Let's retire the "Closer" role with Mariano Rivera.

I've written very little about baseball considering that it is a sport I enjoy watching and following. There's a poetic quality to the sport and its stadiums. And it's a sport that honors its players' greatness in memorable fashion. Unfortunately, it's also a sport that often dishonors itself with its devotion to flawed statistics.

As the current season concludes in exciting fashion, thanks in large part to the league's new playoff format, attention will be diverted from the wildcard and best record races to acknowledge the brilliant career of New York Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera. For the majority of his career, Rivera has been a "Closer," and in addition to being considering one of the best baseball players in history, he is widely accepted as the best "Closer" of all time.

Rivera said goodbye to Yankee stadium Thursday night, and his career comes to an end on Sunday in Houston when Yankees play the Astros. If the universe is kind, Rivera will have an opportunity to pitch the ninth inning, perhaps earning one final save. It would be a fitting end for Rivera, and an even more fitting end to the Closer role.

As has been documented by intelligent baseball writers like Jonah Keri and Rob Neyer, nothing hamstrings a manager's decision-making in late-game situations more than the notion of saving a closer for a save situation. Baseball is entirely a game of matchups, and the notion of not deploying the best relief pitcher to face the opposition's best batter, simply because it's not a save situation or it's the eighth as opposed to the ninth inning, is absurd. The save statistic has turned otherwise reasonable men into bumbling, dumbfounded hacks as managers in the late innings of baseball games.

Admittedly, I'm not 100% on board with this crusade. I do think there is some truth to the notion that the last three outs of a game are the hardest to get - except of course when they're not. There's no guarantee that the highest leverage at-bat of a baseball game involving a relief pitcher will occur in the ninth inning when a team has the lead. It could occur in the seventh or eighth inning, when the game is tied or a team is trailing. Yet, managers routinely pass on the opportunity to insert their best relief pitchers into the game unless they have a lead, in a save situation, in the ninth inning.

There shouldn't be a need for such radical action as abolishing the save statistic in baseball, but the persistent mismanagement of the best arm in the bullpen indicates that maybe there is. In close games, managers, and even pitchers, focus their attention on securing a save to the detriment of their team's chances of securing a win. "Closers" lose focus pitching in non-save situations, as if it should matter if pitching with a two-run lead as opposed to a four-run advantage or a tie contest. Baseball is beholden to the save, and it's tie to break its shackles on the game.

And how great would it be if Mariano Rivera records a save on Sunday in Houston, and it's the last save in baseball history?