The Futility Infielder

Catching Up with Coney

David Cone has had an interesting season on the fringe, but then David Cone has always kept things interesting--whether he's at the top of his game or the bottom. The New York Observer, that strange pink media-focused weekly, caught up with Cone in a front-page feature last week, discussing his whereabouts and his position on the game's current labor issues.

Recall that the articulate Cone was one of the most visible players in the game during the last labor war; his role as an American League player representative had him on TV every time there was news about the 1994-1995 strike. Cone, who is still close to Donald Fehr, the head of the Players' Union, offered glints of optimism about the present situation: "There is not as much rhetoric as there was the last time. I still think the framework is there for a deal."

After his well-chronicled, disastrous 2000 season with the Yanks (4-14, 6.91 ERA, and the subject of a Roger Angell book), Cone salvaged some dignity with a strong comeback with the Boston Red Sox last year. At his best, Ol' Coney was still capable of holding up his end of a tantalizing pitchers' duel, as he did against the Yankees and Mike Mussina when the latter came within one strike of a perfect game on September 2. For the season, Cone went 9-7 with a 4.31 ERA, helping to keep the Sox in the race in Pedro Martinez's absence before the inmates overran the asylum.

With the market for fragile 38-year-old pitchers a fickle one, the Sox chose not to re-sign Cone, who then spurned overtures from the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers to wait for a call that never came from the Yankees. Still, he kept showing up--in Tampa, where he threw to stay in shape, and in the bleachers of both Fenway and Yankee Stadium, where he watched games among the variouis bleacher creatures.

Though Boss Steinbrenner hasn't seen fit to offer Cone a contract to pitch, he has let Cone get his feet wet in a new endeavor, as a game analyst on YES. Cone worked a game each round of the Subway Series between the Yankees and the Mets, and now he's literally plying his trade in the minors, doing a few Staten Island Yankees games. I tuned in to hear his work Monday night, and while he's definitely not polished yet, he shows potential. His voice is pleasant if a little flat, and he uses a few too many um's and uh's, but his observations on pitching are delivered with confidence and enthusiasm, and he's never been short of charisma or candor. Once again, he reiterated his optimism on the labor front, offering hard-won observations from his time on the front lines as well as more general insights about his playing days.

Cone's being given every chance to succeed in his new role, but he still hasn't ruled out another trip to spring training--to put on the pinstripes one more time and retire a Yankee, if nothing else. The bets are in that he's thrown his last pitch in a regular season game (and if that's the case, I was lucky enough to see it), but rest assured he'll be sticking around the game in some capacity. Which is good, because baseball at whatever level--a strike, a season from hell, a five-error Class A game, or a World Series gem--is always more interesting with him around.