Rivera Spitball Video: Did Yankees' Mariano Rivera Cheat?

The Internet is aflutter with accustations that Yankees' closer Mariano Rivera prepared an illegal spitball in last night's ALCS game against the Angels.

While earlier today Major League Baseball cleared Rivera of any wrongdoing, the evidence against the ace is still compelling.

Watch the video below and you be the judge:

Quick Poll

Did Mariano Rivera cheat?

Yes

No

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Comments

[miksmaster]

Quick! Somebody check the "spit" for steroids.

[haval2]

Bluejoni2525 ... the Keith Hernandez was a reference to Seinfeld...I know he was a Met not a Yankee.

[bluejoni2525]

OK sorry I get it now :-)

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

This is simple, considering the piss poor officiating in this series. How could he have gotten away with it with four umpires watching him? Yankee haters will believe anything.

[wm1066]

When I was watching the Twins lose to the Yankees last week I thought the Yankees were doing it then.

[Wide Stance]

60% say yes. The other 40% are Yankees fans. (Bush approval levels.)

[Soundofthunder]

To qualify my post: I loathe the Yankees (mostly the fans, who would root for the house in a Vegas casino). That said, Rivera didn't throw a "spit" ball. That's slang for a ball doctored with a foreign substance like Vaseline, not actual spit. So the whole controversy is purely fabricated. If you want to rag on the Yankees, there are other things to focus on. Like the fifth of a billion dollars they spend every year, which basically ruins MLB.

SoT

[Wide Stance]

A spit ball need not be "vaseline," that's cr&p. Any foreign substance that changes the balance or aerodynamics of the ball could be a "spit ball." Historically, it was spit. Hence the name.

--
And yes, he clearly hawked a nice loogey on that baseball.

[VTL]

If this was a "spit" ball, every pitch from the 7th inning on (remember the rain?) the other night in New York was also a "spit" ball.

[HazerX]

Yes, because clearly spit and rain are of the same consistancy. You're so totally right. *rolls eyes*

[westreal]

helllz to tha mutha phookin yes

[wadenelson1]

Blame it on HD television. Nobody could see his loogie hocking before now.

[Sobeton]

The Angels got an old fashion beat down and that's about all that happen last night.

[IncredulousGeezer]

He doesn't have to.
Even Rookies know the difference between a spitter & a cutter.

[GrackleFarm]

I'm a Red Sox fan and even I say that Mariano Rivera didn't cheat, wouldn't cheat. The guy has too much class.

[annie0107]

As a Yankee fan I say thanks. You, too, are a class act.

[2bad]

you two need to get a room.

[jws2346]

Did they get a DNA test off that ball. That's what they would do on the detective series on TV.

[Jr Bob Jr]

So very obvious that this was not a cheating pitcher. The guy spits all the time, its just the angle of the camera.

Who the heck would make cheating that obvious, anyway???

14 stories about how the "balloon boy" isn't news anymore, yet this makes the front page.

[courtreporter]

didn't they win 10-1??? Even if he did (and I don't know ....) I don't think it was a game changer!!!!

[GolfingDevil05]

This was video from Game 3, which the Angels won 5-4 after the Yankees had already removed him from the game. Game 4 was the 10-1 pounding of my team, and Rivera didn't pitch. If the game isn't close, he doesn't pitch.

And speaking as an Angels fan, I believe he didn't throw a spit ball. I also believe that Rivera is one of the few guys in baseball who would surprise me if he did cheat, be it by doctoring the baseball or by doctoring himself.

[gwhizz]

Of course he did. That's what the bankees do.

[annie0107]

loo hoo ser her