Wow....The Dojo. First, I must apologize for my lack on contribution on this fine and fantastic Web site that is the life blood of the Cobra Kai. I am just catching up and wanted to chime in on a few things. I am striving to be a more ardent member of the Dojo especially since it is the only place I can connect with some members..............namely Rob "Roundhouse Missing In Action" Reger, Richard (David Wright is my hero cuz he is afraid of the Brewers" Guttierez and of course the GOAT.

On to business. My first order of business has to do with Koko's post referring to Mariano Rivera as the unquestioned greatest reliever of all time and the greatest there ever will be.

Well, I want to first state that Mariano is ONE of the Greatest of all time. He is a first ballot hall of famer, a man I greatly respect and I find to be a phenomenal reliever. He deserves all the credit he has been given especially after he surpassed former Milwaukee Brewer great Trevor Hoffman as the all time leading saves leader in MLB history.

While Rivera's accomplishment is magnificent, I beg to differ. I submit that Mariano Rivera is not the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball. Long time Yankee Announcer Michael Kay once noted on Rivera's save..."That ninth inning played out the way most of those play out for him - clean, efficient and he got it done." Here is the opportunity for me to start my discusssion. The vast majority of Rivera's saves were simple one inning saves. Rivera has exactly 11 career saves of at least two innings. Contrast that with 135 for Brewers Great Rollie Fingers.

Needless to say, the game is different now than it was a generation ago. Fine. But all the more reason not to declare Mariano Rivera the greatest relief pitcher of all-time. The greatest one inning closer of all time? Absolutely yes. But can we really say that Rivera is better than Rollie Fingers. After all, Fingers pitched 100 or more innings in eleven out of twelve seasons while Rivera has only thrown more than 100 innings once and that was in 1996 when he was the set up man for John Wetteland. Rivera would have been the best even if he had a different role, even if he was a pitcher who got 30 saves a year and pitched 120 innings." Yet I could just as easily argue that if Fingers was a one inning closer he would have saved 700 games. Now it's true that Fingers never saved 40 games in a season and had 340 for his career. Indeed, one could make the case that at this time two years from now, Rivera could have twice as many saves as Fingers. But quite frankly, Rivera could save 1,000 games and never do what Fingers did. While it could be said that Rivera revolutionized the role of the closer, Fingers revolutionized relief pitching itself.

Rollie Fingers also averaged about 1.8 innings per game for his career while Rivera has averaged about 0.78 innings per game. Rollie usually came in during tense situations in the 7th or 8th innings and saved the rest of the bullpen innings by being the iron man pitching 2-3 Clutch innings. On the other hand Mariano comes for 2 outs in the 9th and would notch up another Save. 2 outs as oppossed to 9????? Really? You think coming in and getting 2 easy ground outs puts you as the greatest of all time unquestionably while Fingers would have to come in and Grind out on average 7-9 outs for his saves?????? Mariano gets to force 2 outs and he gets a save for the record books while Fingers gets 7-9 outs for his Save for the books. Seems to me I would rather have Fingers helping my team out than some half inning diva who takes the credit the set-up men before him had to do the work for.

My last point is this also. To be the Unquestioned greatest at anything you have to be the BEST at your position in at least 1 YEAR. Mariano Rivera was NEVER...EVER....THE BEST AT PITCHER IN ANY GIVEN YEAR. While Rollie Fingers while leading thee Milwaukee Brewers to the World Series in 1981 Rollie WON NOT ONLY THE CY-YOUNG AWARD......ROLLIE ALSO brought HOME THE MVP! Mariano has NO CY-Youngs or MVP's of the regular Season to his Credit. Now....Mariano does have a post-season MVP..........but So does Rollie.

Lastly.......Rollie revolutionized the position.....Had one of the greatest signature mustaches of all time (Who doesn't love the Handle-Bar Stache) and he loved to party the Cobra Kai way....putting back many Pabst Blue Ribbons in his heyday back in Milwaukee.

I think Mariano is One of the GREATEST and I respect him dearly........I am simply stating a case for Rollie here that Mariano is not the unquestionable Greatest of ALL Time.........that's all I'm saying.