It made it less stressful.’’
Mussina shook off a 1-3 start and 5.75 ERA in the first four games to win 20 for the first time in a borderline Hall of Fame career and fought off those who knew his decision who told him he shouldn’t quit at 39.
“I had made the decision that if I was lousy, it was obvious I needed to stop,’’ Mussina said. “But if I was good, what a better way to stop playing?’’
Mussina understood how cruel pitching can be. Even after the final day of the season when he beat the Red Sox in Fenway Park for the 20th win, he had no pangs of regrets. He was going home with a 20-9 record and a 3.37 ERA.
“At no point did I tell myself to stay,’’ said Mussina, who went 270-153 in 18 seasons with the Orioles and Yankees. “To think I wouldn’t slip or that there wouldn’t be injuries or poor starts and that at 40 it would be better, that wasn’t realistic.
“Something was going to break and maybe the stuff would be below par. I was realistic. I never second-guessed myself and I have been out for three full seasons.’’
Rivera will pitch this season at 42 and while he was very good — 44 saves in 49 chances, 1.91 ERA — last year, injury and ineffectiveness catch every pitcher at some point.
Those who Mussina let in on the retirement secret tried to reverse the decision.
“They said, ‘Are you crazy? You have to come back,’ ” Mussina recalled. “But I am busier now than when I played.’’
Mussina coaches youth basketball and is preparing for the baseball season. Though Mussina said he doesn’t know what Rivera is thinking, he knows if Rivera is to retire, pitching won’t be the only issue influencing the call.
“He is just a little younger than I am and still doing well,’’ said the 43-year-old Mussina. “It depends on how you feel. It wasn’t baseball because I could have played baseball the rest of my life. It’s the travel, the hotels and being away that wears you down. I didn’t get tired of baseball. I felt I really needed to step away.’’
And that decision, made before arguably the best season of his career, provided a comfort level that would only add to Rivera’s greatness if that’s the call Rivera has already made.