Ranger Baseball Cards (Part 30)

Chris “River” Rivera was a super-utility player for the Rangers. The only position he did not play was pitcher, and possibly Center Field, but the Rangers details on items like that are fuzzy at best. River joined the Rangers after his freshman season of Loyola Club Baseball in 2003 after playing High School baseball for the Shamcocks of St. Pats on the North Side. River had a natural opposite field swing, driving the ball into right field on a consistent basis. River even volunteered to catch despite having limited experience behind the plate. During a heated game against the Cubs at Riis Park in 2006, Curtis Brown of the Cubs attempted to barrel over River at the Plate on a long sac-fly to right. Lucas Luecke fired a strike from deep right (and shredded his shoulder in the process) and River stood his ground. Brown was ejected for making contact (he did not know there was a no slide rule) and River showed the team how much of a bad-ass he really was. His competitiveness came out again when he was ejected at Riis for joining a fracas when a Red Sox Player got in the face of mild mannered teammate Matt Brooks. Ever a fiery competitor, the Rangers miss River and his love of Jack Daniels and cooking pots. He retired after the 2009 season with chronic shoulder problems. The sight of him swinging and his arm sliding out of its socket became too painful to watch. Perhaps the slowest skinny guy to ever run the bases, Rivera retired with a career .286 Batting Average and 109 Career hits. His presence is missed, although we know he is making the streets of Chicago safer in the law enforcement industry.