The Remarkable Faith of Mariano Rivera, the Greatest "Closer" in Baseball

Mark Ellis : May 30, 2014
God Reports

"Now I have a new job, probably better described as a calling — and that is to glorify the Lord and praise His name and show the wonders that await those who seek Him and want to experience His grace, peace and mercy. With the Lord, all things are possible." -Mariano Rivera

(Los Angeles, CA)—Plucked from the obscurity of a Panamanian fishing village where he lived in a two-room house, Mariano Rivera became the greatest relief pitcher of baseball history in "The House That Ruth Built"—New York's Yankee Stadium. At every step, he gave credit to God for his success, acknowledging the Lord as the One who empowered his brilliant career. (Photo via God Reports)

Mariano grew up along the shores of the Gulf of Panama, in Puerto Caimito, where his father captained a 90-foot fishing vessel. His "dingy cement home on a dirt road" had a beat-up tin roof and no electricity or running water when his parents moved in. Mariano didn't try on a real baseball glove until he was 16. Until that time, he and his friends fashioned together gloves from "a milk carton, a bat from a stick," and a ball made from wrapping a rock in fishing nets and tape as they played along the shore.

He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade and began working on his father's fishing boat so he could earn $50 a week for mechanic's school, he relates in his autobiography, "The Closer."

When Mariano was 18, he noticed a striking change in his cousin, Vidal Ovalle, and he asked him about it.

"I have come to know the Lord," Vidal told him. Vidal began to witness to Mariano by sharing Bible stories with him. Mariano noticed his cousin's passion about his faith, and his newfound peace and happiness.

Mariano had known Vidal his entire life. Now, suddenly, he was a different person. "Vidal is the first one to really teach me about the Bible, and what it means to know Jesus, and to know what He did for us, dying on the cross to forgive our sins." (Photo via God Reports)

But even as Mariano listened to his cousin and examined the Scriptures himself, he was not ready to surrender his life to Jesus Christ.

Five years later, he sat in a small cement church near the center of Puerto Caimito, not far from the dock where his father kept his boat. As the pastor finished his Sunday sermon, he asked, "Does anyone who hasn't done so yet want to accept the Lord as their personal Savior?"

As Mariano reflected on his life, he sensed a battle being waged inside between the flesh and the Spirit for ultimate control.

But after a brief moment he surrendered to God, felt his heart open and a new tenderness to the Word of God. Then the Holy Spirit descended from above, touching him at the core of his being.

Mariano raised his hand and walked forward to receive prayer. Immediately, he felt a burden lifted from his shoulders. "It is the burden of feeling you have to do it by yourself, of feeling alone and overwhelmed by your own limitations. He felt the Lord giving him a chance to be "a different person, to free me from my sins, to be joyous and free."

Looking back, his baseball career developed without any planning for the greatness that might lie ahead. [Through a series of divine appointments, Mariano eventually found himself pitching for the New York Yankees and relates that] during the 1997 season while playing catch with Ramiro Mendoza … something strange happened.

As Mariano threw the ball to Ramiro, he had to move his glove at the last moment to catch it, because the ball shifted dramatically to the right. "Stop playing around," Ramiro said.

"What are you talking about? I'm not playing around," he replied.

"I'm talking about the ball you just threw. It almost hit me."

As Mariano continued throwing, every ball had the same extreme movement at the end. Perplexed, Mariano sought help from his coaches. He was not aware of doing anything different than before. (Photo via God Reports)

For two weeks, he could not get the ball to throw straight. "It's as if the ball has a mind of its own, because it keeps moving late," he recounts. As he continued to wrestle with it, he began to get command over it and throw strikes. Then he came to the realization that it would be foolish to change it.

"This is how my cut fastball was born," he writes in the book. "It is as if it is dropped straight from the heavens. How can I explain it any other way than as one more incredible gift from the Lord?"

"I do not spend years searching for the pitch. I do not ask for it, or pray for it. All of a sudden it is there, a devastating baseball weapon."

His new pitch—a gift from above—changed his whole career. By midseason, he had 27 saves and a 1.96 ERA and he was named to the All-Star team.

Mariano [went on to play] 19 seasons for the Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. He was a 13-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion; he is major league baseball's career leader in saves (652) and games finished (952). He finished in the top three in voting for the American League Cy Young Award four times.

After his retirement from baseball, Mariano and his wife, Clara, started an evangelical church called Refugio de Esperanza (Refuge of Hope) in New Rochelle, New York.

"Now I have a new job, probably better described as a calling," he said, "and that is to glorify the Lord and praise His name and show the wonders that await those who seek Him and want to experience His grace, peace and mercy. With the Lord, all things are possible."

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