Saturday, September 28, 2013

Girardi says Mariano playing center field is not going to happen: Report

It looks like all of the speculation regarding Mariano Rivera living out a career-long dream of playing center field in a major league game can finally be put to rest. Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Saturday that his closer will not get penciled in at CF and may not even pitch at all this weekend against the Houston Astros, according to YES Network's Sweeny Murti.

There have been reports that Rivera's knee has been bothering him and whispers that the reverent closer didn't want to disrespect the game by going in as a novelty.

Of playing in the outfield Sunday, Rivera said: "I did consider it strongly. If it would have been a few years earlier, then I would have done it. But now my knee is not cooperating. I'm not going to make a fool of myself out there. I respect the game too much for me to do something that I'm not supposed to be doing.''

Rivera had said in spring training that he wanted to "empty the tank'' this season. The 43-year-old said he did exactly that.

"Oh my God, yes,'' he said. "I think I spent every ounce of fuel that I had in my tank. It's empty. I had nothing left. I gave everything that I had. I can go home. I can say, 'You know what, I used every talent that the Lord gave me.' ''



If that is the case, it means Thursday's symbolic four-out relief appearance against the Rays at Yankee Stadium might have been the last time fans got to see Rivera play in a major league game.

Wow.



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