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Fifteen years later, the vision of a spooked Mariano Rivera is still embedded in my cranium. One week into the 1997 season, Rivera surrendered a 464-foot homer to Mark McGwire and blew his second save in four chances. Rivera was the new closer for the Yankees, but he was failing in the ninth inning.

As Rivera fielded questions about letting a 1-0 lead disappear at Yankee Stadium, his voice cracked. He searched for the proper words, but he was really searching for the right answers, too. The more Rivera spoke, the more obvious it became that he was a bewildered soul. He was the closer who wasn’t closing.

“I think I need something to get me going,” Rivera said at the time. “I think mentally to get me going I have to try to think like last year. Just think it’s

Spotting Mariano Rivera during batting practice was never a chore. A Yankee hitter would blast a shot into the outfield gaps and a blur would bolt across the grass to grab it. That blur was Rivera, who shagged fly balls as part of his pregame routine. It was easy to watch Rivera glide around the outfield.

On a sobering Thursday in Kansas City, it wasn’t easy to watch Rivera in the outfield. It was awful. Awful to watch Rivera land awkwardly after leaping for a ball near the left field warning track, awful to see his face plastered with pain and awful to see him grabbing his damaged right knee. Rivera, the mightiest of closers, looked helpless.

A few hours later, a somber Rivera revealed that he had torn the ACL and meniscus in his knee, a devastating injury. As difficult as it was to

TAMPA – As David Robertson stood on a mound here in December, the conversation switched to the possibility of him being a closer for the Yankees. Sure, Robertson said, he would love to succeed Mariano Rivera at some point, but Robertson stressed that he didn’t want Rivera to retire anytime soon.

“I don’t need to do it right away,” Robertson said. “I want Mo to hang around a few years.”

Two months later, Rivera walked into Spring Training and strongly hinted that he would retire after 2012. Rivera acknowledged that he has already decided what he will do after this season. While Rivera wouldn’t divulge his plans to reporters, he sounded like a player who was prepared to cede the ninth inning to someone else.

Someone like Robertson.

It was

TAMPA -- The Yankees trickled into the clubhouse Monday morning like any other first workout for pitchers and catchers in any other season. There was a slimmer CC Sabathia, a leaner Phil Hughes and a more sinewy Russell Martin, their bodies telling the stories of their productive off-seasons. There were the endless hugs and handshakes, routine ways to reconnect after four months of separation.

But, as much as this opening of Spring Training felt like any other opening for the Yankees, there could be something that is very different about the next six and a half weeks. This could be the final time that Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer ever, is part of Spring Training. Rivera could be ready to retire.

During two interview sessions with reporters, Rivera hinted strongly that 2012 would

The skinny kid in shorts and a T-shirt was watching the Yankees play an exhibition game at Fort Lauderdale Stadium in 1993. The only reason I noticed him is because he was positioned behind a fence that was alongside the Yankees’ dugout. That was a place where reporters congregated. We could peek at the game and also monitor if George Steinbrenner emerged from an office trailer that was about 100 feet away.

As the kid talked to a fan, I soon realized he was a Yankee Minor Leaguer and I became intrigued by his words. The kid explained how he had undergone right elbow surgery, how he was going to return soon and how, someday, he would pitch in the Major Leagues.

“I’ll be there,” the kid said. “You will see.”

I had no idea who this kid was. After asking

Our debate on who should pitch the ninth inning for the Yankees started in the seventh in Bob Lorenz’s office at the YES studios. Bob, who is superb at posing questions whether we are on- or off-camera, asked John Flaherty and me if we thought Bartolo Colon should stay in the game or if the Yankees should use Mariano Rivera in the inning that he usually owns.

Typically, this wouldn’t even have been a question for me. Rivera is the greatest closer of all-time, so he should get the ball like he always does. That is one of manager Joe Girardi’s easiest decisions. But because of the way Colon was pitching on Wednesday night, I hedged on that easiest of choices.

Once Bob floated the question, John fielded it first. The former Yankee, who has caught Rivera, reminded us how

Get the ball to Mariano Rivera. It is the winning formula that the Yankees have used since Rivera became their full-time closer in 1997. If the Yankees get the ball to Rivera, their powerful belief is that they should win the game. Getting the ball to Rivera just got easier.

The Yankees have signed Rafael Soriano to a 3-year, $35 million contract, which is pending until he passes a physical. As long as Soriano passes a physical, he will be the highest-paid set up man in the major leagues and should combine with Rivera to give the Yankees the best late-inning combination in baseball. The agreement was first reported by SI.com.

Soriano saved 45 games in 48 opportunities for the Rays last season and was probably the best closer in the American League. Rivera saved 33 games in 38 chances

Sometimes, Mariano Rivera’s greatness in the most delicate job in baseball is taken for granted. Rivera is so superb and so precise that he is expected to be unhittable. Not just effective, but excellent. Sometimes, Rivera’s prolonged excellence even baffles the people who have watched him the longest.

“Can you believe what Rivera is doing?,” asked Gene Michael, who was the Yankees’ general manager when Rivera debuted in 1995. “He just keeps getting better. How do you do that?”

As a baseball lifer who was a player, a coach, a manager, a general manager and an adviser for the Yankees, Michael has scouted hundreds of players. He has never seen someone as good at what he does as Rivera is as a closer. I haven’t seen as many players as Michael,

Mariano Rivera makes hitters fret, makes them adjust and makes them ponder how close they are to having their bat splintered by his cut fastball. Rivera is so superb and so dominant that he and his trusty cutter can invade a batter's cranium before he ever throws a pitch. Some very strong hitters have ambled to the plate wondering how they can conquer the mighty Rivera.

In Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, Luis Gonzalez was one of those hitters. With the Yankees and the Diamondbacks tied, 2-2, and the bases loaded in the ninth inning, Gonzalez knew he needed to do something, anything, different against Rivera. So Gonzalez moved his hands up the handle of the bat and choked up for the first time all season.

"I had 140-something R.B.I. that season and I'd hit 57 homers and I was choking