Sirius/XM Radio Interview

This from our friends at Sirius/XM:

Today (June 29, 2009) on his daily talk show on SIRIUS XM Radio, former Red Sox manager Kevin Kennedy talked about Mariano Rivera’s 500th career save, which came against the Mets last night at Citi Field.

Kennedy, who managed the Red Sox in 1995 and 1996, recalled being on the receiving end of a particularly dominant performance by Rivera while in his early years as a set-up man for the Yankees.

Kevin Kennedy: “I’ll never forget this as long as I live, it’s a true story: we’re in New York, the old Yankee Stadium, Rivera comes in and he just blows it by Mo Vaughn, [Jose] Canseco, Reggie Jefferson, whoever. He went through us in the seventh and eighth inning like he was facing little leaguers. And you’re talking about the [1995 AL] MVP [in Vaughn]. I’ll never forget after the eighth inning, I think he struck out Mo, and I saw Derek [Jeter] cover his glove over his mouth and Rivera happened to get the ball and look at him, and Derek just kind of shook his head and laughed. Now, he covered his mouth out of respect because he wasn’t laughing at the Red Sox. He was laughing like, ‘I can’t believe how good this guy is, how dominant this guy is. I’m glad I’m not facing him.’ It was a respectful thing. I knew what Derek was doing. It wasn’t about, ‘Oh, we’ve got you guys.’ It wasn’t about that. I’ll never forget that, watching that from the visiting dugout, and I’m thinking the same thing on the bench. Now, all these years later, did I know Rivera would have 500 saves and be able to do this for, you know, 15 years in a row? No, but I did know there was something special we were watching that year in ’96.”

Kevin Kennedy and Jeff Joyce host “Inside Pitch” weekdays (1-4 pm ET) exclusively on SIRIUS XM Radio’s MLB Home Plate channel (XM channel 175, SIRIUS channel 210 with the “Best of XM” programming package).

We don't actually have any friends at Sirius/XM radio, mainly because I lost a lot of money investing in them. It was a risky move, but I was young, and flush with disposable income. It was definitely disposed of. But anyways, this quote is pretty interesting since it shows that Jeter used to laugh at opposing teams, which I always suspected, but never could confirm. Thanks Kevin Kennedy.