"As great as (Rivera) is, and it's amazing what he does, if you start the evaluation since I've been here (in 2001), he has accomplished nothing in comparison to what he accomplished the four years before.And here's Mussina's explanation from Peter Botte:"He blew the World Series in '01. He lost the Boston series. He didn't lose it himself, but we had a chance to win in the ninth and sweep them and he doesn't do it there. I know you look at everything he's done and it's been awesome, I'll admit that. But it hadn't been the same in those couple of years. That's what I remember about the '04 series."
"As far as I know that's pretty much the way I said it. But the idea of it was not to take any stabs at Mo," Mussina said Wednesday on WFAN. "I can't put into words how important Mo has been to me as an individual player and to us as a team since I went to New York. My accomplishments would not be anywhere near what they are, and our team accomplishments certainly would not be what they are without him pitching the ninth inning.I heard the interview with Francesa and Mussina seemed to genuinely respect Mo, so I'm going to take him at his word and believe that he wasn't trying to "cut him down."
"I didn't mean to take any stabs at him. I was just making a factual comment, and it came out sounding like I was trying to cut him down. I'm certainly not trying to cut him down, because he certainly is legendary, and he's earned that."
Moose also had this to say about the supposed friction between Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez:
"I never saw any friction between those two players whatsoever," Mussina said. "For two superstars at the level that they're supposed to perform at, the kind of people they're supposed to be, the way they're supposed to carry themselves as professional athletes and human beings, I never saw any problem at all.Overall it was a very good interview. You can listen to the whole thing here.
"I sat in the same clubhouse, rode the same bus, the same planes...and I never, ever saw an issue with those two guys. I don't know if people were hoping it was there or people were looking for something to talk about, no idea, but I never experienced any of that."
8 Comments:
i have no problem with what moose said because its true. we had a shot to win both times, and he blew those games,.. you win some, you lose some.
Mussina's comments are indicative of how truly great Rivera has been...during the times in his career when he slips from superhuman to "merely" extremely good, it shocks both fans and teammates, as Moose has now revealed.
Moose has always struck me as a straight shooter...
Yeah its true but everyone knows it, just shut your face, i have kind of lost respect for the moose.
I'm not offended of what Mussina said what pisses me off if the fact that Torre had the balls the put it in his punk book.
what pisses me off is people like you, anon, trash talking like you've read the book, becuase you clearly haven't..
If you did, you would know that this isn't Torre's book. It's Verduccis. Nothing Torre is quoted as saying is new to us. Everything "shocking" is either quoted by other people (ex: Monohan telling us he rubbed rockets testes), or Verducci's own words.
this book is a whine fest. go out and buy something else, like O'Neill's book about him and his dad.
Why should Mike have to explain anything. He is right, Mo has been a god, but he is not perfect. he blew those games.. we just love him so much we don't trhow it in his face like we would a Pavano or a Big Unit.
Mike is a real dude.. he was a good Yankee.. he put in his time where his opinion counts. Lets all just respect it.
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