ESPN NY: O’Connor: K-Rod has goal: Be mightier than Mo

As one of my druncles used to say…“Finishing a beer is easy…buying the next one is hard”

“Are you serious?” K-Rod himself asked when approached recently with the evidence. “I had no idea.”

Rodriguez was dressing at his home locker, and surveying the scribbled math on a reporter’s frayed notepad.

“I don’t really follow numbers and stats,” K-Rod said.

He’s following them now. And those numbers and stats say the Mets’ closer has 258 saves, or 205 more saves than the Yankees’ epic closer, Mariano Rivera, had at the same age—28 years, 5 months and 10 days.

Yes, 205. Rodriguez is also 197 saves ahead of the pace set by Trevor Hoffman, who holds the all-time record of 596 and who stands 55 ahead of Rivera. When K-Rod absorbed his Secretariat-sized lead over the younger Mo and the younger Hoffman, his eyes went goggle-wide.

“You caught me off guard here,” he said. “But if God gives me the ability to close games for another 12 years and keeps me healthy, then I think 700 saves is possible.”

Seven hundred saves in a sport that hasn’t seen a man reach 600.

“Why not?” Rodriguez said. “Why not? I would love to retire someday with 600 saves or 700 saves. Maybe 750, who knows?”