On the recordJuly 25, 2019
The hallowed halls of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, welcomed six inductees last weekend. In 80 years, baseball has honored 232 players as the best of the best. Only about 1 percent of the 19,500 who played the game are enshrined here. As a proud New Yorker, I can say the hall includes 60 Yankees, and the bronze busts of Bronx Bomber behemoths include Ruth, Berra, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio, Jackson, and more. I rise today to honor Mariano Rivera, the first unanimous inductee into the Hall of Fame. Mo, the Sandman, wore the Yankee pinstripes with honor, pride, humility, and dignity for 19 seasons. On the field, number 42 was a 13- time All-Star and won five World Series championships with the Yankees, including being named MVP in 1999. Mo racked up a record 672 saves. His cutter is legendary. He amassed 1,173 strikeouts and had a postseason ERA of 0.7, allowing only 11 runs in 96 appearances, fewer postseason runs than the number of people who have walked the Moon. Mo was the very definition of ``automatic,'' as he was so often described. Mariano is a man of faith and recognized the importance of family support through good times and struggles. He is a mentor, a teacher, and demonstrates quiet leadership that is far too scarce today. Mr. Speaker, as a young boy in Panama, Mariano used a homemade glove of cardboard, tape, and netting. He had holes in his cleats when he tried out for the Yankees.…
