>From: Susan Peters <[email protected]>
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Did You See Him!!
>Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 22:57:27 -0400
>
>Coney's Court! - http://ConeysCourt.listbot.com
>
>My heart was pounding! Does Joe have b*lls bringing him in like that
>or what! Guess who can get the win now!!
>
>If Scotty hadn't gotten a hit they would have left David in. (I wish
>he'd brought in Knobby instead of Canseco.)
>
>Did you see the old film they showed of David pitching as a Met? He
>looked like a baby!
>
>Maybe we'll have a chance to see him again tomorrow. We'd better win
>this game!
>
>Susan, Kc and Everyone!
How great was that to see Coney get in a game! I know it was for only one 
out but that was a huge out. My heart was pounding out of my chest too! I 
was saying ever prayer that I knew so he would pitch good. He did a great 
job and when I watched him on the post game news conference he was just 
thrilled.
I was so happy that he got in the game and could finally feel like he has 
contributed to this WS in a big way. I hope he gets another chance tomorrow 
and who knows if they win maybe coney can be on the mound for that huge WS 
celebration!!!!

                      Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for David!!
                                  Cesca
>
>
>--

http://www.geocities.com/coney36_nyy/

Hey everyone!  First of all, thank you for all the articles, pictures, and
comments!  Some of the articles made me very sad though...I really don't
want this to be Cone's last year!!  The retiring from the Player's Union
really surprised me...

So I see from the previous posts that you all got to see Cone tonight in
the game!  Yay!  I am so glad he got to go in there and do his
part...though I really wish he would have gotten the chance to bat!  He
looked pretty excited about it while he was on deck. :)  I understand why
Torre made the move...but Canseco didn't do anything Cone couldn't have
done, dangit! *hee hee*  Plus, if he would have stayed in, he would have
been credited for the win!  Ahh, that would have been so fabulous!  It was
fabulous enough to see him out there pitching though, doing what he loves
as Kris so wonderfully said...:)

Have a great day everyone and keep the faith in the Yankees...I think they
can do this! :)

Take care~ ~ ~ ~ 
               --KC <<<<:)

In a message dated 10/25/00 10:58:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
[email protected] writes:

> Did you see the old film they showed of David pitching as a Met? He
>  looked like a baby!

I saw that. He looked horrible in that Mets uniform though.. he looks better 
in the Yankees uniform! 

>  Maybe we'll have a chance to see him again tomorrow. We'd better win
>  this game!
>
I don't think itll make much difference. I highly doubt the Mets could come 
back and win the next three. It's only been done once..

-kris

I'm upset I didn't get to see the part of the game where he pitched... was 
busy doing a film shoot downtown (my parents taped it, though!).  I just KNEW 
they'd put him in tonite and I'm happy he did well. 
BUT between scenes, the girl's house who it was at is a huge Mets fan so she 
had the TV on and I caught the top of the 6th(? what ever inning they took 
him out).  And there was on shot of him on TV that really made my day.  He 
was standing there with the jacket over his shoulder, and his helmet on, 
wondering if Joe was going to PH for him, playing with his bat a bit.  And he 
had this little smile on his face... I think it was the first time in a 
looong time I've seen him smile this season (he certainly had something to 
smile about).
~PEN~

Hi There,
Thought you all would like this story from the Post:

GUTSY CONE SEIZES MOMENT
Thursday,October 26,2000
 By Joel Sherman

JOE Torre searched David Cone's eyes again. He had done this on a mound in
the World Series once and no one knew a dynasty was being born. He did it
again last night when a proud, old group was working not to let the dynasty
die.
"He stared right through me," Torre said.

This was the look Torre was hoping for. A look that said a 4-14 record and a
6.91 ERA and a 37-year-old body that is decaying too fast were irrelevant. A
look that told the Yankee manager that faith was not being wasted. A look
that honored the trust Torre was placing not just in whatever was lingering
in Cone's right arm, but his heart.

"He still has that big heart," Torre said. "He has that ‘dare-you,
no-hesitation confidence' and that supersedes his ability in my mind."

Cone threw just five pitches last night, but they were five pitches loaded
with symbolism and magnitude. They were the first pitches Cone threw off the
Shea mound since Aug. 12, 1992, shortly before he was traded away from "the
place I learned how to play." And they were five pitches good enough to
induce a pop out from Mike Piazza to protect a one-run lead in the fifth
inning. The aging Cone represented a team that is graying, but still not
ready to rot. And Piazza represented the best of these Mets, an upstart that
is probably not ready yet for this manner of upset.

That fifth-inning out by Cone initiated 4 1/3 innings of shutout relief by
the Yankee pen that preserved a 3-2 victory over the Mets. The Yankees now
lead this Subway Series 3-1 and can close out their fourth title in five
years tonight.

But there is no first title, no dynasty, without Cone. The Yankees had lost
the first two games of the 1996 World Series by a combined 16-1 in The
Bronx.
The storyline was the burgeoning Brave dynasty. Cone was irate at the
thought
this was a done deal.

In Game 3, he worked five shutout innings at Fulton County Stadium before
loading the bases with one out in the sixth. Torre came to the mound ready
to
pull the starter. With his blue-gray eyes, Cone met the intensity of the
manager's stare and pledged he could get out of the inning. Torre trusted
those eyes and that heart, the way he had when Orlando Hernandez demanded to
go out for the eighth inning Tuesday in a move that would backfire and lead
to criticism of Torre.

Cone responded vs. Atlanta, getting Fred McGriff to pop out, walking in a
run, then getting Javy Lopez to foul out. The Yankees went on to win Game 3.
The Yankees won Game 4 when Denny Neagle and Mark Wohlers were unable to
hold
a 6-0 lead. The Yankees, in fact, won 14 World Series games in a row before
losing Tuesday behind Hernandez.

So Torre turned to Cone not just out of nostalgia, but out of necessity last
night. In the Subway Series, the Yankee manager reached out and back for a
trolley of a pitcher, hoping that for one more big game, Cone could be a
big-game pitcher.

Neagle got the first two outs in the fifth, but Torre does not believe in
the
lefty's heart. Neagle had surrendered a third-inning, two-run laser homer to
Piazza, "who is in scoring position in the batter's box," according to
Torre.
The Yanks were on their way to going 1-for-17 with men on base, making them
3-for-33 in two Shea games. So every out was going to be precious.

Cone was summoned. The infield crowded around the mound. Torre looked into
Cone's eyes and told him, "Here it is." This was the moment for Cone to go
from an emeritus member of the roster to a contributor. Torre liked the look
in the veteran's eyes.

"There were times I thought I couldn't help this team," Cone said.

So on the same day Darryl Strawberry was arrested again and had his life
swirl further down the sewer, an old Met from the rowdy, raucous days had a
relevant Shea moment. He threw ball one and then four straight strikes.
Torre
would talk about moxie afterward, challenging Piazza inside with an 88-mph
fastball that the star catcher popped to Luis Sojo.

"That was the highlight of the game for me," said Buck Showalter, the Yankee
manager when Cone joined the team in 1995. "You want to see people who have
meant so much to a team have a moment like that."

Paul O'Neill said, "[Cone] can go home feeling he was part of this win and
that is what every player wants."

Torre had considered Cone to start this game, but went with Neagle because
of
the lefty's likelihood to get deeper into the game, a good history at Shea
and the Mets' problems vs. southpaws. All Cone had was his heart, and that
was nearly enough to get Torre to go with him. It was enough to have Torre
go
to Cone in the fifth. Cone would have pitched the sixth had his spot in the
order not come up in the top of the inning.

Nevertheless, he had his moment - at Shea - which just made it more
delicious. The Yankees won a World Series game and David Cone was a
contributor again.

I think this article says it all.... it was a treat to see him get out Mike
Piazza last night!!  This is all wonderful and bittersweet at the same time

enjoy the day guys... hope they can do it tonight!!
Laura

This made me a little teary-eyed... hope you all enjoy
Laura <:)

In the end, cone just wants the ball
STEVE JACOBSON
MAYBE A Hollywood ending is all in David Cone's mind, but it's his mind and
he's entitled to his Hollywood ending. He does have this knack of saying the
right thing, even if it pains him. And behind those guileless blue eyes
there's undoubtedly some fear. And for a moment in the fourth game of the
World Series, some pride.


He wasn't the starting pitcher for the Yankees last night, and you can read
all the implications into that because, of course, he does.
He couldn't permit himself to be depressed at the moment that could save a
depressing season because it was the World Series. "I still feel that
somehow I can play a role down the line by coming in to pitch an inning or
to one batter that helps us win the World Series," he said. "I have to be
ready if I'm called. I'm confident that the bullpen phone is going to ring
and my name will be called."
When it rang in the fifth inning, it was an electric jolt. He's not used to
the call in the bullpen. But the Yankees had a 3-2 lead, and Mike Piazza had
hit two thunderbolts off Denny Neagle, one a loud foul and one a two-run
homer.
"Piazza is one of the few players that's in scoring position when he gets in
the batter's box," manager Joe Torre said.
If Cone had anything to give after the dismal season, this was the time. He
threw five pitches and Piazza popped to second base. Then Cone was done.
"You get that out, you contributed," Cone said. "It was a one-run game. In
the postseason, every out is a commodity." This is a man who once threw 147
pitches in a postseason game. "I'm in no position to ask for anything more,"
he said.
This is a difficult time. Shea Stadium is where he earned his credentials as
a big-league pitcher. He won 20 games pitching for the Mets and was traded
in one of the worst sequences of baseball futility.
Cone became more than met the eye and earned the wistful look on Torre's
face when he discussed giving the start to Neagle. "Even though I have
loyalty to people, you really have to be loyal to the 25 players as opposed
to just one," he said. "I never let my feeling towards someone affect my
judgment."
But there are certain people who have earned a place in his judgment. Torre
said that Cone essentially volunteered not to start. Cone said he could get
ready in the bullpen faster than Neagle and even pitch two days in a row,
and who knows what else. But through the long season, Cone conceded he was
blessed to have the chances he did while compiling a 4-14 record and a 6.91
ERA. This after a hopeful spring that began with writing a book "A Pitcher's
Story," with Roger Angell of The New Yorker. When Cone was announced, Angell
ran from the leftfield stands to the press box faster than Cone got to the
mound.
Cone was a hell-raiser who re-manufactured himself into a player active in
union affairs and the dynamics of the team. Pitchers rarely are leaders. Few
are willing to see outside their lockers and risk themselves in altering the
process. Cone preached to David Wells, "If you give up five runs in the
first inning, you should still be out there in the eighth with five runs."
Torre says his best decision in five years managing the Yankees was holding
Cone to start Game 3 of the '96 World Series. Cone recovered from aneurysm
surgery and was the best pitcher on the staff in the second half. "He had
every right to insist on starting the first game at home," Torre said. "But
he had experience pitching in Atlanta and nobody else did, and he knew the
National League."
But first the Braves embarrassed them at Yankee Stadium in the first two
games and word came from the visiting clubhouse that the Braves were
laughing at them, speaking of romping to a repeat of their championship and
taking their place atop the 1927 Yankees. "David has a way of going down a
row of lockers and saying something that reaches each individual," Torre
said, "and they know when it comes from David it means something." Before
they got on the plane Cone had spoken to each of them.
He refused to let the Yankees lose the third game. He stopped the Braves
with one run in six innings and turned the world around.
His record is in the book. You could look it up. Teammates recognize the
intangibles. Remember the adidas commercial with Cone and Clay Bellinger?
How many veterans would have urged including such an obscure rookie so he
could make a buck? Which respected veteran would have advised Chuck
Knoblauch to face up to his blunder during the '98 playoffs?
Now Cone's stuff is in question. His courage never was. He always threw a
lot of pitches in the wrong place, but his stuff was always so good that he
got away with mistakes. Now he can't. He's been quieted, felt he ought to be
unquoted. He pitched an inning against Seattle that made him feel "part of
the mix." It was all right to quote him on that.
"When the season is over," the 37-year-old said, "I'm going to have a lot to
look at and a lot to think about." For now, there was still the Hollywood
ending to be lived.

I would've loved to see him hit too...and pitch more.  But he did well 
anyway...he got Piazza to pop out!
I'd like to see him pitch today, but it depends on how well Pettitte pitches. 
 

Susan--I would've preferred Chuck over Canseco, too.  I had a feeling Canseco 
was going to strike out...shouldn't have said that out loud.

In a message dated 10/26/00 3:18:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
[email protected] writes:

<< I understand why
 Torre made the move...but Canseco didn't do anything Cone couldn't have
 done, dangit! *hee hee*  Plus, if he would have stayed in, he would have
 been credited for the win!  Ahh, that would have been so fabulous!  >>


KC~ 
How true, how true.  A win would've been awesome!  And I wanted to see him 
hit!  Oh well...:)

Jaycee

Cone Relieved to Help 
Sets down Piazza in Shea return 

By FRANK ISOLA 
Daily News Sports Writer

It was a five-pitch cameo that may well represent David Cone's closing
act as a Yankee. If so, he picked the perfect stage for his final
show.

"This is where I learned how to play the game, at Shea Stadium with
guys like Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter,"  Cone said. "I've kind of
come full circle, so to speak."

Cone did not start Game 4 of the World Series as he had hoped, but the
veteran righthander played a significant role in the Yanks' 3-2
victory, getting Mike Piazza to pop to second to end the fifth inning.

Piazza, who two innings earlier had homered off Denny Neagle, was the
only batter Cone faced. He could very well be the last and considering
the outcome as well as Cone's nightmarish regular season, it was a
suitable result.

"There were many times where I thought I can't help this team,"  Cone
said.

Joe Torre, who considered starting Cone in Game 4, told Cone to be
prepared to face Piazza in the fifth. Cone was warming up but figured
Neagle would finish the inning after starting the fifth by retiring
Timo Perez and Edgardo Alfonzo.

But as soon as Alfonzo flied out to right, Torre emerged from the
dugout and summoned Cone from the bullpen.

"I was a little interested to see what the reaction would be," said
Cone, who came to the Mets in 1987. "I haven't pitched here since '92
when I was traded (to Toronto). It was a pretty firm 'boo.' So I know
where I stand now."

Mixed reactions aside, Cone set out to set down the Mets' best hitter.
Cone, knowing Piazza "traditionally takes a strike," threw the first
pitch up and in.

His second pitch was a fastball that Piazza took for a strike. His
next two pitches were sliders; Piazza swung through one and fouled off
another. With the count 1-2,  Cone tied Piazza up with a fastball and
the Mets catcher popped it up.

"I have a whole new perspective, obviously, for the plight of the
reliever," Cone said. "Being a starter all these years you know what
your routine is.

"But in the bullpen it's completely different. You don't know when
your name's going to be called. You get a tremendous adrenaline rush
when you do get your name called."

When Piazza was retired, Cone said he heard a loud cheer.

"Mainly from the box right by our dugout, which includes the Mayor" he
said. "So yeah, it was nice. It's nice to get one out. Every out's a
commodity in the postseason."

-------------

Let's hope Andy and our guys can stick it to the Muts in their own
ballpark tonight. Keep your eyes open for David! 

--
susan peters ~ [email protected]

Well, I must say that was a VERY satisfying win! I was taping the game
as I watched it, and accidentally sat on the remote. I didn't realize
I'd changed over to SAP, so now half my tape is in Spanish! Oops. Well
it's better than listening to those idiots on FOX.

Did you hear someone yell "Yankees Suck!" while David Justice was
being interviewed? He was so funny, and said to the interviewer,
"Yeah, we suck, that's why we're the champions!" It's great to be able
to stick it to all the media who wrote us off during the year (and
have now conveniently jumped on the Yankee bandwagon). Sorry to seem
so bitter but the media really disgusted me this year. As he was
spraying champagne all over everyone Stanton was yelling, "Old! We're
not old! We're the champions!" You tell them Mikey.


Here's an excerpt from an article "New York Yankees profiles"

October 27, 2000 

By John Torenli
SportsTicker Staff Writer

Righthanded pitcher, David Cone 

Won the first of the Yankees' incredible streak of 14 straight World
Series games with a Game Three triumph at Atlanta in 1996, sparking
the club to four consecutive wins and its first world championship
since 1978. If Derek Jeter is the prince of New York City, Cone
has served as everything from king to court jester during his tenure
in the Bronx, often taking pressure off his teammates by standing at
his locker a full hour after a game he did not participate in to utter
his "state of the team" addresses. Will likely be the first of the
four-time world champs to disappear after a career-worst campaign. A
20-game winner in 1998, Cone tossed a perfect game in 1999 before
tossing seven innings of one-hit ball in Game Two of the World Series
against Atlanta, earning himself a one-year, $12 million deal. The
only way Cone can remain in pinstripes next year is taking something
in the area of a $10 million pay cut. 

------------

Do you think there's any way David could come back next year? Would he
accept a roll as a reliever? Do you think a pay cut would hurt his
pride too much, or does keeping the pinstripes mean more to him? It
will be interesting to see how things shape up in the offseason.

Now on to the parade Monday!

--
susan peters ~ [email protected]

good morning happy happy court

Susan...this win was soo very bittersweet... I cried tears of joy and
sadness....

Ok, why didn't they interview more of the core players... no David, and I
didn't see interviews w/Scott or Tino either!!! Does anyone know why???
Were they on another local NY channel.  I was going back and forth btw MSG
and ESPN.. BTW.. I was not very impressed w/ MSG's post-game coverage...and
now that we won I can say this... I really didn't appreciate the "equal
time" on that channel.. I mean didn't the mutts have their own channel to do
their post-games on???

Oh and I agree w/you Susan,  the press has to do some major crow-eatin right
now... they must be sooo upset that we won ;)

As far as David is concerned... I am hopeful... but I think he might
retire.. if he does it will be as a Yankee which makes me :) but part of me
is greedy and would like to see him again next year, but I don't know if
he's physically able to come back or not!!

Everyone, who's going to the parade Monda...have fun.  Susan, you son's
principal must be a Yankee fan!!
Anyone going,  Bring a sign or two and let us know who you are- I think they
are gonna broadcast it on MSG.  I thought it was very classy of us to invite
the Mutts to partake in OUR parade!!!

enjoy the day guys... I am very exhausted but surviving work just on this
win!!!

HEY KC (and everyone)

Ok I am basically very worthless at work today... but I wanted to make sure
to write this post...

I  Just wanted to thank you KC  for ALL the wonderful work you have done on
this site all the articles and picutres.. and this listing...everyone here
has been wonderful.  I feel like I know each and everyone of you all and am
very happy to be part of the mix!!

It was a tough year for our Sweet David and he would be very proud that we
never gave up on him!!

Ok,  'nuff of my sapiness- just wanted to thank you guys (and mostly KC) for
making this site a great place to be this past season!!

Laura <:)

This was a great win, I cannot wait for the parade on Monday.
It is going to be wild! It is going to be a loonnngggg offseason:_(
But let's savor this, 3-PEAT BABY!!:-) It will be interesting to
see what happens with David, I love the guy and I wouldn't mind
seeing him back in pinstripes. It would be weird without him.
Well, g2g now, time to go get my World Series hat and t.
~Eyde

Yankee baseball 4-life!

I was up all night taping interviews and I must agree, I didn't like
the split postgame between MSG and FOX. Plus, I can't bear to
see anymore of Keith Hernandez at Sportsdesk, trying to analyze
the Yankees. I was in tears for the last inning. Absolute tears of joy.
I am so glad they won, after everyone trashed them all year.
This is the most satisfying one yet, as a fan.
Eyde

I agree....KC, this season has been great, Coney's Court has
been a lot of fun, I hope we will be able to continue this
(implying that Coney stays, and I really do hope he does.)
This is a shoutout to everyone else on the list, you guys
are great! Now, enjoy this 3-peat, hope to see some of you
guys at the parade supporting our team!

Eyde

That was definitely a great win!! It was a great series too since the Mets 
kept it close, but I am so glad that the Yanks pulled through and won it, I 
knew they would! What an exciting series! I was like screaming my head off 
when they won, that fly ball Piazza hit gave me a scare there for a few 
seconds, hehe but then i knew it was a fly ball and that they won! How 
wonderful. WOW, 3 in a row and 4 out of the last 5.... that is just so 
amazing! I definitely think they are the best team in baseball history, just 
unbelievable!!

Of course they were already out of Yankee World Series shirts by the time i 
got to Models tonight, but i am going to get there bright and early tomorrow 
morning to get first chance at the new shipment! hehe.

Anyone know what channel the parade is going to be on on Monday?? And also 
what time it will start? I heard it starts at 11:00 but i am not sure what 
time the TV broadcasting will be or what channel to tape it while i am in 
school. I was supposed to be going but all of a sudden my dad has tons of 
meeting to go to at work on Monday and can't take me anymore, I am pretty 
upset about that! hehe but at least i can watch it on tv.

I am pretty much still on a high from them winning last night! Just so happy, 
it was a great series to top off another great season, not their best of 
seasons but that just makes it all the better that they were still able to 
win with all the hardships they faced this season! And it was great in school 
this morning, my principal is a Yankee fan and so he played New York New York 
on the loud speaker right before school started! It was so cool!! hehe


Christina

Are you as depressed as I am without baseball today? Then read this!!!


Cone Still in Running To Stay With Yanks 

By ANTHONY McCARRON 
Daily News Sports Writer

If you're wondering whether the one batter David Cone faced in the
World Series was his pinstriped swan song after a horrible regular
season, perhaps you're too hasty.

Acting pitching coach Billy Connors, who took over for the ill Mel
Stottlemyre, said he thinks that Cone could be a viable starter for
the Yankees next year.

But there's a big "if" attached. Connors said the aging righty would
have to follow a stringent conditioning program during the offseason.

"I don't think Coney should retire,"  Connors said. "But he needs to
go on a major strength program this winter. He's got to do weights,
running.

"Coney's got heart. He just didn't do a whole lot last winter and it
affected him this season."

Cone earned $12 million this season, $3 million per win, on a one-year
contract. He is now a free agent and says he wants to pitch again next
season, though he knows there isn't much of a market for a 37-year-old
pitcher coming off a bad season.

The Yankees are torn on whether to sign him for next season. "I'm the
wrong person to ask about Coney,  because of my feelings for him," Joe
Torre said.

If they do ink him to another deal, it likely would be a cheap
contract based on incentives. But he might not be back at all.

Cone had the worst season of his career this year, going 4-14, with a
6.91 ERA. He got his first win on April 28 and then didn't win again
until Aug. 10.

When he started to get his season straightened out, he separated his
left (non-throwing) shoulder Sept. 5,  wrecking the final month of his
year.

Cone gave the Yankees a scoreless inning against the Mariners in the
ALCS and then retired Mike Piazza in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the
World Series, a key moment because Piazza had hit a monstrous drive
foul against Denny Neagle in his first at-bat and followed that with a
homer off Neagle in his second.

"He really opened my eyes against Piazza and with his inning in the
ALCS, though I know it was mop-up," Torre said. "I thought he was
coming around when he dislocated his shoulder. And he's got the guts
of a burglar."

--
susan peters ~ [email protected]

SPORTS OF THE TIMES

Cone Is Given a Moment to Cherish

By DAVE ANDERSON

David Cone had not just been hit hard; he had been hammered for four
home runs, the last a three-run homer by the Orioles' ninth-place
hitter, second baseman Mark Lewis. The Yankees lost that July 4 game,
7-6, and Cone's record was 1-7. As he left the mound in the sixth
inning, boos thundered.

"I deserved it and I don't blame them," he said later. "I couldn't
keep the ball in the ballpark."

Others wondered how long Joe Torre could keep David Cone in the
rotation. Instead,  the Yankee manager kept his faith in the
37-year-old right-hander who had once been the ace of the staff.

"I'm not about to give up,"  Torre said that day, "on David helping
this team."

At the time, even the Yankee manager could not have envisioned that
David Cone would get the single biggest out of a Subway Series that
will always have an invisible asterisk for the broken-bat incident
between Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza. But for pure baseball theater,
Cone's inducing Piazza to pop up in Game 4 was the moment to cherish.

All because Torre never did give up. Not even when Cone's pitching
deteriorated even more. Not even when Cone dislocated his left
shoulder diving for a ball. Not even when Cone finished with a 4-14
record and a 6.91 earned run average. But as Cone walked into the
Yankee clubhouse in Baltimore after the last game of the season,  he
laughed.

"I don't have a 6.91 E.R.A. anymore," he said.

Cone knew that everybody's stats, whether a pitcher or a batter, start
from scratch in the postseason. What he didn't know was whether he
would even be on the postseason roster, but he soon learned that he
was. In the division series against Oakland, he wasn't used. But in
the American League Championship Series, he pitched the eighth inning
in a 6-2 fifth-game loss in Seattle.

"That one inning really helped," he said more than a week later,
"regardless if it was mop-up duty."

Cone had never been a mop-up pitcher. He had always been a big-game
pitcher. His career record is 184-116 with a career 8-3 postseason
record, 2-1 in division series, 4-2 in the League Championship Series,
2-0 in the World Series. And for all of Cone's problems this year,
when Torre thought about his Game 4 starter at Shea Stadium last
Wednesday night, he considered both Cone and Denny Neagle.

"If this helps you make up your mind," Cone told the manager,  "I'm
fine coming out of the bullpen."

Cone meant that he had adjusted to warming up quickly. That helped to
persuade Torre to start Neagle, but as the fifth inning evolved with
the Yankees leading, 3-2, Torre knew that Piazza would be the Mets'
third hitter. In the first inning Piazza had crushed a towering drive
that was ruled foul, barely. In the third,  Piazza had slammed a
two-run homer.

"Piazza," Torre said later, "is one of the few players that's in
scoring position when he's in the batter's box."

And with Piazza looming, Torre sent word to the bullpen coach,  Tony
Cloninger, for Cone to warm up, that he would be pitching to Piazza.
"I was told by Tony Cloninger to get ready for Piazza,"  Cone said
later. "I assumed that would be with a man on base."

But with two out and nobody on, Torre took the ball from Neagle and
waved for Cone to come to the mound at Shea, where he once had pitched
for the Mets. "You got two outs," Torre told him, handing him the
ball. "We need one more."

One more to get out of the fifth inning with that 3-2 lead and go from
there.

"Mike traditionally takes a strike, usually," Cone recalled. "I was a
little careful with the first pitch, up and in. Then I threw a
fastball away for a strike he took, then I threw two straight sliders.
One he missed and one he fouled off."

In his catcher's squat, Jorge Posada signaled for a fastball,  Piazza
swung.

"We tied him up," Cone said. "He popped it up." And second baseman
Luis Sojo pulled in the high pop-up on the outfield grass.

Had Torre not pinch-hit for Cone in the top of the sixth, maybe he
would have pitched another inning, maybe not. It doesn't matter now.
The Yankees held on to that one-run lead and won,  3-2. When they won
Thursday night, 4-2, in what may have been the tautest five-game World
Series ever played, Cone never
appeared.

"I'm in no position to ask for anything more," he had said after Game
4. "I would love to get back out there again, but nonetheless, it's
gratifying to be able to do anything at all at  point."

What Cone did in getting Mike Piazza to pop up was provide a happy
ending to his career if he chooses to stop pitching rather than trying
to squeeze another season out of that wonderful arm,  probably with
another team and another manager who would most likely not have the
faith in him that Joe Torre did.

He certainly doesn't need any more money; he has earned more than $60
million from baseball.

He also doesn't need to prove he can still pitch. He proved that when
Mike Piazza popped up.

And when David Cone walked into the Yankees' clubhouse to celebrate
their fourth World Series triumph in five years, he didn't even need
to announce that his E.R.A. for this postseason was 0.00.





--
susan peters ~ [email protected]

http://www.geocities.com/coney36_nyy/

Hi everyone!  Laura and Eyde-- Thank you so much for your compliments on
the list and the site...that really means a lot to me.  I am so glad that
you have been enjoying it, I have too!  I think you all are great people,
I have enjoyed reading all of your intelligent letters...and it was so
nice to see all of you stick by Cone when everyone else seemed to be
turning their backs on him.  You are the ones who have made this list what
it is, and if it weren't for you I wouldn't have a list...so I thank you
for that!

Susan--  As always, thank you for sending on those articles...they were
fabulous!  I especially liked the one about Billy Connors thinking Cone
would make a viable asset to the starting rotation next season....I do
hope he re-signs with the Yankees...I think that is what would make him
the happiest.

Apparently, ESPN is supposed to be showing the Yankee parade today...I
hope this isn't a joke, because I would like to see it!  I wonder if Cone
will speak again?  That would be nice...:)

Take care~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                --KC <<<<:)

I went to the parade today, and it was awesome! I got there at 7:30
to get a good spot. It was great to see all the players. I got some good 
pics that I'll send along on the list when I develop them. Coney looked 
great today. I also got a chance to see his speech while I was at the 
Yankees Clubhouse Store in South Street Seaport after the parade.
He said that he may never have a chance to do this again, so he thanked his 
parents, awwww:-) The parade was wild, tons of ticker tape, and they even 
had a subway car as a float, lol! talk to you all soon,

-Eyde