During his baseball career, Mariano Rivera was presented as a man of deep Christian faith. His presence on the mound was almost always dignified and calm. It was said he even walked in from the bullpen with an elegant gait. But away from the spotlight of professional baseball, there was (and is) another Mariano Rivera. The private Mariano Rivera. The real Mariano Rivera.
Robert Silverman's lengthy, well-sourced examination of Rivera's far-right political beliefs was published at The Daily Beast on the eve of the former pitcher's induction into baseball's Hall of Fame.
Rivera is closely linked with, and has expressed his support and admiration for, Pastor John Hagee, a hard-core Islamophobic religious extremist, who believes the Holocaust was a result of divine intervention (i.