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Mariano Rivera Pitches in to Help Community

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CBN.com - It was Yankees’ Mariano Rivera’s last pitch in professional baseball. It brought a close to his unprecedented 19 year career. He’s thrown the same pitch - the cutter fastball - for close to two decades with few variations. He helped lead the New York Yankees to five championships and retired as the league’s all-time saves leader.

Shawn Brown, 700 Club Sports Reporter: “When you hear: ‘Record for most career saves, 652, record for most career games finished, 5 time World Series champion, World Series MVP 1999.’ The list goes on. When you hear those stats, what goes through your mind?”

Rivera: “See, Shawn, those things mean nothing for me. I mean, doesn’t make me better or less. See, I don’t—I don’t want people to recognize me for those things. I want people to recognize me for who I am.”

But to understand Mariano or Mo’ as his teammates called him, we start in the place he calls home; the small village Puerto Caimito, Panama. Mo’ was the son of a fisherman. Though they didn’t have much, he and his friends still found a way to play baseball.

“My parents didn’t have money to buy me a glove or a bat, less baseball. But we didn’t need to buy, we go and make it ourselves. You know, so I mean, of what we have. The nets, we have the boxes that were the glove, and we have many trees around. So that was our bats,” said Mariano.

Growing up Mariano never considered baseball to more than a hobby. At 18, he joined a local adult team and that’s when scouts took notice. It’s also when Mariano first learned about becoming a Christian from his cousin Vidal.

“When I saw Vidal with the relationship that he had with the Lord, I was like, ‘wow, you know, this is cool. Let me do this. Let me try this. (And) see what I find.’”

Mariano soon gave his life to the Lord. Shortly after, he signed with the Yankees organization. Five years later he debuted in the big leagues where he went on to make history. He says he’s always humbled because he recognizes God as the source of his talent.

Shawn: “There are some people that believe everything they’ve done, everything they’ve accomplished in their profession, particularly sports, is all them. For you, you’ve been consistent; you give everything to the Lord. Where does that come from?”

Rivera: “It is because God, Christ took those abilities and took it to a different level. The Lord gave me the strength to do all that stuff. So therefore I can never speak about myself, but the Lord.”

The 13 time All-Star also believes that’s the only way to explain throwing only one pitch for most of his career.

“All those years with one pitch. Shawn, come on, man. I threw one pitch for 17 years in career as a closer for the New York Yankees. And yet still, that pitch was successful,” said Mariano.

Shawn: “For the majority of his nineteen year career Mo’s job was to get the final outs of the game, when his team was winning and on top. The key was to not give up any runs, hold the lead, and secure the win for his team. We like to call those ‘saves’. Now in retirement, Mo’s no longer focused on saving games but saving souls.”

Together with his charity, The Mariano Rivera Foundation they renovated this 107 year old church building for, Refuge of Hope, a church pastored by his wife Clara. He’s also written a book entitled The Closer, where he shares how he went from a small fishing village in Panama to baseball’s greatest franchise. He hopes to show readers that God can use anyone.

“If He used me, He can use everybody. He can use anybody. You need to be lined up with His heart. And uh, you’re going to face adversity. What you do with that; you trust your Creator, you trust the Lord, and you have faith in the Lord, because by your strength and by your power you cannot do it. But only by the power of Christ.”

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