mariano rivera is in my hall of famer collection

it took a while, but i've finally added the only unanimously elected hall of famer to my hall of famer collection. here's the card representing mariano rivera in said collection:

that's a 2015 topps finest generations autograph, numbered 10/25. here's the back:

rivera took over the yankee closer role from john wetteland and elevated the position to new heights. he is baseball's all-time leader in saves with 652. he won five world series rings and was the mvp of the 1999 fall classic. he also has 42 postseason saves and a 0.70 era over 141 innings of postseason pitching. incredible. and, while he never won a cy young award, he did have five seasons in which he finished in the top 5 in terms of voting for the award.

i got to see him pitch in person just once. it was may 6, 1999 and the yankees were playing the twins at the metrodome. the game went into the 10th inning and the yankees took the lead on a ricky ledee hit. rivera came in and earned the save by getting matt lawton, brent gates, and doug mientkiewicz to each ground out. i don't have a strong memory of the inning, but baseball reference notes that two of the three groundouts were "weak" and the third one was a comebacker.

i did see the yankees play during rivera's final season - 2013 - but he did not get the call in the game that i attended. five years later, he became the first person to receive 100% of the baseball writer votes to gain election to the hall of fame.

as a reminder, you can see rivera and the rest of the players in my hall of famer collection here.