Joe Girardi :

“I’ve never seen Mo throw a wild pitch,” said an exasperated Girardi. “Never once in my life.”

It’s kind of weird how memories can play tricks on you.

Thanks to one of my favorite baseball research sites Retrosheet.org, I took the time to look up all of Mariano Rivera’s wild pitches. The man only had 10 wild pitches in his CAREER before last night. So now he has 11 in 14 regular seasons- an amazingly low number.

But, lo and behold- as I suspected Joe Girardi DID see Mariano throw a wild pitch- in fact he actually CAUGHT him on a few occasions when Mo threw them, like on on Wednesday, April 17, 1996:

BREWERS 7TH: M. Rivera threw a wild pitch

New York Yankees             AB   R   H RBI      BB  SO      PO   A
Raines lf                   4   0   2   0       0   0       2   0
Eenhoorn 2b                 0   0   0   0       0   0       1   0
James ph                    0   0   0   0       0   0       0   0
Leyritz ph,lf               1   0   0   0       0   1       0   0
Boggs 3b                    4   0   0   0       1   0       0   1
O'Neill dh                  4   1   1   0       1   0       0   0
Sierra rf                   5   0   0   0       0   0       3   1
Martinez 1b                 3   2   2   0       0   0       6   2
B. Williams cf              2   1   1   1       2   0       0   0
Duncan 2b,lf,2b             4   0   1   1       0   0       4   2
Girardi c                  4   0   1   0       0   0       6   0
Jeter ss                    4   0   1   1       0   1       2   5
Cone p                      0   0   0   0       0   0       0   0
  M. Rivera p          
Howe p                      0   0   0   0       0   0       0   0

Oh, lo and behold. The same thing happened on Tuesday, April 8, 1997 at Anaheim Stadium.

ANGELS 9TH: RIVERA REPLACED BOEHRINGER. Rivera threw a wild pitch [Erstad to third]

Jeter ss                      6   2   3   2       0   1       3   5
Boggs 3b                      4   1   1   2       1   0       1   2
Williams cf                   6   0   4   1       0   0       2   0
Martinez 1b                   6   0   2   0       0   1      18   1
Fielder dh                    6   0   0   0       0   1       0   0
O'Neill rf                    5   2   2   1       1   1       0   0
Whiten lf                     6   1   2   0       0   1       1   0
Duncan 2b                     4   2   2   0       0   2       0   1
Kelly 2b                      2   0   1   0       0   0       1   2
Girardi c                     5   1   2   3       0   0       8   2
Rogers p                      0   0   0   0       0   0       0   4
Weathers p               
Stanton p               
Boehringer p             
 Rivera p                 
Nelson p                 
Totals                       50   9  19   9       2   7      34  18

It also happened with Mo and Joe on June 18, 1999 at Yankee Stadium.

It also happened on national television in the playoffs on October 9, 1999 versus Texas.

Speaking of post-season, Mo actually had 2 wild pitches in ONE INNING on Wednesday, October 17, 2001, with Jorge Posada catching, again on national television.

Mo also had no memory of any of his 10 wild pitches during the regular series in his career, or the 4 made in the post-season. That’s probably because none of the wild pitches ever lost the game. Last night was the only wild pitch which resulted in a loss.

So I’m not trying to be a smarty pants here, I just get real suspicious when baseball people recollect. Quick honestly, at 162 games a year for many years, it’s not possible to remember everything. But you know me, I like to look things up at show what the record really is, especially since Michael Kay and Al Leiter implied “something wrong is with Mo for throwing a wild pitch”. The fact is that Mo’s wild pitches have been random and rare- a statistical anomaly.

Edit:

The only reason I blogged about this,

As Greg Pope from Baseballthinkfactory commented:

“if pointed out to Girardi, he might realize that he doesn’t remember everything and might think twice about being so sure next time”

and

“it reinforces the idea in others not to take peoples’ memories as absolute, including their own”.

I wasn’t trying to “call Girardi out”.

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