Mariano Rivera: I’m Coming Back
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Jim McIsaac/Getty Images(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — After suffering a torn right ACL shagging down fly balls in the outfield yesterday before their game with the Kansas City Royals, MLB’s all-time saves leader and New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera confirmed to the media on Friday that he would not be hanging the No. 42 uniform up just yet.
“I am coming back,” Rivera said in the Yankees clubhouse on Friday. “Put it down. Write it down in big letters. I’m not going down like this. God willing and given the strength, I’m coming back.”
Rivera said he made his decision while lying in bed in pain last night.
“I had a lot of time to think last night,” he said. “I decided I can’t go out like this. I love to play the game. I don’t think, to me, going out like this is the right way. … I don’t think like that. With the strength of the Lord, I have to continue.”
Rivera spoke with the New York Mets team physician, Dr. David Altchek, on Friday morning, who also performed surgery on his pitching shoulder after the 2008 season.
“Dr. Altchek said I could be back in three, four, five months,” Rivera said. “He said, ‘You’re a fast healer.’ I will do my due diligence, my research. I will talk to whoever I have to. Yeah, it hurts me, I’m sorry that I let my teammates down, but at the same time, I’m positive. I’m positive. This is going to pass. This is going to pass.”
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