If you follow the sports, you might have heard that the Braves and Red Sox both completed historic collapses last night, or alternatively, that the Cardinals and Rays completed historic comebacks.
The NYT has adequately documented the Sox collapse, but the same article could be written concerning the Braves, if only the Braves and Cardinals played in the AL East instead of the Red Sox and Rays**. In fact, Cardinals, without Wainwright for the season, with Carpenter getting older, and with various nagging injuries to their 3-4-5 hitters, looked worse off to my eye than the Rays, and like they might miss the playoffs for Pujols' possibly last season in a Cardinals uniform.
What shouldn't be lost in all this is that the Braves would still be alive if Kimbrel hadn't blown a save. The Red Sox would be alive if Papelbon hadn't blown a save, or if the Yankees hadn't sent Cory Wade out for the ninth. All of which is to say that, if you weren't already convinced, Mariano Rivera is the greatest reliever of all time -- which is something, even if that means he's "only" been as valuable over his career as Tommy John, David Cone, or Bret Saberhagen. After all, being the 50th most valuable pitcher of all time is damn good, and leagues better than the next reliever on the list (Gossage, if you're counting at home; I don't include Eck because he had a great career as a starter before becoming a reliever).
** though you could then plausibly argue that the Angels would be the AL WC, all disrespect to the strength of the NL intended
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