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Ex-Yankees closer Mariano Rivera spoke about Alex Rodirguez's appeal on Thursday.

(EPA/JARED WICKERHAM)

Though Mariano Rivera is officially retired, he proved on Thursday he's still the world's greatest closer.

He was honored by New Era and watched a street in New York City get named after him for the day. But he came in for an inning with the press and protected his former teammate, Alex Rodriguez.

"He has the right to defend himself. That's all I can tell you," Rivera said of Rodriguez's appeal of his 211-game suspension, via The Post's George King III, after he said he was told about the third baseman storming out of his hearing.

He also added he would have done the same thing and fought the suspension in the appeals process. "Everyone has to defend themselves. In a situation like that, it's hard, we are still human beings. His main point to all directions, I don't think it's right, but that's myself. Whatever he does, he is a grownup. He has the right to defend himself," Rivera said.

Rivera isn't even speculating about the possibility that A-Rod used PEDs and may have said otherwise.

"I don't want to second-guess no one," Rivera told the media at the event. "When he tells me something I believe it. That's my friend and he tells me something I am going to believe it."

Here's a look at Rivera posing at today's event: