Baseball’s worst kind of steal

Ruben Rivera

Less than a month after signing him to a one-year contract worth $1 million, the New York Yankees 22 years ago today release once-promising outfielder Ruben Rivera for stealing – not bases, but one of Derek Jeter's gloves and bats, and then selling them for $2,500 to a sports memorabilia collector.

Worry not for Jeter, though; he has plenty of other gloves for his Hall of Fame career.

“That type of thing is a shock,” Yankees manager Joe Torre tells The Associated Press. “It’s sad. It’s unfortunate.

“The clubhouse is a special place,” Torre says. “It’s our sanctuary. It’s big part of what we do. Trust is very important.”

Rivera later returns the stolen glove, but that is not enough to save his job.

He ends up taking a buyout of his contract for $200,000, effectively losing $800,000 to make $2,500 in stolen gear.

“I did it without thinking,’” the 28-year-old Rivera says a few days later to a television station in his native Panama.

“It wasn’t for the money. I had a good contract,” Rivera says. “It was an instant when I wasn't thinking, and I made a mistake that I'm paying for now."

For Rivera’s former teammates, no other option exists than to release their teammate.

“We look at this as our house and this is our family,” says relief pitcher Mike Stanton. “We spend more time here than we do with our real families. This was something that had to be dealt with quickly and as discretely as possible.”

As for Rivera, he spends another two seasons in the major leagues with Texas and San Francisco before spending the rest of his career bouncing around the minors and Mexican League.