Wednesday’s Hot Clicks: Late Yankees Pitching Coach Had the Perfect Name for His Boat
That boat is never sinking
Jeff Gross/Getty Images
Yankees closer Mariano Rivera was elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday, becoming the first player ever to receive a perfect 100% of the vote. The same day, the funeral for his former pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre was held in Bellevue, Washington. Teammate David Cone was there and shared this tremendous fact about the relationship between Stottlemyre and Rivera.
When you’re out on the open water, you want your boat to be reliable and get you back to shore safely every time, just like handing the ball to Rivera to close out the game.
Stottlemyre, who died on Jan. 13 after a long battle with blood cancer, was a great pitching coach, working with Rivera, Cone, Andy Pettitte, Dwight Gooden and other Yankees greats en route to five World Series rings. The Yankees are lucky Stottlemyre wasn’t even greater, though, because when Rivera’s fastball started cutting suddenly in 1997, he and Stottlemyre tried to figure out how to straighten it.
“Didn’t matter how I grabbed the ball,” Rivera told CBS Sports in 2013. “It was still moving. I told Mel that I won’t be throwing no more balls in the bullpen because I need to be ready for the game. We worked a lot and this thing is still the same and let’s leave it like that.”
And the rest is history.
The rare hockey buzzer-beater!
The Sharks came back from two goals down in the third period to beat the Capitals in overtime, 7–6, thanks to a goal by Evander Kane at the literal last second.
“I thought the game was over,” Sharks forward Logan Couture admitted after the game. “I came to the bench and I changed, and I was frustrated. Broke my stick over the bench. And then I look up and Kane’s putting the puck in the net.”
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Around the sports world
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Premier League striker goes into hilarious detail about his colonoscopy
(Click to read the whole thread.)
Michigan survives at the home against Minnesota in Ann Arbor
No. 14 Buffalo not so fortunate on the road at NIU
Awesome Roy Halladay story from Joey Votto
This is a real thing included in the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement
TIL per Article 34, Section 10, Exhibit 36 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, "(1) Soccer Ball" is a required piece of equipment that must be provided to the visiting team by the home Club. from r/hockey
Does anyone else think it’s extremely weird that Senior Bowl weigh-ins are taking place on a stage in front of a massive audience?
Saints fans aren’t the only ones mad at the refs
Croatia lost to Germany in the quarterfinals of the World Handball Championships after a controversial call in the closing minutes. The Croatian handball federation responded by producing a Top 10 video of officiating errors from the game.
Mo must have learned this from Hideki Matsui
This wasn’t even that long ago
Just this one day off
How did teams not just walk off the field?
Not sports
James Gandolfini’s son is going to play young Tony Soprano in the Sopranos prequel movie. ... El Chapo once had one of his employees killed for skipping work. ... Netflix is adding more episodes of Jeopardy.
“Is it colder in the hole?”
Special effects without the budget
[youtube:https://youtu.be/pRx0CMfSS1E]
The answer to “how did they do that?”
A good song
Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
