Player Appreciation: David Cone, hired gun

But David Cone's career wasn't just about strikeouts and it surely wasn't just about dominating weak teams. Cone finished his career with 194 wins against 126 losses, that's a .606 career winning percentage. He won 20 games in 1988 and 1998. He earned the 1994 American League Cy Young award with a 16-5 record and a 2.94 ERA during that strike-shortened season. He had a 3.46 ERA for his career and five times struck out more than 200 batters in a season. He was a five-time All Star. In the World Series he was particularly brilliant, going 2-0 in six games with a 2.12 ERA. For his career, he went 8-3 in the post season. Baseball-Reference.com gives Cone a 103 in its Hall of Fame number, with 100 being a likely Hall of Famer. However, none of his most-comparable players are in Cooperstown. The list includes Dwight Gooden, Orel Hershiser and Bob Welch. Despite those numbers and accolades, Cone was named on only 3.9 percent of ballots in Major League baseball's Hall of Fame voting.

A not-so-sterling reputation In Bill James' 2001 edition of the Historical Baseball Abstract, he places David Cone 94th on his list of the all-time greatest pitchers. We're not going to argue his position on the list, but what we will argue is that what he writes is, uncharictaristically, drastically incorrect. Here's James' pithy comment:

Pitching here,
pitching there,
David Cone,
Staff ace on loan.

Sure, David Cone wasn't Jim Palmer or Whitey Ford, pitching his career for one team.
But let's consider the facts.
Cone pitched for the Royals, Mets, Jays, Yankees and Red Sox.
That's five teams. But his career with Boston was basically a 25-game cameo.
And he did pitch for the Mets, Blue Jays and Royals twice during his prime.

Now, let's look at some other dominant starters.
Randy Johnson pitched for the Expos, Mariners, Astros, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Giants.
That's six teams, four of them during his prime.
Then there's Kevin Brown. The volitile right-hander pitched for, in order, the Rangers, Orioles, Marlins, Padres, Dodgers and Yankees.
That's also six teams.
Don Sutton pitched for the Dodgers, Angels, Astros, Brewers and Athletics.
That's five teams.

But you didn't have to pitch in the free agent era to be the staff ace on several teams.
Jim Bunning is in the Hall of Fame and he pitched for the Tigers, Phillies, Pirates and Dodgers.
That's four teams.
Then there is Mr. Cy Young himself. The Award pitched for the National League's Cleveland Spiders and St. Louis Cardinals, then he jumped ship to the American League's Boston Americans and Cleveland Indians before returning to the senior circuit to finish his career with a Brooklyn Dodgers cameo.

However, while Cone's reputation as an ace-for-hire is somewhat misplaced, he had also built up a reputation for off-field incidents.
For the better part of two years, those issues dominated his career as much as his slider dominated the National League. Cone was never charged in any of the incidents, but they did get his name into the papers several times.
But by the end of the decade, Cone's reputation was changing for the better.

An even better game
Heading into the 1999 season, Cone had already won three World Series rings - 92 Jays, 96 and 98 Yankees. And, more importantly, had kept his name out of the papers and police investigations for the better part of a decade.
On July 18, Cone, pitching at Yankee Stadium, faced the Montreal Expos.
Early on, Cone gave up some hard hit balls, but they never found green. And he found a groove.
By day's end he had collected 10 strikeouts. And hadn't given up a walk.
Or a hit.
He had pitched a perfect game and emorably dropped to his knees and grabbed his cap as if he was trying to keep it from flying away.
So, while Cone's face will never don a plaque in Cooperstown, he ensured his baseball immortality.