He's the ultimate Yankee, the embodiment of the Yankee myth, and yet for 15 seasons now he has not sparked a controversy, not been caught in the bright lights, not inspired the boos anywhere in America.

That is extremely suspicious. Must be steroids.

If anybody is interested, this is a nice story from a Panama daily about Mariano and family.

Amongst other things, turns out Mariano's 1996 ring is owned by his dad, and that it turns out that his family nickname was "Pili" (PEE-lee).

I can't remember. I love Mo and don't want to sully his reputation if I am mistaken. Was he one of the guys who was responsible for cruelly attacking a gay clubhouse employee several years back?

Apparently a guy named Paul Priore claimed that Mariano and others (Wickman, Nelson) harrassed him in 1996 and parts of 1997 because of his being gay.

Check here. and here (pages 47 and 48).

Priore has made some far out accusations which you can read here.

As a fellow Panamanian, I can certainly buy Mariano razzing the guy in a non-malicious way, because that's a very Panamanian thing to do (to give you an example, I remember while in College how black and white teammates in a soccer league would share beers and razz each other BIG TIME about being white or being black, with some very, very hard taunts as to what that implied. That type of razzing would have NEVER been PC/acceptable in the U.S., but it was seen as good natured banter here).

However, Priore loses a lot of credibility with me due to his further accusations AND I am a firm believer in an old story about a famous playwright (I forget the details - I read this in a Mark Evanier column in the 1980s comic book Crossfire) who sometimes dreamed of inviting everyone who'd accused him of plagiarizing one of their works to dinner and ask him or her: "So you claim to have written X play. What ELSE have you written?" (or as brought down to baseball, I don't believe there's any other reports of Mariano being a ######### to others, so I take what Priore says about Mariano with a grain of salt).

Terrific article, not that that's surprising, considering who wrote it.

black and white teammates in a soccer league would share beers and razz each other BIG TIME about being white or being black, with some very, very hard taunts as to what that implied. That type of razzing would have NEVER been PC/acceptable in the U.S., but it was seen as good natured banter here).

I disagree, I think even in the US there are certain people who could do that to each other, and it would be acceptable if they were friends. It might look weird/offensive to people not part of the group, however. That Priore publicly accused Rivera of doing this indicates they probably weren't that close (plus there's probably a power imbalance between the players and whatever Priore was).

Anyway, thanks for the links, will look at them later.

He's very religious right? Not sure if that would necessarily hurt or help the claims with him and the clubhouse guy.

MARIANO RIVERA’S A TRUE YANKEE, ALMOST...

That string of text was all I noticed time I saw the link to this. I was looking forward to the amusement of reading some new definition of "true Yankee" someone cooked up that somehow excluded Rivera.

I have to agree with Obama

My group of friends (which is made up of people from Trinidad, Tanzania, India, China and plain old white folks) is almost based entirely on making fun of one another's race. I always thought that's just how people are.

Would have been amazing if:
- He arrives as closer with the Yankees in 2001, blows the 7th WS game vs DBacks
- sticks as closer into 2009, but "he's never won anything" and blew the 2004 series vs the Red Sox, the worst series loss in franchise history
- they stick with him (time travel now) again in the next season of 1996 (this would be his 10th Yankees season), but he's demoted to being a setup man for Wetteland
- He gets the job back in 1997, but gives up the Alomar HR as Yanks lose again
- THEN he's the unhittable closer the next 3 seasons, 1998-2000, back to back titles

Same career, different order of seasons.

That type of razzing would have NEVER been PC/acceptable in the U.S., but it was seen as good natured banter here).

I think the US Army could give Panama a run for its money in "wildly racist comments said in good fun". I'm fairly certain I deserve to be invaded by the Union after some of the things I've said...

One of the most anonymous superstars in the game really. I don't know if I've ever seen him do an interview (I'm sure he has, but its just hard to recall one). Its also remarkable how he's maintained his composure despite those three famous blown saves. A lot of guys might have crumbled after the way he lost the 2001 Series. It helped that he already had a number of rings and had established himself by then.

That's why my way would have been so much more compelling.
:)

It helps to have Capitan Jeter and then A-rod to take all the bullets.

However, Priore loses a lot of credibility with me due to his further accusations

Priore lost his lawsuit so his allegations were, at best, unproven.