'Mondays with Mo': Yankees Fans Can Pay $750 for Lunch with Mariano Rivera

In the mood for baseball stories and the most expensive lunch of your natural life?

You’re in luck! Mariano Rivera will be appearing for meet-and-greet luncheons with fans this season.

According to Ticket Web (h/t Kiley Kmiec of NextImpulseSports.com), the newly retired Yankees closer will be speaking to guests over lunch at NYY Steak Midtown on "select Mondays" throughout the 2014 baseball season.

Dubbed "Mondays With Mo" ("Tuesdays With Mo" probably borders on copyright infringement), each session is to include pictures, lunch and a "moderated discussion" with the New York Yankees icon.

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Organized by sports memorabilia giant Steiner Sports, general admission begins at $750. This package includes lunch, one signed item and a photo opportunity (selfies!). It’s your basic meat-and-potatoes deal.

However, if you’re looking for some quality Mo time, Steiner is offering a VIP package complete with pre-event meetings in the green room, two Rivera-signed items and two photo opportunities (multiple selfies!).

Clearly, most of us can’t afford to eat an Xbox One’s worth of long-bone ribeye for lunch. On the flip side, there is certainly no shortage of diehard Yankees fans who would gladly shell out big dollars to meet the legendary closer.

The question is, why is Rivera doing this? 

Al Bello/Getty Images

He was the highest-paid closer in baseball history and just ended his 19-year MLB career in 2013 with a $10 million guaranteed contract. He’s not making public appearances just to keep the lights on, a la Dennis Rodman. 

It’s likely "Mondays With Mo" is just part of a larger contractual agreement Rivera has with Steiner Sports. The company has exclusive partnerships with the Yankees, Boston Red Sox and a long list of superstar athletes.

Some fans hear a legendary athlete is doing paid meet-and-greets and assume he or she has spent all their money on Cheesecake Factory tequila and is living in a soup cup under the Queensboro Bridge. Rest assured, this is not the case for Rivera. 

So who wants to hear some goofy dugout stories from Uncle Mo? I do, only I’ll have to settle for eavesdropping through the walls via shotgun mic. I don’t have that Mo money. 

Mo money, no problems.

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