Earlier this summer, Yankees great Mariano Rivera officially entered the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first member to ever be unanimously inducted.

On Saturday, the Yankees celebrated Rivera's unanimous induction with a pregame ceremony. Rivera and his family took the field, and the greatest closer of all time took a moment to say thank you.

Today we celebrated Mariano Rivera becoming the first unanimous Hall of Famer. In appreciation for all he's done for the Yankees organization, the Yankees donated $250,000 to the Mariano Rivera Foundation. Mo also threw out the ceremonial first pitch to his son, Mariano Jr. pic.twitter.com/sBj00lLIBC
- New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 17, 2019

"I have to thank my wife, my kids for always being there," Rivera said. "The Yankees organization, for always giving the opportunity to be the best. All of my coaches, and everybody hat has done something in my life as a baseball player, all of my teammates that I played with, players that I played against, managers that I played against … "

Rivera then took time to thank the fans that he played in front of for his entire 19-year career.

"To all of you fans for all of your support, and I've said it before, you Yankee fans are something special. You are the best fans there are," Rivera said. "The reason why is because there's no grey area, it's either good or bad. I'm glad I did okay. That's why I'm standing here today."

A 13-time All-Star selection, Rivera's 652 saves are the most in baseball history, 51 more than the next closest player, Trevor Hoffman. Pitching to a career 2.21 ERA, Rivera, whose cutter is considered one of the most iconic pitches in baseball history, helped the Yankees capture five World Series titles during his career. He was named World Series MVP in 1999 and ALCS MVP in 2003.

A first-ballot, unanimous Hall of Famer, Rivera is also enshrined in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, and his number 42 was officially retired by the team in 2013.

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