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Not a big baseball fan, but this was pretty special:

There was hardly a dry eye. The Yankees and Rays stood in tribute while fans blinked back tears, honouring the closer who turns 44 in November.

His voice cracking after the game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he conceived the idea in the eighth inning of including Jeter and Pettitte.

“I’ve never seen a player pull another player, so I had to ask. And then one of them was on the DL,” he said.

Girardi conferred with plate umpire Laz Diaz before the ninth, and Diaz consulted with crew chief Mike Winters.

“Then I said, ’Well, can I send two?’ and they said, ’Well, go ahead.’ And I really appreciate that because I think it made the moment even more special for Mo,” Girardi explained.

At first, Pettitte didn’t think it was such a good idea. When he got to the mound, he quickly decided “it was awfully cool.” The three players have known each other since they were in the minors in the early 1990s, and all three came up to the Yankees for the first time in 1995.

Story on the retirement: http://sports.nationalpost.com/2013/...ariano-rivera/