One of the colleges I applied to required me to list a fun fact with my application. I wrote that fewer people have scored an earned run in the playoffs against former New York Yankees closing pitcher Mariano Rivera than have walked on the moon. Later, I was told this fun fact was supposed to be about myself, but I have no regrets.

This tidbit is not just valuable for its absurdity. Rather, it captures in one sentence what Major League Baseball (MLB) teams must remember: that designating a roster spot for a lights-out closer should not be a relic of the past.

When Rivera pitched, games never seemed to last the whole nine innings. It was almost a foregone conclusion that if the Yankees’ opponent was unlucky enough to be losing after the eighth inning, they would trudge home defeated after a quick spar with Rivera. Indeed, over his 19 season career — during which he collected a whole hand’s worth of World Series rings — Rivera earned a save in over 91% of opportunities.

In the postseason — when batters are better and pitching stats are often underwhelming as a result — Rivera was impenetrable, pitching to a miniscule 0.70 earned run average (ERA). 

One has to wonder if Rivera’s opponents were Pavlov-ed into waving a white flag when they heard the opening notes of his trademark entrance music, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”

In retrospect, the era of white flag-inducing closers retired alongside Rivera in 2013.

Since then, MLB teams have trended toward treating roster construction like a patchwork quilt. Designating a roster spot for a particular position is no longer the default. Instead, teams employ a number of flexible players whom they masterfully juggle depending on analytics and the situation. As a result, many MLB teams lack a traditional closer. Rather, they tap any one of their relievers to pitch the ninth.

Even the team that staunchly continues to resist the crashing tide of modernization in baseball — my Yankees — has accepted this “closer by committee” approach. Last season, manager Aaron Boone responded to a reporter’s question about the team’s closer by asserting that he saw “a number of guys getting saves.”

It is as if teams witnessed the invincible Mariano Rivera, threw their hands up and admitted defeat. No closer would ever be as dominant as Rivera — the first and only player to earn a unanimous induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame — so there was no longer a reason to roster a closer at all.

By surrendering to probability, teams deprive their fans of the opportunity to visit a sold-out Yankee Stadium and cry to the tune of a historic retirement ceremony, as I did. They deprive the record books of iconic pathbreakers, as Rivera was. And they deprive themselves of the chance to absolutely dominate the rest of the league on the shoulders of one player, as the Yankees could.

In a way, it’s understandable. Maybe the magic was not a product of the closer role itself, but a reflection of Rivera’s sheer invulnerability. 

And maybe teams are right to believe that there will never be another closer who can measure up to Mariano Rivera. But they are wrong to deny players that chance to try — and fans that chance to watch one.

Rivera did not become indestructible overnight. The Yankees originally viewed him as a starting pitcher — and at first, a rather mediocre one. Their ownership even came inches away from trading him to the Seattle Mariners for little in return. 

But instead, they gave him a chance. They let him develop his unhittable cutter and grow into his role as a closer — and he eventually became the most effective relief pitcher in history.

Teams today fail to provide their blossoming pitchers with the same opportunity. By shifting away from employing a designated closer, they mistakenly prioritize current convenience at the expense of future talent. 

Simply put, I ask teams to have some patience. 

They must realize that to build a legacy — the kind of dynasty that Rivera played for as a Yankee at the turn of the millennium — they cannot give up on players at the slightest sign of imperfection.

The next mission to the moon is scheduled for 2025, and I hope that before the astronauts take off, they will have had the privilege to witness the emergence of the next Mariano Rivera.

And maybe, by the time we make it to Mars, he will already be inducted into the Hall of Fame.