Mike Mussina Clears Up Comments on Mo…

(Zell's Pinstripe Blog)

Many Yankees fans are mad at Mussina for making comments about Mariano Rivera in Joe Torre’s new book. I am as big of a fan of Mariano Rivera as anyone out there. The best closer of all-time, and nobody can argue that. But let’s face the facts here...He did blow some big games in the postseason.

The games don’t only fall on his shoulders, but facts are facts. Mike Mussina did nothing wrong by saying this stuff. Yankees fans are going a little crazy with this Joe Torre book.

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According to one passage, Mussina said Rivera “blew the World Series in ‘01″ and “lost the Boston series” in 2004, causing some Yankee fans to be as mad at the newly retired Moose as they are at Torre for co-writing the tell-all tome.

“I’m aware of (the reaction). 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 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.”

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The full excerpt on page 312 of Torre’s book quotes Mussina, who won zero World Series rings in his eight years with the Yanks, as saying: “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.

“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.”

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