An ode to Yankees legend Mariano Rivera

NorthJersey.com-USA TODAY NETWORKThere are 652 reasons for Yankees fans to be thankful for Mariano Rivera, but in the interest of time, we’ll keep it much shorter and straight to the point. Mariano “Mo” Rivera was born on November 29, 1969 in a small village in Panama called Puerto Caimito. In 1989, at the age of 20, Mo was signed by Yankees scout Chico Heron, who was referred to Mariano by teammates of his on the Panamanian travel team he played for.

In today’s baseball, with an abundance of talent produced all across the Caribbean and Latin America, you’d be lucky to be even get looked at as a 20-year-old, yet alone a scrawny 169-pound pitcher throwing 87 mph. Consider, say, the…