End of an era

So it has been a huge past week, Terrell Suggs tore his Achilles, Junior Seau supposedly committed suicide, and the NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing. But those aren't the stories I am going to talk about today. I want to talk about the end of an era.

I want to talk about Mariano Rivera.

For those of you who don't know Mariano Rivera is the closer for the New York Yankees, or at least was. The man considered by many to be the greatest at his position in the history of America's pastime tore his ACL in practice yesterday, and while not usually a career ending injury you have to wonder.

Mariano is old, 42 years old to be precise (ok not old in general but for an athlete he is), and I cannot see how he can recover from an injury as devastating as this. He will be out for the entire rest of the season and will probably continue to rehab well into spring training. The amount of time he is going to be forced to take off before he can get his body back into baseball shape, not to mention that his body is already weaker due to his age, may make it nearly impossible for a return.

It is truly hard to see for baseball fans all over America. It does not matter if you are a normal person and hate the Yankees, or a terrible human being and love the Yankees (just kidding?), when the sport loses a legend as substantial as Mariano everyone's heart has to be breaking.

He has all the records for a closer, and even this past season when he came into the ball game it was essentially a death sentence for the opposing squad. Never has a single pitcher been able to accomplish so much just one pitch. Mariano's fastball has become the stuff of legend, to the point where I honestly don't know if another one pitch has ever been more feared.

And as a fan I can honestly say that I wish this were the extent of the story but sadly it isn't. Not only does this most likely mean the end of Rivera, but possibly the Yankees as we know them.

Throughout history, the sport of baseball has been dominated by the Bronx Bombers. Always the richest, strongest, fastest, and best team the Yankees have more championships and hall of famers than any other baseball franchise. For the past 20 or so years though the Yankees have been composed of their core 4. Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Petite, and Mariano Rivera.

These 4 players have anchored multiple world series titles and have been the faces of the franchise since the minor leagues. But that core is crumbling. Petite has retired, we already talked about Rivera, and Posada is out of the game as well. This means that the old version of the franchise lies on the shoulders of Derek Jeter, a heavy burden for one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.

Not to mention the death of George Steinbrenner. A man who not only changed New York but the entire sport forever passed away recently and the future of the Yankees organization is in question.

I am not saying that the Yankees will completely stop being the Yankees, but with this current aging roster and the loss of these great men it could spell the end for this incarnation of the richest sports franchise in America.

This isn't a prediction of doom and gloom for the Yankees more than it is a letter of regret to one of the sports finest. It is not 100% that Mariano will not return, he himself has vowed to come back, but it is a bleak outlook to say the least.

Mariano I wish you a speedy recovery and will be watching your career till the very end.