YES Network ace analyst Al Leiter fires some fastballs as Yankee Stadium honors and celebrates Mariano Rivera on Sunday, then likely watches Andy Pettitte for the last time:
THE MO EFFECT: “It really was a demoralizing feeling when you’re on the losing end and here comes the ninth. You just kinda knew it was over.”
FOLLOWING MO: David Robertson’s biggest challenge will be “to not worry about, or talk about, or think about the great Mariano, and that’s gonna be hard to do. As soon as he blows a couple … now what? There it goes. Life in the big city, especially New York. … You can’t think about replacing Mo. You’re not going to.”
THE ESSENCE OF ANDY: “Relentless. An internal fire obvious to anyone who watched. Andy to me was a battler. He was gonna keep going at you.”
CORE 1 MORE: “I think it’s gotta be reflective, no doubt. … [Derek Jeter has] gotta think about his next step of his life. While I say that, I think it’s gonna be a nice day for everybody. They’re going out on their terms. Good for you, that’s great — you played baseball till 40!”
THE HOUSE THAT MO BUILT: “As we move forward and look back at this day, it will go down with the great Yankee ceremony moments, and there have been so many.”
Lasorda hit homer with Piazza pick
The only one who really wanted to draft Mike Piazza in 1988 was Tommy Lasorda, the then Dodgers manager.
“Every time we came to Philadelphia, Mike was our bat boy. He worked out with us and I knew his determination to succeed,” Lasorda recalled. “He had a pretty good career, don’t you think?”
Piazza was drafted in the 62nd round by the Dodgers that year. In 16 major league seasons, he went on to hit 427 home runs, became the all-time home run leader for catchers, made 12 All-Star teams, won 10 Silver Slugger Awards and finished with a .308 batting average.
Piazza will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame next Sunday before the season finale with the Brewers.
“Mike just willed himself to becoming a great player,” Lasorda added. “He went down to the Dominican Republic and taught himself to catch and did everything he possibly could to keep improving his skills.”
Piazza was acquired by the Mets on May 22, 1998, and the next two seasons helped the Mets make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history, with a trip to the World Series in 2000.
“Mike was a genuine superstar,” said Bobby Valentine, who managed the Mets from 1996-2002. “Every time we needed a big hit he seemed to get it.”
Tickets for the game are available at (718) 507-TIXX or at Mets.com.
Stars to tee off at charity golf event
Mets third base coach Tim Teufel hosts his 22nd annual celebrity charity golf tourney Oct 1 at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Conn.
Scheduled to play in the event, which benefits the fitness education programs of the Fairfield County Sports Commission and its Hall of Fame, are: longtime New York Times sports columnist Dave Anderson Rick Cerone, Gerry Cooney, Jeff Feagles, John Franco, Dillon Gee, Tommy John, Don Herrmann, Karl Nelson, Bob Ojeda, John Schmitt, Willie Upshaw and Dan Warthen.
Foursomes with a celebrity and individual golfer slots are available. For more information, contact Mark Yusko at (203) 536-3319 or yuskomark@hotmail.com.
PICTURE OF THE WEEK
PICKED THE WRONG WEEK TO STOP RE-ENACTING ‘AIRPLANE!’ Former Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and actor Robert Hayes — stars of the 1980 classic comedy “Airplane!” — work with blow-up autopilot Otto, wearing a cheesehead, while filming new commercials for a Wisconsin-based travel website.