3/5/98 N.Y. Times News Serv. (SEE BOLD)
1998 WL-NYT 9806401001
New York Times News Service
c. 1998 New York Times Company
Thursday, March 5, 1998
Baseball Notebook: Cone Has Strong Outing
By BUSTER OLNEY
TAMPA, Fla. - David Cone appeared at the entrance to Joe Torre's office at 8
a.m. Wednesday, saying that his right ankle felt fine and that he was ready to
pitch.
Torre approved, and although one hanging slider marred Cone's final three-
inning pitching line against the Cincinnati Reds, the right-hander threw hard
and with control.
Now the idea of Cone being in the rotation the first week of the season
doesn't seem that farfetched - the first good news the projected starters,
nagged by ailments, have generated in a couple of weeks. Working the first
three innings of a 9-8 victory against Cincinnati, Cone allowed three runs (two
earned), while walking one and striking out five. All the runs came when Eddie
Perez blasted the benign breaking ball for a home run.
"Cone was great," Torre said. "I was very pleased."
The roll call of ailing Yankee pitchers is shortening gradually. David Wells
threw in the bullpen and may pitch in an exhibition game as soon as Sunday.
Ramiro Mendoza, too, is almost ready to throw in a game, and relievers Mike
Stanton and Darren Holmes are expected to pitch in the next day or so.
Torre is prepared to give Cone as much time as possible to come back from the
arthroscopic shoulder surgery he had last fall. The bottom line in Cone's
rehabilitation, Torre has said, is to be sure that Cone is healthy in September
and October, rather than pressing him into action in April and May. When Cone
turned up Monday with a sore right ankle - the part of his body that drives his
delivery - Torre intended to wait for Cone to be completely pain free, to
ensure that he would not alter his mechanics and jeopardize his arm.
But two days of whirlpool treatment eased the minor problem that has
occasionally bothered Cone since he rolled his ankles over several times
playing basketball. Lounging in front of his locker Wednesday, Cone recalled
that his right ankle sprain almost sabotaged his baseball career.
Cone attended a Jesuit high school in Kansas City, Mo., that did not field a
baseball team. Instead, Cone played summer league baseball, for a team
sponsored by Boyle's Famous Corn Beef. As his senior year ended, Cone had
accepted a partial football scholarship to the University of Missouri, where he
intended to major in journalism. He hoped to get drafted in baseball, but
Boyle's wouldn't play its first game until a few days before the 1981 draft.
Cone would have one chance to audition for the scouts.
But a couple of days before his scheduled start, Cone rolled his ankle
playing basketball. His coach, Pat Nolan - now 91 and still coaching - wrapped
Cone's ankle tightly on the bench. With his dreams of playing professional
baseball at stake, Cone took the mound with his bum ankle. He remembers lasting
three or four innings for the scouts, throwing a few good fastballs and a good
curve. The Royals drafted him in the third round.
What if the ankle had prevented that one outing? Said Cone, the would-be
sportswriter: "Who knows?"
Cone had his right ankle wrapped again Wednesday. The life on his fastball
surprised him, the way it made the glove of catcher Joe Girardi pop, the way it
moved; it was clocked at anywhere from 87 miles an hour to to 91, very good for
this time of spring. Throwing a bending slider, Cone struck out Pat Watkins two
batters into the first inning.
But after Chuck Knoblauch's error and a walk to Willie Greene, Cone hung a
slider to Perez, who slammed it off the top of the scoreboard above and beyond
the left-center-field fence. Cone grimaced, disgusted with himself, and he hit
Eddie Taubensee in the foot with a forkball.
He rebounded quickly, striking out Reggie Sanders on three fastballs and
Roberto Petagine on three forkballs. Cone required only nine pitches to get
through the second and allowed a harmless single in the third, pumping
fastballs to both fringes of the plate.
"You look at the numbers and they're a little ugly, but the way I threw the
ball - a lot of life, a lot of arm speed," Cone said, "it was promising."
INSIDE PITCH
The Yankees formally announced the hiring of Kim Ng, 29, as assistant general
manager. Ng, who is leaving a job in the American League office to join the
Yankees, becomes the second woman in major league history to ascend to the
position of assistant general manager. No woman has ever been a general
manager, but Ng said Wednesday that she would like to have that title somewhere
someday ... Brian Cashman, the Yankees' general manager, wants to complete all
player signings Thursday. A person monitoring the negotiations with shortstop
Derek Jeter indicated that there is a remote chance a multiyear deal could be
pieced together quickly ... The Florida Marlins have inquired about Andy Fox,
the Yankee utility infielder who is likely to be traded by the end of spring
training ... In the Yankees' other split-squad game, in Fort Myers, Fla., the
former Yankees farmhand Eric Milton pitched two scoreless innings in the Twins'
6-4 victory.
00:28 EST MARCH 5, 1998
P.S. 3 Spring Training teams in Tucson: Diamondbacks, Rockies
and White Sox. Best time of the year here.
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