Mariano Rivera III the Shining Star of Nationals' Growing HOF Bloodlines

The kid from Iona had a good arm—good enough to light up a radar gun at 95 mph, good enough to attract major league scouts and eventually good enough to convince the Washington Nationals to draft him in the fourth round of the 2015 MLB draft (134th overall) and give him $410,700.

The kid had a good arm, but plenty of kids have good arms, and this kid didn't stand out enough that you'd know his name.

Except in his case, you do know his name, because you've been hearing it for years.

Mariano Rivera.

The kid is Mariano Rivera III, and he's just three games into his professional career, three games and a total of eight innings for the Auburn Doubledays of the New York-Penn League. It's still far too early to know if he'll make it to the big leagues, let alone whether he'll live up to the name his famous father gave him.

For now, he's a prospect and also part of a unique trio of Nationals minor leaguers. Not many sons of Hall of Famers follow their dads into professional baseball, but the Nationals have two of them—three if you count Rivera, whose father is certain to make it to Cooperstown as soon as he's eligible (2019).

Already, the Nationals had Ryan Ripken (son of Cal Ripken Jr.), who was drafted in the 15th round last year. Already, they had Tony Gwynn Jr., signed to a minor league contract in March and playing this year at Triple-A Syracuse.

Nationals people will tell you it's more coincidence than anything, three separate situations for three very different players. Ripken's kid wasn't considered a big prospect, although he showed a decent bat before suffering a broken ankle this spring. Gwynn Jr. has kicked around from team to team and was signed because the Nationals needed someone who could play center field in Triple-A.

Rivera is different, because he is a prospect. Not many sons of Hall of Famers make it to the big leagues (Gwynn is one of only 11, according to research by the Hall of Fame and by Joe Posnanski), and even fewer star in the big leagues (Dale Berra, Yogi's son, probably had the best career of the eight).

At 21 years old and just getting started in the low minors, Rivera has a long way to go. But he also has that good arm that got him noticed and those good genes that made everyone think about him a little more than you would the average college pitcher.

"It's in the blood," said John Malzone, the Nationals scout who followed Rivera for two years and eventually signed him.

It's in Malzone's blood, too. His father, Frank Malzone, was a six-time All-Star, not quite a Hall of Famer (Cooperstown version), but a Red Sox Hall of Famer.

It's in Mike Rizzo's blood, too. Rizzo is the Nationals general manager, but he's also Phil Rizzo's son. And Phil Rizzo was in the inaugural class at the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame (and now works for his son as a Nationals scout).

Mike Rizzo understands the pressure of following a well-known father into the family business.

"It obviously puts added pressure and scrutiny on the players, especially young players learning the craft," he said. "It's real. It's tangible."

Malzone first saw Rivera at a scouts day at Iona, then went to watch one of his final starts in 2014. He wrote up a report, but it was the Yankees who drafted Rivera in June 2014. He was a 29th-round pick and didn't sign, so Malzone kept him in mind when he saw the Iona schedule last winter.

"The first time I saw him [this year], it was a cold, rainy, windy day, and I think I was the only scout in the stands," Malzone said. "I was watching and I thought, 'Wow, he looks really good.' The fastball was crisp, and he had a swing-and-miss slider. The gun reading was up 3-4 mph from the year before.

"His mound presence was even better. He's just getting better and better."

The elder Rivera made a living throwing basically one pitch, a cut fastball that he didn't throw until his second full year in the big leagues.

"A gift from God," Rivera would call it.

Rivera III doesn't have that gift, at least not yet. But Malzone said when he watched the kid pitch, he saw the same demeanor and focus that the great Mariano showed.

The comparisons will continue, for better or for worse. Rivera made his first professional appearance on the road, on June 23 in State College, Pennsylvania.

As he took the mound, the hometown Spikes played "Enter Sandman," his father's famed walk-in song.

"I knew they were going to try to mess around with me," Rivera told Kelsie Heneghan of MiLB.com. "They did it, and it's their way of having fun."

His fun came once the song ended. Rivera pitched two scoreless innings, striking out four.

In two outings since, he's had mixed results. He's made two relief appearances and one start, and the Nationals seem content to wait before deciding whether his future is in the rotation or the bullpen. His father, remember, was a starter through the minor leagues, before moving to the bullpen as a big league rookie.

The kid will keep pitching, and he'll go as far as his right arm will take him. He'll need to go a long way before his name appears without a mention of his father.

"It's very tough carrying that name," the younger Rivera told James Wagner of the Washington Post. "I always felt there was a shadow. I've learned to step away from that shadow, and learned to become my own person and my own player."

Tony Gwynn Jr. could certainly relate. So could Ryan Ripken.

It's not always easy, and maybe that's why so few sons of Hall of Famers have even made it to the big leagues for a day. Not one of them has made it to the Hall of Fame himself, or even come close.

Perhaps the kid from Iona will change all that someday. For now, he's just a kid with a good arm—and a famous name.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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