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Phil is
publisher of the longest running New York Yankees fan site
on the Internet http://www.behindthebombers.com and did the
2000 season update of The Yankee Encyclopedia 5th Edition
published by Sports Publications LLC. It was a sweltering day at Yankee Stadium. Vendors were selling anything that was wet or cool. Yogi Berra was on hand to be welcomed back to the Stadium that he stood away from for 14 long years and he brought a bunch of his friends with him. The magic was in the air. Don Mattingly was on hand to honor his one time manager. Holy Cow, the Scooter was present to honor his long time friend and neighbor. Don Larsen was also on hand to honor his one time battery mate. As a matter of fact, Yogi and Don recreated the last pitch of that famous 1956 World Series Perfect Game. Yogi did everything but jump into Larsen's arms. Then it was time to start the game. Coney was a little shaky in the first inning but he got through it unharmed thanks to a diving catch in right field by Paul O'Neill to rob Terry Jones of a hit. He never turned around again. Well, not until the eighth inning, when Jose Vidro hit a hard grounder up the middle with one out. Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, who had 16 errors up to that point in the season, ran to his right to backhand the ball, the whole stadium gasped as Knobby pivoted and made a perfect throw to first baseman Tino Martinez to get Vidro. Maybe this was Cone's day. Maybe there is something to this magic." Maybe I was going to witness something I have never seen before. That proverbial "Great Moment." Cone (10-4), who got his first shutout in exactly four years, didn't go to a three-ball count all day and struck out 10. Cone threw 88 pitches, nine fewer than Larsen needed for his no-hitter against the Dodgers. Cone started the ninth by striking out future Yankee Chris Widger, then retiring pinch-hitter Ryan McGuire on a fly into the leftfield sun that Ricky Ledee nearly dropped. "I really didn't want it hit to me," Ledee said. "I was having a tough time seeing the ball." Then came Cabrera, who worked the count to 1-1, then hit a pop up that third baseman Scott Brosius gloved in foul territory halfway toward the plate for the final out. As Cone dropped to the ground, catcher Joe Girardi ran toward him and tried to shield him from his exuberant teammates. "I have been under a lot of piles," said Girardi, who caught Dwight Gooden's no-hitter in 1996. "I didn't want him to be at the bottom of that. He is more important than I am. I wanted to protect him. Cone threw 88 pitches, nine fewer than Larsen needed for his no-hitter against the Dodgers. He had pitched three one-hitters in his career, the last on May 22, 1994, against the Angels. He was two outs away from a no-hitter on June 17, 1995, when Texas' Benji Gil singled to break it up. The 36-year-old Cone became the second oldest pitcher to throw a perfect game. Cy Young pitched one in 1904 at 37. Fans sensed the possibility of perfection in the seventh inning. After Cone got Wilton Guerrero to ground out to third, he got ahead of James Mouton 1-2. With the fans on their feet urging Cone on, Mouton swung through a nasty slider that broke more than one foot off the plate. "I kind of fought the feeling," Cone said. "I said I'm not going to try to get cute now. I said in order to get through the game, I had to get through the sixth and seventh quickly." Cone used the same pitch to get Rondell White to end the seventh, setting off the first of many standing ovations. The free-swinging Expos made Cone's job easier, getting out early in the counts. Cone did the rest with a biting slider and a hopping fastball. "This is a club that can be aggressive," Girardi said. "We wanted to go right after the hitters to keep his pitch count down and keep him fresh." With his wide assortment of arm angles, Cone simply overwhelmed a lineup that had never faced him before. "We had no history to talk about or to help us come up with anything," Expos manager Felipe Alou said. "He hit every spot today with a lot of different pitchers." Cone twice had long breaks between innings but didn't appear fazed. After a five-run second inning by the Yankees off Javier Vazquez (2-5), Cone came back and struck out the side on 12 pitches in the third. After a 33-minute rain delay with one out in the bottom of the third, Cone needed only seven pitches to get through the fourth. "He didn't leave anything over the middle. David Cone could feel his heart "pounding through his uniform" when he took the mound in the ninth inning. All of Yankee Stadium was on its feet. Don Larsen himself was sitting behind home plate. All in all, a perfect day to pitch a perfect game and that's exactly what he did. Cone dazzled the Montreal Expos with a wide assortment of pitches, throwing the 14th perfect game in modern history to lead the Yankees to a 6-0 victory. Watching and applauding from a luxury box behind the plate was Larsen, a witness along with 41,930 other fans to the 16th perfect game overall... On the very same field where Larsen pitched a perfect game against Brooklyn in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series the only one in Series history Cone pitched the first no-hitter in the three-year history of inter-league play. After getting Orlando Cabrera to hit a pop up for the final out, Cone dropped to his knees, grabbed his head in disbelief and was mobbed by his joyous teammates. It was replay of the scene from last year when David Wells pitched the only other regular-season perfect game in Yankees' history. The Yankees hoisted Cone upon their shoulders and carried him to the edge of the dugout as cheers rained down on him for several minutes. Watching and applauding from a luxury box behind the plate was Larsen, a witness along with 41,930 other fans to the 16th perfect game overall, including two in the 19th century. "I was just thinking about my day," Larsen said. "I'm sure David will think about this every day of his life." Larsen was at Yankee Stadium for Yogi Berra day and even recreated his perfect day by throwing out the first pitch to Berra, his catcher in 1956. Right after that pitch, Cone made his only mistake of the day. "I asked him if he was going to jump into Yogi's arms again," Cone said. "He told me I got it all backwards. Yogi jumped into his arms. Mr. Yankee history got it all wrong." Cone did everything else right of the plate," Montreal's Chris Widger said. "He didn't get away with any bad pitches. He just didn't throw any bad pitches." New York backed him with the second inning off Vazquez, recalled from Triple-A Ottawa before the game. Chili Davis walked with one out and Ledee hit the next pitch halfway up the upper deck in right field for his third homer. Girardi added an RBI double in the inning and Derek Jeter capped the inning with a two-run homer, his 16th. Notes: Yankees pitched three no-hitters at Yankee Stadium from its opening in 1923 through 1982: Monte Pearson against Cleveland (1938), Allie Reynolds against the Indians (1951) and Larsen. Since then there have been five: Dave Righetti against Boston (1983); Jim Abbott against Cleveland (1993); Gooden, Wells and Cone. It was the first perfect game against the Expos and fourth no-hitter. Larry Dierker pitched one for Houston on July 9, 1976; Bob Forsch did it for St. Louis on Sept. 26, 1983; and Tommy Greene did for Philadelphia on May 23, 1991. It was the 651st inter-league game. Joe Torre turned 59 that day and improved to 6-8 as a manager on his birthday. Earlier in
life I turned down tickets to what turned out to be Dave
Righetti's No Hitter. This time I took the tickets and got
the thrill of my life. It was probably one of greatest
baseball moments in my life.
 The Pinstripe Press: https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/pinstripepress The Highlander: https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/thehighlander Editor's Email: StlrsFan1@aol.com Copyright © 2002-2003 Pinstripe Press. All Rights Reserved. This online newsletter is not affiliated with the New York Yankees. The opinions expressed solely represent the contributor's and not the Pinstripe Press. |
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