All indications are the greatest closer in Major League Baseball history will retire after the 2013 season. There’s no questioning Mariano Rivera‘s place in Cooperstown five years from now.

Rivera will likely make it official tomorrow at a press conference from the New York Yankees spring training facility in Tampa.

Ken Singleton and Jack Curry will anchor the Yes Network’s special coverage starting at 10 a.m.

Rivera has the most saves in history, 608, and as staggering as that stat is, Mo, of course, “saved” the best for last.

His 42 post-season saves are another record, as is the unthinkable 0.70 earned run average in the playoffs and World Series. To put it another way, he has allowed just 11 runs in 141 post-season innings.

Rivera is in the pantheon of Yankee greats: Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, and DiMaggio; all except Ruth played their entire career in pinstripes.

Photo credit: dugoutreport.com

The New York Giants once again proved to be ratings gold. The G-Men beat the Niners, 26-3, and Fox’s late game coverage was the number-one prime time show for the week. The game had an estimated 1.7 million WNYW viewers and an 8.6 rating, according to Nielsen.

The Yankees playoff run, which abruptly concluded last night, grabbed the remaining spots in the Top 5. In second place, the ALCS opener Saturday night on TBS netted 1.5 million fans and a 7.7 rating. Game 2 of the ALCS landed in 10th place (1 million/5.2). Along with three Division Series games registering high in the weekly ratings, TBS also landed for its first round at number nine (1.1 million/5.6).

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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Moments after Raul Ibanez crushed his second home run of the night, YES Network was on the air with complete coverage of the dramatic ALCS win.

Michael Kay was in place at the Stadium with David Cone, while Bob Lorenz, John Flaherty, and Jack Curry supplemented from the studio.

As expected, fans couldn’t get enough Yankee talk, switching to YES Network following the playoff game on TBS. It became the highest-rated first-round post-game on the YES in eight years (October 9, 2004).

Last night’s wrap-up to the dramatic outcome averaged 128,000 households or a 1.73 HH rating. It peaked from 11:30 to 11:45 p.m. with a 2.47 household rating or an estimated 182,000 households.

The Yankees can advance to the ALCS with a victory tonight against Baltimore. Win or lose, the YES Network will have the special edition post-game show.

Ten finalists for this year’s Ford Frick Award have been revealed. A pair of one-time Yankee announcers are among the group seeking enshrinement in the broadcasters’ wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

DeWayne Staats called Yankee games on MSG Network from 1990 to 1994. He was at the mic when Jim Abbott hurled a no-hitter in 1993. Staats has been the Tampa Bay Rays TV play-by-play broadcaster since 1998, when the team joined the league.

In the mid 1980s, Yankee fans will recall, John Gordon was part of the famous radio booth that featured Phil Rizzuto and Bill White. Gordon spent 25 seasons as lead broadcaster on the Minnesota Twins radio coverage. He retired after the 2011 season.

The selection will be announced at baseball’s winter meetings in Nashville on December 4. The induction ceremony takes place next summer in Cooperstown, New York.

One of the last regular season matchups for the Yankees on the YES Network scored big numbers last night.

The game against the Red Sox, which put the Yanks in position to secure the AL East, was the most-viewed YES broadcast since September 1, 2011 (also a Red Sox/Yankees game).

The dramatic 12-inning Yankee triumph averaged 698,000 total viewers, with a 6.87 Household rating. The telecast peaked during the 10:00-10:15 p.m. quarter-hour, when  more than 1.1 million total viewers tuned in.

Michael Kay will remain on double duty for several years to come. Kay inked a three-year deal as one of the main voices on ESPN New York 98.7 FM/WEPN. Kay hosts the afternoon slot from 3 to 7 p.m. with Don LaGreca, in a pivotal sports talk battle with the venerable Mike Francesa on WFAN.

“We’re delighted that Michael Kay will remain with ESPN New York 98.7,” WEPN VP/general manager Dave Roberts tells FishbowlNY. “Michael’s work ethic and his overall knowledge of sports in New York are key ingredients for nothing but success. He is a true professional and a winner.”

A Fordham University graduate, Kay has been the Yankees TV voice since the YES Network debuted in 2002. That same year, Kay launched his drive time show on ESPN Radio in New York.

When it comes to the Yankees, the radio suspense is over for another year. The team is maintaining its WCBS address. The flagship station of Yankee radio broadcasts since 2002 has agreed to a one-year extension for the 2013 season. John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman are expected to remain at the mics. Sterling, playing his best Lou Gehrig, has not missed a game since joining the Yankees radio team in 1989. Waldman has been calling Yankees games on WCBS since 2005.

The CBS deal puts a major snag in ESPN’s hopes of acquiring the marquee franchise. In April, ESPN moved its New York voice to 98.7 FM. FishbowlNY attempted to reach WEPN for comment.

WCBS, which provides night time coverage to more than 30 states, will again carry the entire regular and post-season Yankee schedule.

At the end of last season, like a coveted free agent, the Yankees settled for a one-year agreement with WCBS.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is starting the cycle for the Class of 2013. The Ford C. Frick Award, given each year as a baseball announcer lifetime achievement, is asking fans to select the Top 40 from the Hall’s Facebook page.

The Facebook ballot includes 222 radio and television broadcasters. Among the list are several with notable careers behind the mic in New York. For example, Ken Singleton, the longtime Yankee analyst (and occasional play-by-play man), from MSG Network and YES Network, since its inception in 2002, is on the ballot.

Yankee fans can also choose veteran radio voice John Sterling, calling game every since 1989. His former on-air partner Charley Steiner is on the first ballot. Steiner now handles the Los Angeles Dodgers radio play-by-play work.

Vintage Yankee announcer Bill White is back on the list. White, as he was affectionately known by Phil Rizzuto, was joined in the booth by Rizzuto and Frank Messer throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

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Dom Valentino is not remembered by many is today’s broadcasting circles. But in the mid-1970s, Valentino was at the height of his career, calling several games for several New York teams. Valentino died yesterday. He was 83. Published reports say Valentino, who suffered from prostate cancer, died at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, nine days after a choking incident that left him unable to swallow.

A Brooklyn native, Valentino had his busiest year in 1975, his only season in the New York Yankees radio booth, joining the likes of Phil Rizzuto, Bill White, and Frank Messer. That same year, Valentino was calling games for the New York Islanders and the New York Nets, which shared the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale.

The schedule may have taken its toll. While hospitalized for a heart attack in 1975, Valentino suffered a second one.

He eventually returned to the mic in the early 1980s to call games of the Billy Martin-led Oakland A’s.

In his new autobiography, Uppity (which could just as easily have been called Integrity for his strong moral compass), Bill White talks candidly about his many decades in baseball, including the racial intolerance he suffered early in his career. FishbowlNY spoke recently with White, a man who is liked by so many in the sport.

But this article focuses on Chapter 10, White’s magical 18-year association with the New York Yankees—and the legendary Phil “Scooter” Rizzuto.

“That’s longer than I’ve been with anybody,” White laughed.

As former players, White (refers to himself as “average” on the field) and Rizzuto (Hall of Famer) formed that famous bond. But White says there was something deeper to their chemistry—dating back to Rizzuto’s broadcasting debut with the Yankees in 1957.

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