David Brian Cone (born January 2, 1963) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher, and current color commentator for the New York Yankees on the YES Network and WPIX as well as for ESPN on Sunday Night Baseball. A third round draft pick of the Kansas City Royals in 1981 MLB Draft, he made his MLB debut in 1986 and continued playing until 2003, pitching for five different teams. Cone batted left-handed and threw right-handed.
Cone pitched the sixteenth perfect game in baseball history in 1999. On the final game of the 1991 regular season, he struck out 19 batters, tied for second-most ever in a game. The 1994 Cy Young Award winner, he was a five-time All-Star and led the major leagues in strikeouts each season from 1990 to 1992. A two-time 20 game-winner, he set the MLB record for most years between 20-win seasons with 10.
He was a member of five World Series championship teams — with the Toronto Blue Jays and , , and with the New York Yankees. His 8–3 career postseason record came over 21 games and 111 innings pitched, with an earned run average (ERA) of 3.80; in World Series play, his ERA was 2.12.
Cone is the subject of the book, A Pitcher's Story: Innings With David Cone, by Roger Angell. Cone and Jack Curry co-wrote the autobiography Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher, which was released in May 2019 and made The New York Times Best Seller list shortly after its release.
Early years
Cone was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Joan (née Curran; 1936–2016) and Edwin Cone (1934–2022). He attended Rockhurst High School, a Jesuit school, where he played quarterback on the football team, leading them to the district championship. He was also a point guard on the basketball team. Because Rockhurst did not have a baseball team, Cone instead played summer ball in the Ban Johnson League, a college summer league in Kansas City. At 16, he reported to an invitation-only tryout at Royals Stadium and an open tryout for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was also recruited to play college football and baseball. Upon graduation, he enrolled at the University of Missouri and was drafted by his hometown Kansas City Royals in the third round of the 1981 Major League Baseball draft.
Professional baseball career
Minor leagues and MLB debut: Kansas City Royals (1981–1986) Cone went 22–7 with a 2.21 earned run average in his first two professional seasons. He sat out 1983 with an injury, and went 8–12 with a 4.28 ERA for the Double-A Memphis Chicks when he returned in 1984. During his second season with the Class AAA Omaha Royals (1986), Cone was converted to a relief pitcher, and he made his Major League debut on June 8, 1986, in relief of reigning Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen. He made three more appearances out of the Royals' bullpen before returning to Omaha, where he went 8–4 with a 2.79 ERA. He returned to Kansas City when rosters expanded that September.
New York Mets (1987–1992) Prior to the 1987 season, Cone was traded with Chris Jelic to the New York Mets for Ed Hearn, Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo. Cone went 5–6 with a 3.71 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 21 appearances (13 starts) his first season in New York City.
Cone began the 1988 season in the bullpen, but was added to the starting rotation by the first week of May. His first start was a complete game shutout over the Atlanta Braves, and he went on to post a 9–2 record with a 2.52 ERA in the first half of the season to earn his first All-Star nod. For the season, Cone went 20–3 with a 2.22 ERA to finish third in National League Cy Young Award balloting.
The Mets ran away with the National League East by fifteen games over the Pittsburgh Pirates, and were heavy favorites over the Los Angeles Dodgers, against whom they had a 10–1 record during the regular season, in the 1988 National League Championship Series.
Cone became a newspaper commentator on the playoffs for the New York Daily News, and incited controversy after the Mets' 3–2 victory in game one by saying Dodgers game one starter Orel Hershiser "was lucky for eight innings", and ripping closer Jay Howell:
After Cone provided the Dodgers with bulletin board material, Los Angeles jumped on Cone for five runs in two innings in the second game of the playoffs to tie the series at a game apiece. The Mets persuaded Cone to stop writing the column, and he came back with a scoreless ninth inning in a Game 3 Mets win and a complete-game victory in Game 6; however, series MVP and 1988 Cy Young Award winner Orel Hershiser came back in game seven with the complete game shutout to lead the Dodgers to the 1988 World Series against the Oakland Athletics.