Caterpillar Cowboy

Mariano Rivera now has a 0.74 ERA across 133 1/3 postseason innings with a 107/21 strikeout-to-walk ratio and just two home runs allowed. He is the greatest closer of all time, and arguably the greatest postseason performer as well. The closers of each of the other seven teams which reached the 2009 postseason faltered at least once when the money was on the table, and those mistakes ultimately proved fatal. Rivera, as in three other World Series, was the last man standing. Along with Pettitte, Jeter and Posada—the “Core Four”—he’s now one of four Yankees to have earned seven pennants and five World Series rings dating back to 1996.