Mo's farewell season

As soon as reports began to surface of Mo's plans to hang up his cleats after the season a friend asked me if I had any plans on Sept. 26. 

At this point of spring training, most of the media already had thrown the Yankees under the bus. They'd say something like, "Look at all of those home runs they lost by letting Nick Swisher, Russell Martin, Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez get away. They won't make the playoffs without all of that lost power." 

That made Sept. 26 the presumed last date fans would be able to see Mo pitch in the Bronx.

Within a few hours I had my tickets locked up for Mariano Rivera's last hurrah. Six weeks later, those tickets are worth three times as much as I paid.

Jackie Robinson Day in the Bronx

Robinson Cano, who's named after Jackie Robinson and normally wears No. 24 in honor of Jackie Robinson, hit the Yankees' game-winning three-run homer and fielded the game-ending ground ball induced by the only No. 42 left in baseball, Mariano Rivera, to clinch the Yankees' 4-2 victory on Jackie Robinson Day.

Brian Cole's story is a must-read, and I refuse to summarize it for you

The hardest stories to write about are ones like Brian Cole's, a tragedy that is so gut-wrenching that it's almost impossible to capture in words. 

The writer also has to best to be respectful in the way he gathers information but realize that even the most difficult details to repeat cannot and should not be left out.

"This is a story that a lot of writers go their whole careers and they don't get anything like this," said Michael McKnight, the author of "The Best Player You Never Saw" in Sports Illustrated's baseball preview issue. "I just hope I did it justice. It's so powerful. Never came across anything like this."

After reading this eight-page masterpiece, I hope the sources who shared the most moving parts of Cole's story are glad they weren't left out because they help give Cole's story the justice it deserves.

I deleted my several attempts to write an abridged version of Cole's story because it just felt wrong to retell it in blog form. Stories like Cole's are why I hope long-form journalism will continue to exist despite the short attention span of my generation.