Krause: Dear Mo: Thanks from the bottom of my heart … for everything

We give ourselves over today to Mariano Rivera, the esteemed relief pitcher from the New York Yankees, who is retiring at the end of the year.Last night, Rivera made his final appearance at Fenway Park … at least in the regular season. There?s always the playoffs, but any baseball fan worthy of the title should hope the Yankees are nowhere to be found there. Not so much because they?re the Yankees, but because it would be an unmitigated blight on the integrity of the game to have Alex Rodriguez, he of the 211-game suspension for being a world-class cheat (not to mention, apparently a rat), knocking another deserving team out of the money.So we?re in a position today to hope the Yankees aren?t there, while at the same time wishing we could see as much of “Mo” as we possibly could. Rivera, along with Derek Jeter, made the torture Red Sox fans have suffered at the hands of the Yankees bearable. It would be hard to find two more classy, dedicated and loyal people in professional sports than Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter.Hopefully, Jeter?s back next year, although seeing him hobble through this season like a shell of his former self makes you wonder whether that would be such a good idea. It says here Jeter has way too much class to announce his retirement now and horn in on what?s rightfully Rivera?s moment.And there is so much to thank Rivera for. He was always such a great ambassador for the game. He got people out with the nastiest cutter anyone?s ever seen, and did it for 17 years. He never showed anyone up. He just mowed the hitters down, got the ball, and kept pitching.He never argued with umpires. Well, he didn?t really have to. He always seemed to know exactly where he was throwing, and the men in blue showed their appreciation by awarding him as many borderline strikes as they could possibly allow. But he earned that (the same way Jeter has), so there are no sour grapes in the above remarks.In those rare times when Rivera came up short, he never gestured, or sulked, or showed up his team. He trudged off the mound and came back stronger the next night. It is said that closers have to have short memories, and he certainly did.Many of those rare moments (is that an oxymoron?) came courtesy of the Boston Red Sox, who probably faced him more than any other team did … and certainly got to him more too. He gave up the two-run homer to Bill Mueller that turned the 2004 season around; he walked Kevin Millar to set in motion the incredible comeback later that year, and also gave up the tying run the next night.It happened that the Sox were playing the Yankees in 2005 when the team celebrated its first world championship in 86 years. When Rivera was introduced, the crowd gave him a loud ovation as if to say “thanks, Mo, for blowing the two saves.” Rivera just smiled and waved his cap.(For all you Yankee haters, the players, along with manager Joe Torre, had the admirable class to congregate on the top step of their dugout and watch the whole ring ceremony.)Even this year, he was on the mound twice when the Red Sox came back to win games at Yankee Stadium.So thanks, Mo. Thanks not only for allowing the Red Sox to benefit from your all-too-infrequent bouts with mortality, but for everything. Your career. Your class. Your work ethic. Your accessibility. The way you worked to come back from your torn ACL so you could go out with your boots on. Thanks for all of it.If they were all like you, Mo, we wouldn?t even know A-Rod existed.