A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone

I've been a fan of David Cone since I was a little kid growing up in New York as a Met's fan. Even as my team started to unravel after 1986 and 1988, Cone was stellar, leading the league in strikeouts and being the one constant quality player that the team had. When he was traded out of New York I still tried to follow his career and was happy when he returned to New York, even as a Yankee. It was with great disappointment that I read about his last season where he just fell apart and ended with a 4-14 record. It was a sad ending to a great pitcher. I wanted to read this book about David Cone. The book was originally supposed to be about the craft of pitching, how a top level pitcher prepares and the mechanics of pitching. That is the book that Roger Angell intended to write. However, when Cone's mechanics broke down and his season fell apart, Angell stayed with him and realized that he had a completely different story. This is the story of David Cone's last season with the Yankees and the collapse of a talented ballplayer. Baseball is a game of digression. Since the only action in the game takes place during frenzied bursts of motion between long periods of waiting, this gives the sportswriters and broadcasters time to talk about the game at hand as well as games and moments from years past. This is a good thing to think about as you begin to read the book. Roger Angell takes us through the 2000 season of David Cone. He also provides a biography of Cone as well as moments from different parts of his pitching career. This is just like a baseball game where everything is connected to history. What is happening in May might recall David's rookie year, or his high school days. This is how the book goes, from the 2000 season when Angell is spending time with Cone right to David's childhood and back again. It may feel at times that there is very little organization, but I felt that it had part of the natural flow of watching (or listening to) a baseball game. Some readers might be put off by the lack of chronology to the book and that it jumps around quite a bit. It is a little distracting, but it wasn't bad at all in my mind. It just felt like this is the way you tell the baseball story. I was completely enthralled by this book and I'm glad that I got the chance to read about one of my favorite pitchers from my childhood.

I loved this book. If you are familiar with Roger Angell's baseball essays that appear regularly in the New Yorker, you know his love of the game and the people who play it. This book traces the year of David Cone, a very good pitcher, who just happens to have probably the worst year of his career. To the author and subjects credit, they go on with the project anyway, and it makes for a much different book than the author was planning on. You must pay attention while reading, because the author is often going back to the past of David Cone, shedding light on how he became a successful pitcher, and the ups and downs of his career, and in his life. It is a must read for anyone who enjoys great writing and loves baseball. I personally would love to see an update on what happened to David after he joined the Red Sox, and what he's doing now that he's no longer in baseball. Thanks, Roger!

It's hard to classify "A Pitcher's Story" either as a straight sports autobiography/hagiography, or as a classic Roger Angell essay collection. This, the David Cone story, is Angell's first baseball "bio", so to speak, and it helps to have a strong working knowledge of David Cone's career before you begin. And yet if you go in expecting 300 pages of nothing but Cone, you may have trouble navigating Angell's short trips and side steps around the game he loves so much.Angell's biggest strength, at least as I've always read him, lies in his descriptions of games and players. David Cone started some of the more memorable ballgames of the past decade, and Angell's game summaries are magnetic. I like the poetic way in which he visualizes players. Even the cameo by former Cone teammate Terry Leach becomes grand opera in the Angell tradition ("[he] made right-handed batters bend and weave like matadors.").Equally fascinating are Angell's musings on the Yankees' frustrating 2000 season, and his attempts to solve a knotty baseball trivia question involving certain members of the 400 homer club (key hint: Cone is not a member).Angell also loves technical descriptions, of the way pitches break and of the way Cone's right arm functions (or malfunctions). These are the paragraphs that held less of my interest -- but that's Angell's key asset. He looks at baseball from every angle, and writes something for everyone. You may even find yourself, like Angell, reaching for a baseball to see if you, too, can throw the Laredo.David Cone is lucky to have found such a biographer as this. His career and his mentality deserve more than the standard cut-and-paste job, and this is a book to be proud of. Best, it's a loving book about the 2000 Yankees, as written by a Mets fan. One feels Angell's turmoil as Piazza pops up to second base to end the fifth inning of Game 4 (Cone fans know of what I speak), and yet this out is the book's climax, a moment of quiet triumph.I wish "A Pitcher's Story" had received better ratings. It's as absorbing a baseball book as has been written this year, and instilled in me a craving to rush back to my long-untouched tapes of the 1996 World Series, when Coney was king. It's a book best read out loud, perhaps with the radio on and tuned in to a Boston Red Sox game this season. Cone fans wil know of what I speak.

I've never been one to follow statistics, but I love baseball enough (the history, the pure joy of watching the game, the spirit of the game, players, and the Fans) to truly enjoy it. And for some reason, when David Cone made his appearance on the Mets several years back, I was drawn. It was his strength, his courage and his tenacity. But what moved me most was the amount of emotion he had when he was pitching. I've watched many baseball players come and go. Most fans will pick the popular ones...the ones with the highest batting average or best ERA. But I've always admired those who worked the hardest, especially for something they're so passionate about. This is most evident in Angell's book. It truly shows the human side to the players, describing the emotional and physical strength behind a player's psychie. You get to understand how David Cone felt and truly admire his courage under all the excitement and turmoil he has faced. If you're a lover of baseball - especially if you're a David Cone fan, I highly recommend this book.

David Cone once said he's a person who things happen to in life. You have to agree with him after reading about his life and career in "A Pitcher's Story."Roger Angell is one of the more literary sports writers, and although he has chosen a friend as the subject of his latest work, he is honest and unprejudiced throughout the book. As a lifelong Yankee fan I first became intrigued with Coney when he pitched for the Mets. It was exciting to have him with my beloved Yankees, and what a contribution he made during the years he was here - a no-hitter after coming back from his surgery for an aneurysm, his post-season gems, his perfect game. His clubhouse role couldn't be matched. He was a stand-up team leader who could always be relied on for an honest assessment of situations on and off the field.If you've followed David's career, or are just a casual baseball fan, you'll find yourself rooting for his success throughout the account of his hellacious last season with the Yanks. His last appearance in the World Series against his former team, the Mets, was a fittingly dramatic ending to his years in New York.This book is a wonderful tribute to one of the most interesting boys of summer.