A tweet by ESPN baseball writer Buster Olney has me thinking. Buster tweeted a little earlier:
Tim Kurkjian and I have argued whether Rivera would be on the Yankees’ Mt. Rushmore. I say yes, with Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio; he says no.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) May 4, 2012
It’s an easy time to offer sympathy for the longtime Yankees closer, who injured himself this evening shagging balls in the outfield before a game, though I think Olney is going a little far here. I don’t see how anyone other than Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle are the Bronx Bombers’ equivalent of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abe Lincoln. At most, Mariano Rivera is Harry Truman, the best relief president in American history, but no one who deserved to have his visage retroactively chiseled into a mountain.
I think Olney’s idea could be extended throughout the majors. For my favorite team, the Giants, I go Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, Willie Mays, and Barry Bonds, and if I’m being a homer, I also find a spot on that mountain for Will Clark. He’s my all-time favorite player and one of my childhood heroes, though I’ll concede that for purposes of presidential metaphors, Clark might be Woodrow Wilson, another man whose talent and potential exceeded his accomplishments and who some say was a racist.
To anyone reading: Which four players are on your team’s Baseball Mount Rushmore?
