A Late Blooming ConeHead

[DOUGHBOYS]

I have the MLB package as I'm sure a lot of you folks do. We get to see and hear what baseball feels like in other towns.
After a few seasons of the package though, I am forced to lower the volume for most teams and just watch the action.
Before MLB teams bought their own radio and tv rights, announcers didn't have to be 'homers'. They could say that 'Starlin Castro did not hustle on that play' instead of saying that 'Castro was slow in reacting'.
Worse than that though, I've found that these guys are just filling air time. They're not here to enlighten me or tell me something I didn't already know. There job is simply to talk while play takes place on the field.

Sometimes though, lightning strikes and we're glad we paid the price for the MLB Ticket.
I was watching the Yankees telecast. The Yankees are broadcasts where I actually turn the volume up. I like the banter. Especially with Paul O'Neill when he happens to be on. In fact, for as much as the Yankees/Mets fans trashtalk each other on these Boards, they have two of the best tv broadcasts in baseball. The Giants, Red Sox, and Orioles also have very fine broadcasts.

Yesterday, David Cone was part of the Yankees team. Cone, whether he knows it or not, is somebody that every fantasy player should listen to. I wish he were on MLB, instead of the collection of clowns assembled there.
And he'll do it without a self-laugh track that most MLB announcers seem to have.
He'll expound about the weaknesses of certain hitters and the philosophies of getting hitters out.
He's a lot like Steve Stone of the White Sox broadcasting team in that they're usually 100% right in everything they say.
Fortunately, Cone is not fighting for air time, like Stone does with Hawk Harrelson. Which is too bad in that Harrelson rarely has anything to say relevant to today's players.

Yesterday (and before), Cone explained that experienced pitchers use walks as a weapon. Even walking two hitters in an inning if it meant getting to a hitter that he had a lot of confidence in getting out.
I'm sure this would be especially true in the National League with a plethora of stinky seven, eight, and nine hitters.
Cone has said before that no mistakes should be made in the strike zone. Only out. If he misses with a pitch, he'd rather it be a ball, not over the heart of the plate.

During his own career, Cone practiced what he now preaches.
I'll give a stat that'll make sabrmeticians and Numerish skin crawl.
Hundreds of batters batted .000 against Cone.
Those hundreds of batters added up to 1,131 plate appearances of players batting .000
Cone only walked players of this ilk, 89 times.
And even then, some of those names were David Ortiz, Steve Buechele, Danny Tartabull, or Mel Hall, players to be feared at that given time.

Cone was a great cripple shooter. No doubt.
It worked the other way for him too.
During his career, there were only 23 hitters that could make the claim that they hit at least three homers off David Cone.
Those 23 hitters were walked 114 times by Cone.
Cone knew how to pitch.
One of the hitters that could claim three homers off Cone was Pedro Guerrero.
Even though Guerrero touched Cone up for those three homers, Cone felt he had an edge on Guerrero.
Guerrero would bat just .204 against Cone.
More telling though, is that in 58 plate appearances vs. Guerrero, Cone never walked him.
He was an opportunity for an out.

There are quality former players to listen to out there. Smoltz, Stone, and Cone come to mind.
It is wonderful when these guys can just talk about pitching.
MLB guys are so busy trying to show they're having a good time, that analysis seems secondary.
If you're like me, you just want to hear about baseball. Not how funny former jocks think they are.
I hope Cone stays on the Yankee telecasts and receives even more air dates and time.
He is a pleasure.

[rockitsauce]

Spot on Dan. I like the NY broadcasts too, though my fav's are SEA & OAK. Those dudes are just cool & laid back, not overly homerish, I like'em. I don't even know their names. I like how OAK seems to have a crappy stadium thats half filled and the fans there are always rowdy, doing the Bernie funny signs everywhere, just a great vibe.

I will say that you are right on about learning things from guys like Cone & Keith Hernandez that you just don't get elsewhere. Their baseball acumen is like calculus as Harold Reynolds is to algebra 1

btw, Coney is calling the game w/ Michael Kay today (Mother Nature permitting)