Ramiro Mendoza

Ramiro Mendoza never had a defined role on the New York Yankees, and that was sort of the point. Whatever the 1996-2002 dynasty teams needed on a given week -- a spot start, three scoreless innings in a blowout, the seventh inning of a World Series game -- Mendoza did it, usually without much fanfare (nobody was buying his jersey at Modell's). He picked up the win in Game 3 of the 1998 World Series, threw two economical complete-game shutouts (one of them a 97-pitch gem), and unwittingly played a role in the birth of the most famous pitch of his generation. Not bad for a guy the Yankees found selling tomatoes in Panama.

Signed for Nothing, Worth Everything

The Yankees inked Mendoza as a non-drafted free agent on November 13, 1991, out of La Enea in the Panamanian province of Los Santos. Herb Raybourn, the scout who signed him, later said Mendoza "had the hardest time because he had trouble just getting to play" -- his family farmed and sold tomatoes to scrape together bus fare to the ballpark. He debuted May 25, 1996, as a rookie starter (4-5, an ugly 6.79 ERA) and didn't sniff the postseason roster that October, watching the Yankees win it all from the outside.

By 1997 he was bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen (39 games, 15 starts, 8-6, 4.24 ERA), and that June, during a warmup catch in Detroit, he became an accidental footnote in pitching history. Mariano Rivera's throws suddenly started diving away from Mendoza's glove for no reason either of them could explain. "I was petrified," Rivera said years later. "I had no control of the pitch." That was the cutter, discovered by accident, with Mendoza as the confused guy on the other end of the catch.

The Sixth Starter Nobody Drafted For

1998 was the peak: 10-2, a 3.25 ERA, 41 games with 14 starts on a team that won 114 of them. He threw a five-hit shutout at Minnesota in May on just 97 pitches (a Maddux, if you're into that kind of nerd stat), functioning as a genuine sixth starter alongside setup men like Jeff Nelson on a staff that didn't need one but got a great one anyway.

Then came the 1998 World Series. Down 3-0 to San Diego in Game 3, David Cone got a no-decision, Scott Brosius hit two homers to flip the game, and Mendoza threw a scoreless seventh before getting the first out of the eighth and handing the ball to Rivera, who survived a shaky sac fly to close it out. Final: Yankees 5, Padres 4. Mendoza got the win. Rivera got the save. It's the same sweep where El Duque won Game 2 -- three different Yankees starters picked up wins in a four-game sweep, and Mendoza's name is on one of them despite never starting the game.

The shoulder finally caught up to him in 2000 -- a DL trip in June, a lost second half, and a spot off the postseason roster while the Yankees won it again without him. He came back sharp in 2001 (a 0.73 ERA across three rounds of a World Series the Yankees lost in seven games to Arizona), gave the Yankees one more solid year in 2002, then left for Boston as a free agent. The twist: he actually pitched in the 2004 ALCS against his old team during the greatest comeback in postseason history, then collected a third championship ring when the Red Sox swept St. Louis (Yankees fans, feel free to wince). He returned to the Bronx for one inning in 2005, allowed two runs, and that was that.

Mendoza never had a signature moment the highlight reels remember on their own -- no walk-off, no perfect game, nothing that jumps off the page on its own. What he had was eight Yankees seasons, two rings, and a manager who could hand him the ball in almost any situation and trust he'd get outs. That's a harder thing to be great at than it sounds.