Pres. Trump thank you very much , everybody. The sandman. My wife said, why the sandman . I told her, because he puts the batter to sleep. Thank you all for coming. First lady and i are delighted to welcome you to the white house. Today we present our highest civilian honor, the president ial medal of freedom to american baseball legend, maybe the greatest baseball pitcher of all time. He reliever that we want there is the question of him being the biggest greatest a picture. When you share the stats, you will understand. Congratulate to you on this extraordinary achievement. Thank you, on behalf of this entire country, thank you. [applause] pres. Trump thank you all for being here. Thank you, cabinet. We are also grateful to be joined by his wife, clara. His three sons and her daughterinlaw. Thank you for being here. His longtime manager, one of the great players and a great manager. Where is joe . A great player as well. And chief operating officer of the new york yankees, thank you. Bullpen. Use him in the that would be good. Good luck. Great season you have had. Born on the coast of panama where he learned to play baseball on the mud flats of the pacific with a cardboard glove, a dad fashioned from a tree branch and a ball made out of rock, string and tape. There was not a lot of money for playing baseball. At the age of 18, he started playing the top adult league, any critical game with his team losing badly, the coach pulled him over and asked him to do some thing that he had never really done before. Could you pitch . He insisted he could not, but when he took the mound, an amazing thing happened. The crowd witnessed an incredible performance. Not a single run for the rest of the game and a legend was starting. His team won an ethic comeback victory. Contacted as can scout and told him she had a tryout in panama city with the worlds most famous baseball dynasty, the new york yankees. With barely enough bus ride for the trip home, he set out on a journey that would define his life and inspired millions around the globe. Glove, he threw nine fastballs. The only pitch that he knew how to throw. After a few more tryouts, they offered him a contract to play. Do you remember that . The gulf coast, were they good team . Not bad. He got on an airplane and came back to america. In august, he threw his first nohitter. That year, he had an average e. R. A. Of. 17. That means 1 17. That is not a lot. How do you lose again . I guess you score no runs. In 52 innings, he had. 17, which is unheard of. Marriedreafter, he clara, which was even more important thing for him to do, truly. You areit many times, the love of his life. I hope he tells you that. They will soon celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary. Congratulations. [applause] after five years of playing in the minors, mariano made it to the big leagues. In his Second Season with the yankees, marciano delivered 130 strikeouts in less than 108 innings. Facing 425 batters, he allowed only one homerun. 29, the. R. A. Of yankees made him a closer. That is when it really started happening. That year he accidentally threw a pitch that he had never thrown before, then he tried it several more times. At the last second, his fastball was really incredible thing. He had suddenly delivered developed at lethal pitch. Pitchople throwing that today . They do not have your success. Come second would or it the greatest pitch ever, in baseball. It would break many records and many bats. In a game against the atlanta graves, i know him well as a player. Times inhis back three one plate appearance. That has to be a record. Destroyedme pitch somebody that. I told people, i never saw some believe that broken. Did nothim why and he really know. It was just the way it happened. When he retired, the Minnesota Twins presented him with what would become one of the most chair madeessions, a out of shattered that. Bats. [applause] , 1999 andp in 1998 2000 World Championship series, he closed out three consecutive series and delivered 14 strikeout and seven saves. He gave up two runs to 59 batters. You are playing against the best team. This is the best team, and she had an unusual trait. He did better against the best teams. Musicfter game, when his filled the arena, fans went wild knowing that the game was all but over. His dominant on the mound mesmerized fans, teammates and it mesmerized the competitors. In game 7 of the American League championship, he entered at the top of the ninth with the score tied. He held off the Boston Red Sox for three straight innings without giving up a single run, helping to secure the series for the yankees. Mvp, notmed the series surprising. [applause] pres. Trump one of the most memorable moment of his career was the final game of the old Yankee Stadium, the last game in Yankee Stadium he took his place in history as the final man to pitch in that shrine to american baseball. I spent many a day there. Single hitter from the Baltimore Orioles made it to first. He secured one more yankee victory, and that day the old stadium became the house that ruth built and rivera closed down. Over the course of 19 seasons, you have to share it to believe it. New he was the best, the but this is crazy. He broke the record for the most games finished and saves made. He has the best drawn average in the past 100 years in the regularseason, and an even more astounding. 70, less than one run in the post season. These are the hot teams, the team that are just beating up everybody. You had less than one run. He made more than two times as many saves as the next best picture and post season, and a true clutch pitcher. Amazingly, the 527 batters he faced in postseason games hit only two home runs and scored 13 runs against him. Get him in uniform. Just sign him up. Helped lead the yankees to five world series victory, was named world series mvp and this year he became the first person, unanimously elected to the Baseball Hall of fame. Unanimously. [applause] just out of curiosity, babe ruth was not unanimously elected . What was his problem . He did pretty good as well. That is pretty good. First unanimously. We love the babe. What a swing the babe had. Nobody could figure him out either. Throughout his incredible career, he remained a humble man guided by a deep, Christian Faith that inspires everyone around him. He has always remembered that the lord does not care about wealth, fame or the number of saves somebody has. We are all children of god and the lord cares about the love in our hearts. If the viva ever said that. Pretty sure he did not. Maybe in his last year. Nearly two decades ago, he founded the Mariano Rivera foundation, which has provided hundreds of scholarship for underprivileged children along with school supplies. He is currently building a. Ommunity center in new york what you have done a new rochelle is incredible. Wife built an Evangelical Church and today, clara is its pastor. I will have to come listen to you sometime. That is good. He was naturalized as a u. S. Citizen in 2015, and of course, he serves as cochair of the president s council on nutrition. Has made extraordinary contributions to American Sports , culture and society. He is the most dominant relief pitcher in the history of baseball and he has lived the American Dream and shined as an example of american greatness for all to see. I would like to ask the military aid to come forward and present Mariano Rivera with the president ial. Before the actual presentation, i would like to have mariano say a few words. Bet of those words will addressed to his family because i know how he feels about his family. Nobody loves their family more than mario no. Mario. Mariano. Amazing. Dayk god for a wonderful and allowing us all to be here in person. Mr. President , thank you for all those words and remarks. They give thank you. My wife, my kids and my family, guys, yourthout you support and your prayers, mr. Joe, i benefit from a lot of those prayers. For me it is and honor and privilege to receive this medal of freedom. All i did was try to be the best and do the best for america. One thing that i have to remark, it is one remark. When i came here in 1990, i came to tampa. I spoke no english. I tone speak it well now. Forget about 1990. [laughter] the reason i did that is because in the team, there were a lot of players that spoke spanish. So i got a little comfortable, and then tried a little bit to learn the language. I econd year in baseball was in north carolina, where most of the people didnt speak any spanish, especially my teammates there. I was a little younger, so the guys that spoke spanish on the team would hang out with older guys. I was hanging out with the guy, a friend of mine, tim cooper, and another guy, buck deller. Those two i asked because i was frustrated. There were times i would go to bed crying, not because of the game, but because i was frustrated because i couldnt speak the language, couldnt speak english. Therefore, i told those two teammates of mine, i said i dont care how much you laugh, and dont care how much you make fun of me, but please, i give you permission to laugh and do that, but teach me. Teach me the right way. To my surprise they never laughed at me, and they teach me. By the end of the year, i was able to communicate with my manager, with my teammates, and was the happiest man in baseball. And from that i would say that my career took off, and i was able to rely that i could do something for others, because i knew the language. Now i can relate with someone that is going through the same process that i had been through, but at the same time teach them that yes, learning english is the first thing we should do, and i did. And for that, being american, i am so proud and honored, coming from a small beautiful town, beautiful country, called panama, and live with my family here, understanding the language and everything that we go through, i am proud to be an american. So for that, gang god. Thank you very much. [applause] thank god. Thank you very much. [applause] during his 19 seasons in major league baseball, Mariano Rivera established himself as the greatest relief pitcher of all time. Signed by the new york yankees in 1990, mr. Rivera went on to become a 13time allstar and fivetime world series champion. He is the first player in the history of the sport to be elected unanimously into the national Baseball Hall of fame. Off the field, through the Mariano Rivera foundation he has helped those in need for an education, empowering them to achieve a better future. The United States proudly honors Mariano Rivera for being a legend of the game of basketball and for his commitment to strengthening americas communities. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its captioning content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org. ] nick live tuesday on cspan. Washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, Maryland Democratic congressman, jamiey ralph kin will be with us to discuss his committees investigation of president trump. And matthew will talk about gun violence prevention measures. Author and tv critic on his book about crunchs use of television in his business and playing career. Watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Live tuesday on cspan. The u. S. How returns at 12 p. M. Eastern for general speeches. At 2 00 p. M. , the house takes up child safety bills and legislative business and a motion to instruct negotiators for talks with the senate on defense authorization. On cspan 2, the Senate Returns at 120 a m eastern for more work on executive nominations. Later at 7 15 p. M. , the National Press club hosting a spelling bee between members of the press and politicians. 10 00 a. M. On cspan 3, a forum on the future of u. S. hong kong relations. Then at 1 00 p. M. , the House Judiciary Committee considers obstruction charges against the president for attempting influence on special Council Robert muellers investigation. The committee has spokened ormer Trump Campaign officials 2020 democratic prngs candidate senator Elizabeth Warren gave a speech in new york citys Washington Square park. In her remarks she talked about workers rights, relating them back to the 1911 shirt waist factory fire that killed 146 gar meant workers, mainly women and led to work place safety regulations. She outlined her plan to combat corruption in washington. This is just over 40 minutes