David Cone

From BR Bullpen

David Brian Cone

Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 190 lb.
High School Rockhurst High School
Debut June 8, 1986
Final Game May 28, 2003
Born January 2, 1963 in Kansas City, MO USA

[edit] Biographical Information

David Cone, the 1994 American League Cy Young Award winner, pitched 17 seasons in the majors, winning 194 games. He played on five World Series winners, in 1992, 1996, and 1998-2000, with an ERA of 2.12.

Cone first achieved fame in 1988 with a record of 20-3, on a New York Mets team that went 100-60.

He once struck out 19 Philadelphia Phillies in an October 6, 1991, start for the New York Mets.

Cone threw a perfect game on July 18, 1999 at Yankee Stadium. It was an interleague contest against the Montreal Expos. The Yankees won the game 6-0. Don Larsen, who had hurled a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, set the tone for Cone's performance that day, as Larsen re-enacted his feat by throwing the ceremonial first pitch to Yogi Berra, also in attendance for what was billed as "Yogi Berra Day" at the stadium.

Roger Angell, a writer for the New Yorker, wrote quite a lot about Cone in late nineties. Angell's book "Game Time" has the article "Style" in it, which is about Cone. During the 2000 season, Angell followed the Yankees right-hander as he struggled through his worst season ever; Angell later penned A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone as a compendium of their dialogue.

Cone threw a slider and a split fingered fastball.

The similarity scores method sees the most similar pitcher as his teammate Dwight Gooden.

Cone got 3.9% of the vote in the 2009 Hall of Fame voting and thus will not be on the next ballot. This is in spite of the fact that he scores 103 on the Hall of Fame Monitor, a Bill James invention to gauge whether a player is a "likely" Hall of Famer, with 100 being the likely level.

[edit] Notable Achievements

5-time All-Star (1988, 1992, 1994, 1997 & 1999)
AL Cy Young Award Winner (1994)
AL Wins Leader (1998)
NL Winning Percentage Leader (1988)
AL Innings Pitched Leader (1995)
2-time NL Strikeouts Leader (1990 & 1991)
NL Shutouts Leader (1992)
15 Wins Seasons: 5 (1988, 1992, 1994, 1995 & 1998)
20 Wins Seasons: 2 (1988 & 1998)
200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 8 (1988-1993, 1995 & 1998)
200 Strikeouts Seasons: 6 (1988, 1990-1992, 1997 & 1998)
Won five World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays (1992) and the New York Yankees (1996, 1998, 1999 & 2000)