Verducci on Mo's All-Star Inning

I saw this over on the YES Network forums and wanted to share it with you guys, it's from Tom Verducci's story on the All-Star game. Towards the end he writes about Mariano's ninth inning, I thought you would enjoy it.

For the fourth time in this streak, Mariano Rivera of the Yankees took care of the endgame, and as usual, with the kind of nasty stuff that should be borderline illegal.

Hawpe, batting second in the inning, asked AL expatriate Miguel Tejada, who was hitting behind him, for advice on hitting Rivera's brutal cutter.

"If it looks like a strike," Tejada told him, "it's not going to be a strike."

Great. Strike one was a wicked cutter that nearly hit Hawpe in the shoetops. He swung anyway. He took such an ugly hack he looked like one of those tabletop hockey players connected to a rod, spinning gracelessly. Strike two was a buzzsaw of a cutter that broke his bat.

"Hey, I only broke one bat," Hawpe said. "That's not bad."

Strike three was a backdoor cutter, a pitch that began somewhere west of Flourissant and wound up downtown.

"Boom! Boom! Backdoor!" Hudson said. "Man, that's bull right there. That's just not fair! Throw a four-seamer down the middle, will you? That is un-fair!"

... "Boom! Boom! Backdoor!" Hudson said. "Man, that's bull right there. That's just not fair! Throw a four-seamer down the middle, will you? That is un-fair!"

Hahahahahaha great line from O-Dog. ... I love reading players' reactions like this because only then do you realize just how great Mariano is.