The Closer
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Narrated by:
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Michael Kay
About this listen
Mariano Rivera, the man who intimidated thousands of batters merely by opening a bullpen door, began his incredible journey as the son of a poor Panamanian fisherman. When first scouted by the Yankees, he didn't even own his own glove. He thought he might make a good mechanic. When discovered, he had never flown in an airplane, had never heard of Babe Ruth, spoke no English, and couldn't imagine Tampa, the city where he was headed to begin a career that would become one of baseball's most iconic. What he did know: that he loved his family and his then girlfriend, Clara, that he could trust in the Lord to guide him, and that he could throw a baseball exactly where he wanted to, every time.
With astonishing candor, Rivera tells the story of the championships, the bosses (including The Boss), the rivalries, and the struggles of being a Latino baseball player in the United States and of maintaining Christian values in professional athletics. The thirteen-time All-Star discusses his drive to win; the secrets behind his legendary composure; the story of how he discovered his cut fastball; the untold, pitch-by-pitch account of the ninth inning of Game 7 in the 2001 World Series; and why the lowest moment of his career became one of his greatest blessings.
In The Closer, Rivera takes readers into the Yankee clubhouse, where his teammates are his brothers. But he also takes us on that jog from the bullpen to the mound, where the game - or the season - rests squarely on his shoulders. We come to understand the laser-like focus that is his hallmark, and how his faith and his family kept his feet firmly on the pitching rubber. When Rivera retired, the whole world watched -- and cheered. In The Closer, we come to an even greater appreciation of a legend built from the ground up.
©2014 Mariano Rivera (P)2014 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Before the team headed to Los Angeles in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were one of the most colorful and beloved teams in baseball. In Bums, best-selling author Peter Golenbock has compiled a fascinating oral history of the Ebbets Field heroes with recollections from former players, writers, front-office executives, and faithful fans.
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A MUST for the true Dodgers or Giants fan!!
- By Karen on 02-25-07
By: Peter Golenbock
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The Captain
- The Journey of Derek Jeter
- By: Ian O'Connor
- Narrated by: Nick Pollifrone
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Every spring, Little Leaguers across the country mimic his stance and squabble over the right to wear his number, 2, the next number to be retired by the world’s most famous ball team. Derek Jeter is their hero. He walks in the footsteps of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle, and someday his shadow will loom just as large. Yet he has never been the best player in baseball. In fact, he hasn’t always been the best player on his team. But his intangible grace and Jordanesque ability to play big in the biggest of postseason moments make him the face of the modern Yankee dynasty, and of America’s game.
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Great book, terrible narrator.
- By Butter on 05-09-14
By: Ian O'Connor
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Long Shot
- By: Mike Piazza, Lonnie Wheeler
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, Mike Piazza
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Mike Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62nd round of the 1988 baseball draft as a "courtesy pick". The Dodgers never expected him to play for them - or anyone else. Mike had other ideas. Overcoming his detractors, he became the National League Rookie of the Year in 1993, broke the record for season batting average by a catcher, holds the record for career home runs at his position, and was selected as an All Star 12 times. Mike was groomed for baseball success by his ambitious, self-made father in Pennsylvania, a classic father-son American-dream story.
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I only thought i knew the Mike Piazza story
- By James on 03-24-13
By: Mike Piazza, and others
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Summer of '68
- The Season That Changed Baseball - and America - Forever
- By: Tim Wendel
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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From the beginning, ’68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral. That summer, as the pennant races were heating up, the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets, something remarkable was happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before, and with records falling and shut-outs mounting, many began hailing ’68 as “The Year of the Pitcher".
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Detroit Upsets St. Louis in 1968 World Series.
- By Matthew Tsien on 05-01-18
By: Tim Wendel
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K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches
- By: Tyler Kepner
- Narrated by: Tyler Kepner
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times baseball columnist, an enchanting, enthralling history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than 300 people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today.
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Attn authors: please use professional narration.
- By Mark Erickson on 07-10-19
By: Tyler Kepner
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The Last Best League, 10th Anniversary Edition
- One Summer, One Season, One Dream
- By: Jim Collins
- Narrated by: Jim Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Every summer, in ten small towns across Cape Cod, the finest college baseball players in the country gather in hopes of making it to "The Show." The hopes are justifiably high: The Cape Cod Baseball League is the best amateur league in the world, producing one out of every six major league players. Over the last decade, baseball's hard truths became evident for the Chatham stars who went on to play professionally, and the final chapter of their story can now be written.
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Jim Collins: Great American Storyteller
- By M. Leavell on 07-01-14
By: Jim Collins
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They Called Me God
- The Best Umpire Who Ever Lived
- By: Doug Harvey, Peter Golenbock
- Narrated by: Robert Brown
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In the pageantry of baseball, one select group is virtually unknown in the outside world, derided by fans, faced with split-second choices that spell victory or defeat. These men are up-close observers of the action, privy to inside jokes, blood feuds, benches-clearing brawls, and managers’ expletive-filled tirades. In this wonderful memoir, Hall of Fame umpire Doug Harvey takes us within baseball as you’ve never seen it, with unforgettable inside stories of baseball greats such as Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Whitey Herzog.
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The Best? Possibly.
- By Rick on 07-12-14
By: Doug Harvey, and others
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The Last Folk Hero
- The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 22 hrs
- Unabridged
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From the mid-1980s into the early 1990s, the greatest athlete of all time streaked across American sports and popular culture. Stadiums struggled to contain him. Clocks failed to capture his speed. His strength was legendary. His power unmatched. Video game makers turned him into an invincible character—and they were dead-on. He climbed (and walked across) walls, splintered baseball bats over his knee, turned oncoming tacklers into ground meat.
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If you are a sports fan and over 35 years old, you have to listen/read this. Awesome!
- By betty sammons on 06-29-23
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Pete Rose
- An American Dilemma
- By: Kostya Kennedy
- Narrated by: Ben Bartolone
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.
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Good book, not so good production.
- By david d. on 05-01-14
By: Kostya Kennedy
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Pull Up a Chair
- The Vin Scully Story
- By: Curt Smith
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Since 1950, the instantly recognizable voice of Vin Scully has invited listeners to “pull up a chair” for his peerless play-by-play sports reporting. Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, Scully has narrated NBC’s Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, and twenty-five World Series, describing players from Duke Snider to Orel Hershiser to Manny Ramirez, with hundreds in between.
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Almost perfect
- By steve finkelstein on 02-06-21
By: Curt Smith
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As They See 'Em
- A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires
- By: Bruce Weber
- Narrated by: Charley Steiner
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions of American baseball fans know, with absolute certainty, that umpires are simply overpaid galoots who are doing an easy job badly. Millions of American baseball fans are wrong. As They See 'Em is an insider's look at the largely unknown world of professional umpires, the small group of men (and the very occasional woman) who make sure America's favorite pastime is conducted in a manner that is clean, crisp, and true.
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Judging Umpires
- By Bruce on 11-28-09
By: Bruce Weber
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Bottom of the 33rd
- Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game
- By: Dan Barry
- Narrated by: Dan Barry
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. What began as a modestly attended minor-league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings became not only the longest ever played in baseball history, but something else entirely. The first pitch was thrown after dusk on Holy Saturday, and for the next eight hours the night seemed to suspend its participants between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys....
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I love baseball
- By Sher from Provo on 04-08-13
By: Dan Barry
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1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever
- By: Bill Madden
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Jackie Robinson heroically broke the color barrier in 1947. But how—and, in practice, when—did the integration of the sport actually occur? Bill Madden shows that baseball’s famous black experiment” did not truly succeed until the coming of age of Willie Mays and the emergence of some star players—Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks—in 1954. And as a relevant backdrop off the field, it was in May of that year that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation be outlawed in America’s public schools.
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Acumen bugaboo
- By steve finkelstein on 04-25-21
By: Bill Madden
What listeners say about The Closer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Robert G Alfano
- 08-17-19
A story of a fisherman’s son becoming the best closer of all time
After hearing Mariano’s story, you can understand how he was able to tune out distractions and perform at the highest level in the most stressful situations.
Michael Kay was a natural to narrate this story for Mo.
loved it.
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- Marco A Escobar
- 07-20-22
Excellent book!
Love the way he explains dealing with his faith throughout his career, I do believe and lost me going into sooooo much irrelevant details about games.
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- Anthony A. Ciaccio
- 05-25-15
Relive great memories and learn about Mo the man.
What did you like best about this story?
I already knew the greatness of Mo the closer, I kinda knew of the person he was, religious, etc, but I loved learning how he is a great family man and teammate.
What about Michael Kay’s performance did you like?
I despise Michael Kay. So much so that it is hard for me to watch a Yankee game when he is calling play by play; however, he was perfect to narrate this book. See, he knows Mo and his inflection was spot on. I hate to say it, but he did the best job of all the books I have listened to.
Any additional comments?
My favorite Yankee.
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- Steve H.
- 12-16-19
Awesome
Great book good prospective on Mariana and his life struggles growing up and then after he made it.
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- Fantasticme
- 06-21-23
The GOAT
What a great book by a great man. I love that Michael Kay read the book!
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- Judy
- 05-30-14
Obviously a book for Rivera Fans
What did you love best about The Closer?
Mostly the detailed account of Rivera's life before he made it to the major leagues.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Closer?
There were so many memorable moments. His early struggles which he learned to put behind him to become the greatest closer of all time
Which scene was your favorite?
When he first arrived in Tampa, not knowing a word of English. He had never heard of Hank Aaron. This very young, uneducated boy. He befriended a teammate who wanted to learn Spanish and so they each taught their native languages to each other.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Oh yes. I had trouble putting it down. Mariano Rivera is my favorite all time baseball player; I can never get enough of him.
Any additional comments?
I think Michael Kay did an excellent job of reading this book. He knows Mariano very well, and I'm sure that helped. On a personal note, baseball games will never be as much fun for me now that Mo has retired. He was such an incredible athlete and a joy to watch. He will be missed on the Yankee Stadium mound for years to come.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Raul
- 01-04-19
great story from one of the greats.
as a baseball fan I found this book educational and fun.its good to get a ballplayers prospective on the life of a baseball player from start to finish
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- Kevin Cunningham
- 08-27-15
Worth the work to find Mariano's voice
I enjoyed listening to the audiobook very much even though it took a bit of work to find the Mariano's voice and heart through the co-writer and the narrator.
I've heard Mariano in press conferences. I have a bit of an idea of how he talks. I often felt that the book had phrasing that reflected a sports writer more than the athlete himself. Mariano also has a fairly strong accent that was not reflected by the narrator who sounded more like a sportscaster than a biography narrator. Not only did the narrator make no attempt at a Latino accent when appropriate, he actually mangled some Spanish names.
However, the story does reward the effort and perseverance. We get a behind the scenes look into the life, faith and skill of one of baseball's best and best-loved.
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- Abby
- 10-28-19
Amazing story!
Enjoyed this book a lot, Michael Kay did a great job narrating which doesn't surprise me.
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- James K
- 02-08-22
A Humble Giant
My dad who knows a lot more about baseball than I do says Rivera might be the most valuable player in the history of the game. I don't know about that but after reading his autobiography I know he's the humblest.
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