Like Tyler Kepner, I would never have expected Mariano Rivera to name this guy as a mentor:

...I asked him if anyone had helped him out when he was a young Yankee. Rivera surprised me with the first name he mentioned: Steve Howe.

I always thought it was amazing how well Howe pitched when he initially joined the Yankees after being out of the game for so long. One trivia note: the GM who released Howe for the final time in 1996 was Bob Watson, who Howe induced to fly out for the final out of the 1981 World Series.