Mariano Rivera awed by his first Hall of Fame visit
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Mariano Rivera stopped at the entrance to the Plaque Gallery inside the Baseball Hall of Fame and just gazed at the walls, awestruck by the moment. He was a long way from Puerto Caimito, Panama.
“I can’t comprehend it. It’s just amazing. Too much,” Rivera said Friday as he soaked in his first visit to the Hall of Fame. “It’s quite a journey from a fishing village to a place where the best of the best is.
“For a man who loves the game of baseball, what all these men did and passed it on to us, there couldn’t be a better day.”
Rivera’s appearance with his wife, Clara, on a sunny, frigid morning in upstate New York came less than two weeks after he became the first unanimous selection for the Hall of Fame . The former New York Yankees star relief pitcher received all 425 votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.