It’s been quite a year for retired New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in July as the first player to ever be unanimously elected. And yesterday he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by a guy who was the farthest thing from unanimously elected,
President Donald Trump.
The ceremony started with Rivera entering to—what else?—“Enter Sandman” by Metallica, his iconic warm-up song.
Trump spent about 15 minutes going through Rivera’s biography, starting with his birth in Panama. He touched on Rivera’s journey to the majors, the development of Rivera’s famous cutter, several of his career highlights, culminating with the president saying Rivera “may be the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball."
Not surprising he would say that considering Rivera and the Commander in Chief are tight. Rivera is the co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition, and he and Trump have been friends since before Trump became president.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Source: Yahoo! Sports