Mariano Rivera - Early Life

Early Life

Mariano Rivera was born in Panama City, Panama, on November 29, 1969, to Mariano, Sr. and Delia Rivera. His father worked as a ship captain in the fishing industry. Rivera has one older sister, Delia, and two younger brothers, Alvaro and Giraldo. He grew up in the Panamanian fishing village of Puerto Caimito—a town he described as "poor"—frequently playing soccer with his friends. For their baseball games, they substituted milk cartons for gloves and tree branches for bats, and they fashioned balls by taping wads of shredded fishing nets and beat-up baseballs with electrical tape. Rivera used this makeshift equipment until his father bought him his first leather glove when he was 12 years old.

Rivera thought of baseball as a hobby and did not seriously consider playing professionally. Instead, his aspirations were to become a professional soccer player, but a series of ankle injuries while playing at Pedro Pablo Sanchez High School dashed his hopes. After graduating from high school at age 16, he worked six-day weeks on a commercial boat captained by his father, catching shrimp and sardines. The job was "way too tough" for Rivera, who was more interested in becoming a mechanic. As a 19-year-old, he had to abandon a capsizing 120-short-ton (110 t) commercial boat, all but convincing him to give up fishing as a career.

In 1988, Rivera began to play shortstop for Panamá Oeste, a local amateur baseball team. Herb Raybourn, the New York Yankees' director of Latin American operations, saw athleticism in Rivera but did not project him to be a major league shortstop. A year later, Panamá Oeste's pitcher performed so poorly that Rivera volunteered to pitch. He excelled at the position, prompting his teammates to contact Yankees scout Chico Heron. Two weeks later, Rivera was invited to a Yankees tryout camp in Panama City where Raybourn was visiting. Raybourn was surprised to find Rivera pitching at the camp, since scouts passed on him as a shortstop a year prior. Although Rivera had no formal pitching training and threw only 85–87 miles per hour (137–140 kilometres per hour), Raybourn was impressed by Rivera's athleticism and smooth, effortless pitching motion. Viewing Rivera as a raw talent, Raybourn signed the amateur free agent to a contract with a US$3,000 signing bonus ($5,337 today) on February 17, 1990.