"You want to know the most sure-fire way to make God laugh," the old adage goes, "Tell Him your plans." Now I prefer the far more succinct, "Man plans, God laughs" but it's six of one etc....

And if there were any New York Yankees player since Lou "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth" Gehrig who would get that sentiment, it would be Mariano Rivera. Yesterday afternoon while doing something he loved, something he wouldn't have changed, the greatest closer the game will ever see crashed into the wall at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City shagging flies and tore his ACL. He is lost for the season.

Now, there were plenty of expectations that this was going to be Mo's last season in pinstripes. He had hinted at retirement and he was adamant about going out on top and he did that even if it wasn't his plan. Perhaps it was God's. Rivera is an honest to goodness, God-fearing man. I believe he is also a God-loving man and when he says he will pray on a decision as to whether he wants to even attempt to come back from this injury, I believe him. This is no "I couldn't have done it without Jesus" lip-service kind of ballplayer or kind of man.

And yes, it leaves the Yankees scrambling, but there are options in closers. Brian Cashman, who really didn't want to sign Rafael Soriano in the first place, does have the surly righthander in the bullpen with serious closing qualifications. There's homegrown David Robertson, who has learned at the master's feet and was the potential heir apparent when #42 decided to hang up his spikes and retire that number finally.

But I can't treat this as a tragedy. Tragedy was Thurman Munson crashing his plane. Tragedy was Cory Lidle dying in the same manner. This is awful. It's a shame that such a class act (and to bring up Gehrig and Munson, two of the most class acts the team and the game has seen is no accident) couldn't go out the way he wished and richly deserved. The game goes on. Someone will come running in from the bullpen in the ninth when skipper Joe Girardi taps his right arm. There will be no "Enter Sandman" blasting from the Yankee Stadium PA system. There will be no more foregone conclusions; Mariano Rivera has been as good as a "sure thing" for over fifteen seasons;  something literally unheard of in the hundred-plus years of history of the game.

Mariano Rivera was smiling when he was carted off the field. He was nearly crying when he addressed the media later on. Neither image is how I wish to remember him. I will see him firing that cutter and breaking bats without seemingly breaking a sweat. But this is sad, but again, not tragic. Mo will be able to play with his kids. He will run out onto the field for Old Timer's Day and throw his cutter with a smile on his face. And in five seasons from whenever he announces his retirement he will be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, possibly even unanimously; I cannot imagine what sportswriter could look himself in the eye and think even for a second that Rivera doesn't deserve enshrinement.

If he never throws another pitch that counts, I will treasure all the times I got to see him close out yet another Yankee win during the regular season wherein he closed out more games than anyone in the history of the game; his post-season record is unassailable. Mariano Rivera is truly one of the great New York Yankees and a class act and was always proud to wear the pinstripes, the only uniform the best should wear.