IT was the baseball equivalent of a lunar eclipse with all conditions aligning just right for the first time in at least 104 days.
The pitching coach David Cone reveres ignored medical advice to be by his side. His retired meat packer father, who passed a steely will to his son, was in the crowd. In this rainy summer, Cone pitched in the kind of sunny, muggy conditions he craves to promote circulation in his shoulder and hand. And the Yankees offered seven runs of support before most soap operas had even begun.
If Cone didn’t win yesterday, it might have been time to put the microphones at home plate for a retirement speech.
But Cone did win. For the first time since April 28. Never has the quest for a second victory received more attention. Never has a 2-10 record looked so attractive. Never has a player with so much distinction endured such extended public torture.
“Every time I thought I hit a low point, I hit a lower one,” Cone said following the Yankees’ 12-6 triumph over the A’s. “I needed a win. It had just been too long.”
Getting Cone his second win had been such an ordeal you half expected Joe Torre to hand the ball to Mariano Rivera with a 10-run lead to open the seventh inning. But no matter who was summoned from the bullpen, the greatest relief belonged to Cone. Such is life at nearly 150,000 minutes between wins.
“I may finally get a good night’s sleep for the first time in a long time,” Cone said. “I will wake up and still be 2-10, but it feels good right now.”
It felt best for Cone, but pretty dang good for many others. Cone has earned loyalty, support and friendship by not only being a superb pitcher throughout the years, but a tremendous teammate. That is why Cone was not alone in this battle. He described earning his first victory in 15 starts as “feeling like King Kong is off my back.” But he also is perceptive enough to know “my struggle has been an albatross on the team.”
And not just in the standings, where the Yanks would be lining up October pitching with even a .500 Cone. An entire team has been pressing to help a guy it has seen pitch his arm and heart out, who has been the de facto captain and spokesman for a champion.
“This takes a little pressure off everyone,” Torre said. “We don’t have that cloud hanging over our heads. Now we can get ourselves back to winning baseball games instead of getting him a win.”
The support, however, went beyond his playing teammates. On Wednesday, Cone visited Darryl Strawberry in the hospital following a second surgery for cancer, and Strawberry expressed concern for Cone. Billy Connors, a Yankee VP who helped refine Cone’s mechanics recently in Tampa, was in uniform yesterday to offer assistance. Ed Cone, who David credited with teaching him how to pitch, provided encouragement in the days before this start and a fatherly presence in the crowd.
Probably most meaningful of all was having Mel Stottlemyre in attendance. The pitching coach, who is battling bone marrow cancer, was hospitalized for a procedure this week and advised not to work again until the Yanks return from their road trip next Thursday. But against the wishes of his wife, Stottlemyre decided yesterday morning to be with a pitcher with whom he has worked for 11 seasons between the Mets and Yankees.
Cone was moved when he saw Stottlemyre in the training room before the game and was told “I didn’t come to see a loss,” and moved further when he heard afterward that Stottlemyre had told reporters, “he inspired me with the way he kept battling through his lack of success.” Cone considers the upbeat, modest Stottlemyre “the strongest man I know.”
Perhaps, there was a transference of extra strength since Stottlemyre acknowledged seeing better fight from Cone than in some recent outings when the weeks of losing appeared to sag the pitcher’s confidence. Cone got the early 7-0 lead and even after he allow Jason Giambi’s two-run homer in the third, he did not succumb to negative thoughts.
Ahead 10-2 in the fifth – needing to just get through to be in line for that precious win – Cone yielded consecutive hits to open the inning. But he came back to strike out the A’s 2-3-4 hitters with electric stuff, punctuating the effort with a fist punch.
He said he feels he is back on top of his pitches and there was hum on his fastball that he balanced with a new wrinkle, a slow curve. Rather than an old Cone, teammates talked about seeing the old Cone. The A’s, as a power team that draws a lot of walks, should have been a brutal opponent for Cone. But in his six innings, he threw strikes with 74 of 109 pitches, walked just one and struck out eight. The record is still just 2-10, the ERA 6.56.
Nevertheless, Cone feels he is an effective pitcher again, one that will be a factor down the stretch. He survived, he says, because of the support of others. And now David Cone has an idea for the rest of this season.
That he is ready to be the one that others look upon for support.
