A Yankee season that was by turns surprising, lousy, exciting, and disappointing has a sweet and affectionate close as New York said goodbye to two stalwarts of the team’s most recent golden era. The peerless Mariano Rivera–the Great Rivera, of 19 seasons and 652 regular seasaon saves and 42 postseason saves with an astonishing 1.34 postseason ERA–had announced that he was going. He got two goodbyes at the stadium–a formal ceremony two weeks ago at the stadium, and then, on Thursday, a final vintage performance, where he got four outs in 
a must-have game that the Yanks were not going to get. When Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte, his friends and brothers, came
to pull him, the crowd roared and Rivera wept. It had been a brilliant career, conducted in dignity, with many triumphs, and even defeats that were borne with honor. Two nights later, Pettitte bid adieu, in a meaningless game in Houston that was suddenly invested with significance, just because a fierce competitor chose to honor himself, his team, and his game by playing hard and holding nothing back. He earned his 256th career win in the process. We won’t see anyone like Pettitte again for a long time. We’ll never see another Rivera.
