Rivera doesn't think too much about awards

Only nine relievers have won the Cy Young, with Eric Gagne the last to do it when he saved 55 consecutive games for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003. Before Gagne, it was Eckersley.

For a closer to win the award these days, he usually has to be almost perfect and it has to be a lean year for starters. Rollie Fingers, who won the Most Valuable Player award and the Cy Young with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1981, said that modern-day closers simply did not pitch enough to win those awards. Fingers tossed 78 innings in 1981, a strike year in which 38 percent of the schedule was lost.

"Sportswriters aren't stupid," Fingers said. "It's tough to give a guy who pitched 50 innings a Cy Young."

Jorge Posada, the Yankees' catcher, dismissed that argument. "You go for the best pitcher," he said. "He's been the best pitcher."

Eckersley agreed with Posada. "There was more pressure on him than anybody," Eckersley said. "Every game he pitched, they needed. The guy is ice."

During Rivera's 11-year career, he has finished a distant third in the voting for the award three times. He has received only one first-place vote, in 1996.

When Rivera was asked if there was a season when he felt overlooked, he paused. Finally, he chose 1996, when he went 8-3 with a 2.09 ERA and five saves as a bridge to John Wetteland.

"Look at the season I had in '96," Rivera said. "But I won because we won the World Series. That's how it finished. I didn't think about it again."

Rivera says he is not thinking about the Cy Young while the Yankees try to snatch the American League East title. As always, he gives the Yankees an edge.

When the Yankees inched into first place Wednesday, Rivera saved their game against the Orioles, while Mike Timlin blew a save chance for the Red Sox.

Whether or not Rivera wins the award, he emphasized that he would always be humble. He said he would remember what it was like to play baseball with cardboard for a glove, wrapped-up clothes for a ball and a broomstick for a bat. He sees himself as that boy in Panama first and, maybe, a Cy Young winner next.