Honoring Mariano Rivera

I know I usually do my blog about my wildlife pic adventures but today will be a bit different. I had the honor and pleasure to be at Yankee stadium when they honored Mariano Rivera. He is the closer for the NY Yankees and will be retiring at the end of this season. Now I do not usually get worked up about a professional athlete retiring. But Mo is something special! Besides being the "best closer" in baseball he is also a very special Human Being! And that is why I was excited to see him be honored at Yankee stadium. Unlike many pro athletes, Mo  is someone you'd like as a role model for your kids. He has always been a class act on and off the field. Besides being a great husband and dad, he also has a foundation. The foundation works with kids in his native country of Panama. I could go on and on, so if you want to know more..just google him for more info.

My sister lives about an hour from Yankee stadium which is in the Bronx. Driving can be a challenge to get there, so my nephew Kevin volunteered to drive. 

We found a nice parking lot fairly close to the stadium. It was only 20$ to park which is cheap in NYC. Most places charge 30-50$ Ouch!

A high percentage of the fans were sporting Rivera shirts...very cool!

Yankee stadium is very well staffed to help direct you to where you need to go....

As you can see, it's a beautiful stadium. 

This is Katie...Kevin's girlfriend. She's been to a Met's game but this is her first Yankee game!

So we got settled in our seats and waited for the show to start. Here is Mariano with his family getting some pics taken...

Hopefully you know who Jackie Robinson is. He was the first black player to play in the majors. His number "42" was retired throughout the entire league in 1997. Players that had that number could continue to keep it until they retired. Mariano is the last player to wear the number, so now it will never be worn again.....except on Jackie Robinson day when everyone wears it to honor him. They had Jackie's daughter and wife there when they revealed a beautiful plaque in Jackie's honor.

This is Jackie's wife and daughter....

Both teams were on hand to enjoy the festivities....

Yes, this is the band Metallica. You be saying "what the heck are they doing here"! Well, Mariano's nickname is "the Sandman" as he is very good at shutting down the other team. So Metallica has a song called Enter Sandman which the stadium plays when Mo enters the game....always gets the crowd excited. So today they had the band playing his song live!

        When the song was almost done, Mariano entered the field like he always does....from 
    the bull pen.

These guys are former players, coaches,etc. that were there to honor Mo. I love how half of them have their phones out taking pics of this historic day!

Mo made a very nice speech with all his teammates behind him. He didn't even have notes writtten down. He just spoke from the heart!

Andy Pettitte was also retiring at the end of the season. This was his last start in Yankee stadium.....

            He pitched into the 8th inning and then it was time for Mo to come in.....Andy was visibly emotional as he left the field. The whole stadium chanted his name until he came back out for a curtain call.....

Here's Mariano warming up....

As Mariano entered the field, he had a cameraman trailing him. No this is not what normally happens....Go camera man!

The Yanks ended up losing the game and most likely will not make the playoffs. But is was a very fun day and there's always next year!

As we walked out of the stadium, I couldn't help but notice these boots. Had to get a pic of them!

We walked by the trains on our way to the parking lot where we parked. Also a great way to get to the game from my sister's house. Maybe next year........