Today I was contacted by a Fox-TV replay operator who worked the Angels-Yankees game yesterday, and has examined every possible angle of the Mariano Rivera spitting episode.
(Notice how Rivera held the ball at the precise moment he spit? Why so?)
Because he didn’t want to speak for Fox, the gentleman asked that he not be identified. He also prefaced his comment to me by saying he was not a Yankees or Angels fan. His comment on the case after the jump.
Fox Replay Operator: “I have seen the raw video from the camera that had the tight shot of Rivera on the mound. With 100% certainty I can say that he did not spit on the ball, the spit went by his hand all the way to the ground.”
I don’t deny that the gentleman could be correct, but as I stated in my earlier post on the subject, why was Rivera holding the ball between his thumb and forefinger just as he expectorated? Seems awfully coincidental.
I think another reason you’re seeing so much protestation over the video is the amazing longtime success of Rivera, despite his having overwhelming stuff. People today are, sadly, trying to pass off his past success as the result of cheating. I certainly don’t subscribe to that, and the more I consider the video and images, the more I think he probably didn’t spit on the ball.
With all the cameras out there and Rivera never, ever being cited for such a thing before, I can’t imagine he would just start cheating now, out of the blue. And in that brazen a fashion.
5:22 pm on October 20th, 2009
have you ever seen a spitball before? seen how it behaves? i’m doubting it. here’s a hint: not at all the way rivera’s pitch behaves.
6:13 pm on October 20th, 2009
That is because he only uses it when he needs to for a big out pitch, not on every pitch, that would be pretty obvious.
6:15 pm on October 20th, 2009
He learned to cheat from Pettite and Arod. He just does it in a different way. It certainly didn’t hurt their careers.
6:40 pm on October 20th, 2009
First off, I live and die for the Red Sox so don’t think for one minute I have any love for Mariano Rivera. I would love for Yankee Nation to have to deal with this. However, it is pretty obvious to me that he is holding the ball like that because he’s checking it for scuffs and seam breaks. Pretty standard stuff. Like Brooks said, don’t denigrate his career because tv can only produce a 2-D image. Depth perception is crap on tv and that is what happens here.
8:13 am on October 21st, 2009
Even if he did spit on that ball, how many times do you think Rivera got to throw that ball before it was discarded by umps, fouled off, or thrown in the dugout to be cleaned before going back out to the pitchers mound?
Its a moot point, unless people are seeing Rivera spit on every ball he gets, which we have only seen this once in his almost 20 year career, he isnt throwing a spitball
1:13 pm on October 21st, 2009
Spit is probably the worst thing to use if you want to throw a proper spit ball anyways…ask the Niekro’s, they swear by vagisil and vaseline…
2:34 pm on October 21st, 2009
If the umps are watchin me closely I just rub a little jalapeno juice inside my nose and that gets it runnin…..
2:35 pm on October 21st, 2009
You put snot on the ball?!?
2:36 pm on October 21st, 2009
Son, if you haden’t got an arm like your’s , you’d put anything on it you could find….