Excerpt: "Farewell, Mo"

"Mariano Rivera saved Andy Pettitte countless times over the last 19 years, but on this night, it was Pettitte who saved Rivera, providing a place for Rivera to unload the emotions of the moment, the night, the week. Two middle-aged men who would be walking away from the only life they've known, huddled together in a space they'd each made their own, a patch of dirt from which they'd done wonderful things, historic things. Just five years old, the latest iteration of Yankee Stadium has housed a championship team, has been the playground of Hall of Famers, has hosted football games and futbol matches, been filled with the music of Paul McCartney and the raps of Jay-Z. Nothing in the new Stadium's short life has been as pure as that 30 seconds, one friend crying in the arms of another as his career ends. Perhaps nothing ever will be."