As Mariano Rivera continues his final season in the MLB, teams throughout the Baseball have given Rivera a farewell gift in his last game at their stadium. For example, the Oakland Athletic’s gave Rivera a surfboard and a bottle of wine; the Detroit Tigers gave Rivera a photo collage along with a jar of Tiger Stadium dirt; the Cleveland Indians gave him a gold record of ‘enter sandman’; and the New York Mets had him throw out the ceremonial first pitch, as well as playing a video board tribute to Rivera at his final game at Citi Field.
Although the above mentioned gifts are well appreciated, no team has beaten what the Minnesota Twins gave Rivera last night. They made a rocking chair, but the catch is, the rocking chair is comprised of broken bats from current and past Twin players. They called the rocking chair ‘The Chair of Broken Dreams’ which was a great idea in itself; but to include broken bats from MVP candidates such as Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and even hall of famer Kirby Puckett put the idea over the top. The Twins also donated $10,000 to Rivera’s charity.
Rivera has a career total of 635 saves, and 34 of them has come at the Twins expense. Undoubtedly as Rivera will make his last appearance in other ballparks, he will receive more farewell gifts. It will be hard to beat what the creativity of the Twins farewell gift, but if any Major Leaguer deserves it, it is Mariano Rivera.
Justin Lerner: PureSportsNY