The Yankees spent two weeks in spring training trying to correct Mariano Rivera's cutter that he developed naturally and had no control of.
All of the pitching guru's had him try and regrip the ball, get on top, alter his finger pressure, all to no avail...and all because he lost a couple miles per hour of his velocity .
Mariano swears his cutter was a gift from God because he has no idea why or how he started to throw it.
Playing long toss in the outfield with Posada his ball was cutting ten feet, both guys laughed and joked about it, when the distance shortened to 60 ft 6 inches, his ball was moving around 6 to 8 inches,
It was then the Yankee brain trust started to panic, the hard rising fast ball of Mariano Rivera was gone...over night!
Needless to say all of the Yankee pitching coaches and Rivera himself never figured out how to correct it and the rest is history, thank God Mariano always says...The Sandman was created.
All of the pitching guru's had him try and regrip the ball, get on top, alter his finger pressure, all to no avail...and all because he lost a couple miles per hour of his velocity .
Mariano swears his cutter was a gift from God because he has no idea why or how he started to throw it.
Playing long toss in the outfield with Posada his ball was cutting ten feet, both guys laughed and joked about it, when the distance shortened to 60 ft 6 inches, his ball was moving around 6 to 8 inches,
It was then the Yankee brain trust started to panic, the hard rising fast ball of Mariano Rivera was gone...over night!
Needless to say all of the Yankee pitching coaches and Rivera himself never figured out how to correct it and the rest is history, thank God Mariano always says...The Sandman was created.
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