 During the time Hoffman held the career record for saves, many still considered Rivera the best closer of all time. Like many other relievers of his era, Hoffman was compared to Rivera and his success in the playoffs. While Hoffman had 601 regular-season saves, he only had four in the playoffs. Jayson Stark of ESPN wrote after Hoffman's retirement announcement, "Not everybody can have his team deliver him an October save opportunity to protect 47 different times." His last postseason save was in 2006, which was also his first postseason save in eight years. Though the Padres were in the playoffs three other times in that span, they never took a single lead. Hoffman, however, did blow a save opportunity in his only World Series appearance and also failed on save tries twice in the final three days of the 2007 season as the Padres vied for the playoffs. John Delcos of The Journal News, who covered the New York Yankees for eight years, believes the Yankees would have been just as successful with Hoffman instead of Rivera. David Wells, who played with both Hoffman and Rivera, said, "[Rivera] has the better postseason record because the Yankees go to the postseason more than the Padres do, and he's had more opportunities there. The way they go about it, they 're the best in the game. Trevor's the best in the West and [Mariano] is the best in the East." Rivera, however, broke Hoffman's career save record in 2011.
