A chance for the next generation to shine

Last night, David Robertson pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his first save as temporary closer for the New York Yankees. As the boyfriend pointed out to me the other day, if there's any silver lining to Mariano Rivera's ACL injury knocking him out of the game for who knows how long, it's that this provides an opportunity for some of the younger pitchers to step up and show their stuff. In a complete role reversal, I took on his normally jaded Yankee fan persona and told him that ideally, that's what should happen, but this being the Yankees, they would probably throw a ton of money at some bloated, aging, fading former super star as a quick fix to a very serious problem, not having a closer.

To my delight, it appears that I was wrong.

The fact of the matter is, even if this injury doesn't end Mo's career, he's nearing the end of his career age-wise anyway, and the Yankees are going to need to find somebody to take his spot. I don't know if that guy is Robertson...at one point, I thought it might be Joba Chamberlain, but both the Yankees and Joba screwed up that opportunity...but the team's best bet is to hand the ball to their younger pitchers and have them show what they're made of. They need their young pitchers to step up, and I guarantee, at least some of those pitchers want this opportunity, have dreamed of this opportunity, are itching for the chance to prove that they are the next generation of legendary Yankee players. Jeter and Rivera weren't always here, and they won't be here forever. Let's see what players our kids are going to be idolizing, whose jerseys they're going to be buying.

So I'm excited by Robertson's save. I've always liked him. I hope this wasn't a fluke. I'm looking forward to seeing what else this kid will show us.