Yankees’ YES Network and ESPN analyst David Cone returned to the scene of his biggest crime this past weekend when he worked the Yankees’ three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Cone, who pitched for the Yankees and Mets during his big-league career, had a flashback to a playoff game in 1988, when the Dodgers ran him off the mound after a badly timed ghost-written column for the Daily News.
Things were looking good for the Mets in 1988: They spent 158 days in first place and looked to be headed to a second title in three years. Cone was a big reason why. With a 20-3 record, Cone boasted an MLB-best .870 winning percentage backed by a 2.22 earned run average and 213 strikeouts.
What could go wrong, right?
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Ahead of the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers, the New York Daily News seized on the opportunity and offered Cone $500 to write his debut column as a player-columnist. Before becoming a pitcher, Cone had dreamed of being a sports reporter.
According to USA TODAY:
(Cone) ridiculed the Dodgers, calling Hershiser “lucky” that they couldn’t score on him for eight innings, and then compared Dodgers closer Jay Howell to a “high school pitcher.”
The column didn’t need the internet to go 1980′s viral. Soon after, it made its way into the hands of Dodgers manager and Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, who posted it everywhere for his players to see.
Cone, who started Game 2 of the NLCS against the Dodgers, could feel the animosity in Dodger Stadium when he took the mound in the first inning.
“I was physically impacted from the nerves off that column,” Cone recalled. “My legs felt like cement blocks. When I walked out to warm up, everybody was on the top step screaming at me, bench-jockeying. I could hear Tommy Lasorda from the dugout.”
Two innings later, after giving up five runs and five hits, Cone’s day was over. It was the shortest start of his career and due, in…
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