It took an awful long time. The first Hall of Fame class was inducted way back in 1936. On Tuesday, the greatest closer of all-time, the New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera, became the first player ever to be unanimously elected in his first year on the ballot.
It’s been a remarkable journey for Rivera who grew up in a fishing town in Panama, and witnessed and experienced the hard lives many of his friends, family, and elders. He saw his uncle severely injured in a terrible accident on a fishing trip when Rivera just a boy.