David Cone

[ChocolateGirl]

2 questions for everyone:

1- Do you think that David Cone is a trader?

2- Will you boo him or cheer him when he pitchers at Yankees Stadium.

Who in there right mind, besides Manny Ramerez, would go to Boston? Doesn't he know that the Red Sox are a cursed organization? Why couldn't he pick Texas Seattle or any other team besides the Red Sox!!!

Sorry Cone. I'll cheer you when you pitch at the stadium for the first time, but I will and cannot root for you. Now you are the enemy. Maybe you will realize later that you made the wrong decision. All I could do is wish you good health during the season.

Can someone please explain to me why Cone couldn't or didn't want to come back to the Yankees? Plus why did he choose Boston?

[Spirit of '78]

Who cares about Cone? He made his choice and now he has to live with it. The fact that Boston signed him speaks volumes about their pitching staff, David Cone and his 6.91 ERA should fit in perfectly in Beantown. He turned us against him by joining the enemy, and soon the enemy is going to turn on him too as soon as they realize he's got nothing left.

[Slippery Elm]

Yes he is a "TRADER". He "traded" his reputation for a lousy chance with the hated Red Sox, that after RIPPING OFF the Yankees in 2000 while STINKING UP the Bronx for $12 million.

Cone should have been in the minors in July, or cut. He should have retired with dignity, like Gooden did, at the end of the year. But even though Torre gave him every chance and kept starting him game after game he all but demanded to start in 2001, and thus went to the pitching hungry Red Sox.

Cone is a selfish mercenary, and I will boo his ass off when he appears in the Bronx in a Boston uniform.

Yes, he is a "trader". He is also a TRAITOR and ingrate.

[seahorse]

Trader? Yes - he traded one team for another.

[penguin4]

Yes, he is a "trader"... only twice in his life has he ever changed teams as a free agent.

...or do you mean "traitor"? In that case, CG, I don't mean to sound curt, but can't everyone just shut up about Cone already???? How many times do we have to establish that we're bitter he left for Boston, and we all think he should rot in the pits of hell for not re-signing with a team that didn't want him back in the first place? How many times can we say, "I hope we beat that bastard's brains out when we face him"? How much energy can we devote to a player of whom we're supposedly GLAD to be rid? How many times can we hypocritically shout "team loyalty; Cone BLEEDS GREEN" when in reality we have players like Bernie and Mussina who never would've been here if Steinbrenner didn't raise the bar so high as to lure them in? How many times can we be so sadistic as to think "I'm so glad that he's hurt. Now he's getting everything he deserves for not staying in New York"? And how many times can we say "he owed the fans his life", when the same fans have been booing him since April of last year?

We all know your opinions on Coney. We don't need to hear the same broken record in 50 posts. If that were the case, we'd all still be at yankees.com.

[Marge]

Yes he is a "TRADER". He "traded" his reputation for a lousy chance with the hated Red Sox, that after RIPPING OFF the Yankees in 2000 while STINKING UP the Bronx for $12 million.
____________

He was paid his 2000 salary for his performance in '99. Remember the Perfect Game?
What he reaped after his dismal record in 2000 was a wave bye-bye from the Yankee organization.
Get over it, already. Poor Coney gave us lots of thrills, but it's over. The man's gone. God bless 'im, and bring on Moose.

[CarolR]

1. No I won't boo him but I won't cheer him either.
2. He couldn't think past the almighty dollar so he left.
3. Now he will be cursed by his own doings.
4. In my heart I will always be a Coney Fan.

[Nome]

We have rehashed and rehashed and rehashed this to death.

The fact ogf the matter as I see it is that money in itself wasn't the motivator. Cone left the Yankees because he rightly felt they didn't want him and if he stayed his opportunities to perform would have been severely curtailed.

In going to Boston he went to a team that NEEDED pitching badly. Cone realized this was his best chance to pitch regularly and to see what, if anything, he had left.

Baseball is a business and a player needs to look out for himself. Certainly the owners are not going to give anything away willingly.

Yes, I would rather have seen Cone retire gracefully, but who am I to deney him the right to try to recapture some of the old glory he once had and to prove last year was a fluke.

Hey if you want to play in the majore you have to go somewhere and Boston is as good as any. I don't look at them as being the "enemy" any more than Toronto, Cleveland, Chicago, etc.

[silverdsl]

I agree with you 100% Nome. At the end of his career when he's fighting for his baseball life, Cone has to do whatever it takes to motivate himself and be happy. Nearing the end must be very difficult for any player, but particularly one like Cone who has been able to battle through so many problems.

Some other Yankees are in the last years of their contracts such as Scott Brosius and Tino Martinez. The Red Sox need players at those positions. Will everyone think of them as traitors too if they were to sign with the Red Sox also?

The Yankees have kept their core players together for a long time but key, popular players like Cone or Tino are going to leave for other teams as time goes on. This is the way baseball works. Cone did the same as any other player looking for the best situation for himself.

-Deborah

[nyy15]

Cone who? The guy who robbed us blind last year.

[19laura]

aww sheesh!

Again with these questions.. since he is no longer a yankee shouldn't this topic be moved to "around the majors"?

I guess I just can't get over with everyone hating him so much(ya know being a "traitor", "selfish mercenary" and wanting to boo him out of the stadium etc..etc..) then why do we STILL continue to speak of him??? :rolleyes:

Laura

[Butnud]

The Cone I know is the one I eat when I go to an ice cream parlor. david Cone, I looked up to him. He knew he would be staying if he stayed. He would still be getting to support he needed. Just like Knobby we would have figured out a better way. Maybe 2nd base.
But any rateI will never look at Coney the same way again.

[penguin4]

They always said justice is blind. Maybe injustice is deaf.

[Alex]

...or perhpas love is farsighted.

[The Q Bomb]

Very well said, nome (as usual). While I'm disappointed that Cone went to The Red Sox rather than another team, I don't blame him. Sentiment is sentiment but a player "has to do what he has to do" and that is get the most he or she can out of their career. We all know that means different things to different atheletes.

I hate to say The Yanks "didn't want him" but I guess that's what it boils down to. (In that case, you have to give them credit in the decency department for even offering him another contract.)

The thing that does bother me about Cone is the rather veiled digs he made at The Yankee management and staff when he left and in spring training. I feel he intimated that they did not do enough to help him get out of his pitching doldurms last year or support him enough. I feel that is extremely ungracious on his part not to say patently untrue.

And penguin4 - Cone was not booed by fans from "April on" last year. The fans were very supportive of him. I believe he was booed in one game - sometime in July. Considering the way he pitched - I think the fans showed tremendous love, respect and forbearance with him.

[Up-State]

I liked Cone, but i lost a lot of respect hor him... when he went to the enemy. I would of liked Cone to stick around just to see if he could regain his form from years past. I think Cone career is probable over. He might not even pitch durning the season for the Red Sux, they say he has a sore arm...
If by chance he does pitch against the Yankees I will probable not cheer or boo, but reflect on his past performances, all the great memories of him in pinstripes. It will be odd to see him pitch for another team...

[1TonHumanHamsterWheel]

Who's Cone? I forgot about this guy long ago. Let's focus on Yankees present and what we can accomplish this year.

[jerryz]

This discusion is moot. Cone is on the disabled list and in not on Boston's 25 member roster. I wish him well, but Cashman was correct in letting him go. Like Wells, his time to go had come.

[Eddie160]

I am a Yankee fan and whoever is on the opposing team will never get my support as for Cone I was a Big Cone fan however he should have retired so now I will not root for him because I root for the Yankees not for the Red Sox.