September 21st update

Wednesday Spotlight: Mariano Rivera

• It’s not often that somebody who excels at one thing is considered the best at that thing well before they are statistically at the top. This is the case for Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees. Rivera has long been considered the best closer in the history of Major League Baseball. Rivera got his 602nd save (which is the term for finishing a game when the player's team had 3 runs or less lead and maintaining that lead) which put him ahead of Trevor Hoffman in career saves.
• Rivera has long been considered the best closer due largely to his success in the post-season. Rivera was originally supposed to be a starting pitcher, but quickly moved to be a reliever. After the 1995 season, where the Yankees won the World Series, Rivera took over for John Wetteland as the closer for the Yankees. Over the next 16 years the Yankees won 5 more World Series with Rivera closing four of them.
• The thing that makes Rivera’s successes all the more impressive is that he has done it with basically one pitch. His “cutter” is a fastball type pitch that moves about 5 inches to the left at the last possible second. It is one of the most dominant pitches any player has. This pitch has continued to befuddle batters for almost 2 decades and according to Rivera basically just appeared one day while he was playing catch with Panamanian countryman Ramiro Mendoza.


Big in and out of conference NCAA games loom in week 4

• A number of terrific games headline week 4 of the NCAA's season. The best is probably a matchup of top 8 Big 12 teams Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. While both teams are still in the Big 12, this may be their last chance to make a title run as part of this conference as it may be breaking up soon.
• SEC superpower, #3 ranked Alabama plays #14 Arkansas who has a great team despite losing superstar QB Ryan Mallett to the NFL this past season. Another SEC team, #2 LSU takes on #16 West Virginia in what should be a defensive struggle.
• In the ACC, two ranked teams clash as Florida State will look to rebound after a close loss to #1 Oklahoma against Clemson, who last week became the first team to defeat Auburn since 2009. Additionally, the power running game of Georgia Tech meets possibly the most NFL-ready defense in college football of North Carolina as dark horse ACC title contenders meet to try to remain perfect.
•Rounding out the top 5, #1 Oklahoma plays Missouri, #4 Boise State plays Tulsa and Andrew Luck can take the weekend to shop for suits to wear to the 2012 NFL draft (where he will almost certainly be the #1 pick) as #5 Stanford has a bye week.