Just a small boy from Panama

The Closer
By: Wayne Coffey


    Imagine yourself in poverty. Just a young kid in Panama with little to no education, but still keeping your dream of one day playing professional baseball alive. Mariano Rivera, retired Yankees pitcher, 13 time all-star, World Series MVP, 5 time world series champ, and ALCS MVP was that kid in Panama. At a very young age Mariano began his athletic career at a small Panama school playing soccer. In his career playing soccer, he was a very respected player and was looked at by scouts. But, Mariano had another passion and this passion was to play baseball. In a country like Panama, much of the population did not have access to modern goods and appliances. In order to play baseball Mariano needed a bat and a ball. Since he didn't have these things, he'd use a stick as his bat and a rock tied around with fishing net as the ball. Mariano didn't need the everyday bat and ball to play the sport he loved. He only cared about having fun and enjoying life.  Along with the everyday baseball fun, Mariano was an avid fisherman and loved to be out on the water.  His grandfather would take him out all the time to catch fish and bring it back for dinner. Mariano looked up to his grandfather a lot and learned how to truly become a man. Unfourantly Mariano's grandfather passed away when Mariano was in middle school. Without his grandfather around, Mariano had to face living with his deadbeat father. Mariano's father was a very strict man that would constantly beat Mariano whenever he did not finish his chores. Without the grandfather in his life, Mariano had no one to turn to and he seeked a way out of Panama. In highschool, Mariano played in a district game with his very succesful baseball team. The pitcher starting was struggling and the coach looked to put another man in. Yet, no one else could really pitch. The coach decided to call on the unexpierenced Rivera and put him in the game. Mariano was obviously nervous and scared out of his mind. The coach knew the team was
going to loose but just told Mariano to throw strikes and have fun. He did just that. Striking out his first three batters. Luckily, there were scouts there that game and looked at Mariano very prominently.  The scout that looked very deeply at Rivera was an international scout for the Yankees. The scout was very pleased in his work that he decided to take Mariano to spring training. Just a simple turn at pitching lead Mariano out of Panama.

  Overall this was a very interesting and well written book. It may not be a book you'll wanna rush out and get, but it is still a very good book to read. In some parts of the book it got repetitive in saying that Mariano's grandfather was his closest friend and the only person he looked up to. I defintely did enjoy reading this book. Some aspects of the book really spoke to me. One of the themes being to never get down on yourself really made me think about not giving up while I play sports. It made me have more confidence in being succesful at whatever I do. Mariano's character as a child when he improvised for not having baseball gear also made me think of how grateful I am to have everything I
have in life. The language and positive concepts just made my reading expierence a whole lot more involved and I was able to go deeper in the book than just its pages. "I just try to take away things in life that will help me learn. Life is hard." A quote like that shows how important it is to be smart with your decisions and always learn from your mistakes, becuase one day life may be so hard and you'll have your knowledge to help you out. "I don't need anything but the love of people around me. That's how I choose to live life." You should always be thankful for what you have. In Mariano's case you don't need fame and luxury to be happy, just the loving people around you.


  I recommend this book to anyone that loves a good sports book. This book consists of motivation and themes of never giving up. It was a book I defintely enjoyed to read. You should give it a read sometime.