To understand the height of the mountain David Cone climbed with his perfect game Sunday, you have to understand how low he felt in September, 1995, when he left much of himself on that Seattle mound with his 147-pitch effortthat couldn’t quite get the Yankees past the Mariners.
To understand how much Sunday’s perfect game meant to him, you’d have to understand how much his near-perfect misses pained him, from his three one-hitters to his seven-innings of no-hit ball against Oakland the next year, having to sacrifice for the team and leave the game with his no-no intact to preserve his recently operated arm for another crack at the playoffs.
Or imagine Cone lying in bed at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, recovering from an aneurysm in that arm, listening to teammate Doc Gooden pitching a no-hitter and wondering if he’d ever be able to play again at all.
Imagine that, and the bones spurs in his shoulder and the busted knee in the minors and even the dog bite on his hand last season. And then, maybe, we can begin to understand what Cone was feeling as he covered his beet-red face Sunday with his hands and slumped to the ground in disbelief.
“I don’t think I could pick someone who I’d want it to happen for any more than him,” Joe Torre said yesterday as his team prepared to play Montreal but the entire sports world looked toward Cone.
“Just since I’ve been here, what he’s had to go through, physically, emotionally, anywhere from the aneurysm to the dog-bite. He’s run the gamut.
“Guys love him because of what he represents, and how he goes out there and battles his [butt] off. He’s a blue-collar guy, and everybody loves him for that.”
His feat was amazing on so many levels. Historically, a man has the same odds of throwing one as walking on the moon. Only 16 men have tossed perfectos; a dozen have strode the lunar surface. And medically, it might be even more amazing.
On May 10, 1996, he’d been diagnosed with the aneurysm near his right armpit, an illness some thought might be life threatening. Doctors took a one-inch vein from his left thigh and used it to repair two arteries in his right shoulder. But Sunday he pitched as well as any man ever had, or ever could.
“It sort of signifies I’ve come full circle,” said the 36-year-old Cone (10-4, 2.65 ERA), the second-oldest man to ever throw a perfect game. “Being traded from the Mets, having that arterial bypass and the aneurysm problems, people wondering whether my arm’s going to fall off. I was referred to as a time bomb ticking. That’s what makes this all the more gratifying.”
After last year’s World Series sweep of San Diego, Cone shunned multi-year offers and inked an $8 million, one-year deal to stay with the Bombers.
“I didn’t want to go anywhere else. I just didn’t want to leave,” said Cone, who gave the game ball to his father. “I’ve pitched most of my career in New York. I had a chance to go somewhere else, but I just couldn’t do it.
“I knew there’s always a chance to have a day like yesterday. I know that if you do it here, it’s more significant. A chance to pitch on Yogi Berra Day? I’ve had a few of those days. I pitched the day Mickey Mantle died; I pitched Joe DiMaggio Day, watched Paul Simon sing a tribute to Joe D as I warmed up in center field. That just doesn’t happen anywhere else. You can’t help but get caught up in that.”
Torre felt the same magic.
“There’s something about Yankee old-timers days that seems to shake all the spirits lose. When you see [the living old-timers], it seems to wrestle all the other ones awake. When you walk down the tunnel, you feel like you’re not alone.”
Whatever spirits were in The Stadium Sunday, Cone appreciated their help.
“I’ve been close so many times, it had been a big disappointment,” said Cone, who had turned to acupuncture this offseason in what he calls desperation. The move clearly paid off.
“I’ve had a couple chances. No doubt I wanted to do it. I thought maybe my time had come and went. And there was a lot of self-doubt in the offseason, after Cleveland banged me around in Game Six [of the ALCS] and after the [World Series] when I felt more pain than usual. So no doubt it means a lot. I definitely appreciate it more.”
