Last updated: 12:06 pm
July 15, 2008
Posted: 4:10 am
July 15, 2008

TERRY Francona whiffed on his easiest assignment as the AL's All-Star manager yesterday when he named a starting lineup, a starting pitcher, but refused to name his closer.

He said NL manager Clint Hurdle "doesn't need our help." If Francona was playing strategy, that was just foolish. Everyone has known who Joe Torre and Joe Girardi are bringing into the game in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium. How exactly has the advanced knowledge that Mo Rivera was waiting in the end game worked out for the other team?

If Francona is planning on using someone other than Rivera, perhaps his Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, well, "Yankee Stadium will probably crumble if Papelbon closes," Billy Wagner said.

Francona has a chance tonight to take the Red Sox-Yankee intensity and hatred to a whole new level if anyone other than Rivera pitches the ninth regardless of the score. The truth is that Papelbon has not even earned the right to close over AL teammates Joe Nathan of Minnesota or Francisco Rodriguez of the Angels.

And none of them belongs in the same sentence as Rivera on this subject. He is the greatest pitcher in the history of this particular version of Yankee Stadium (re-opened in 1976), and the All-Star Game is only being held in this venue because the Stadium is closing after the season. The idea that anyone else besides the greatest closer of all time is going to do the ninth-inning honors is like finding out that Meryl Streep is in one of those Girls Gone Wild videos.

"It is Mariano Rivera, it is Yankee Stadium and let's not forget Mariano is perfect in save situations this year," said Phillies closer Brad Lidge. "Who else would it be?"

Exactly.

Rivera has earned the right with a body of work that is without peer, and with a 2008 season that stands up with his best, which is just staggering.

Francona just should have acknowledged that. He talked a lot about treating this game with "respect," and then disrespected Rivera.