1999 Yankees Diary, July 18: David Cone is perfect

Twenty-five years ago today, the Yankees hosted the Montreal Expos on Yogi Berra Day. Prior to the game, Don Larsen threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Berra, with the two reprising their roles as the battery from Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Larsen’s first pitch crossed over the heart of the plate.

Just a few hours later, Larsen would welcome a new member into the club of Yankees that had achieved perfection.

July 18: Yankees 6, Expos 0 (box score)

Record: 54-36 (1st, 4.0 GA)

At 1:35 p.m. in New York, David Cone fired a first-pitch strike to Montreal leadoff man Wilton Guerrero. Cone’s second offering was a looping curveball that Guerrero fouled off. With the count 0-2, Cone grazed the outside corner with a fabulously located backdoor breaking ball, ringing Guerrero up on strikes. For each of his first three pitches, Cone took the ball, toed the rubber and worked fired, setting the tone for his afternoon.

Terry Jones was the second batter Cone faced, and Jones in fact posed one of the only real questions to Cone all game. Cone fell behind 2-0, and after fighting back to even the count, left a fastball over the plate, one that Jones lined to right. Paul O’Neill made a slick fielding grab. Perfection was preserved, even if no one knew it was on the line at that point:

Needing just nine pitches to navigate the first, Cone knifed through the Expos in the second, striking out Vladimir Guerrero and working an 11-pitch frame. In the home half, the Yankee offense did their part to remove some suspense. Chili Davis drew a walk off of Javier Vázquez, and Ricky Ledée followed with his third homer of the year, a mammoth shot to the third deck in right for a 2-0 lead:

Vázquez then hit Scott Brosius, who was doubled home by Joe Girardi. Derek Jeter, batting with one on and the Yankees up 3-0, broke things open with a two-run blast of his own into Monument Park.

Granted a 5-0 lead, Cone did not let up. He struck out Chris Widger swinging on a nasty curve to lead off the third. Shane Andrews was next, flailing helplessly on another 1-2 curve from Cone. Last was Orlando Cabrera, who, again in a 1-2 count, waved meekly on a slider down and away. Good morning, good afternoon, good night.

In the bottom of the third, the elements would provide Cone one of his stiffest tests of the day. Rain delayed the game for 33 minutes, but Cone stayed loose in the clubhouse, and Joe Torre sent him out to continue his start.

Cone worked a hyper-efficient fourth, needing just seven pitches to retire Montreal’s top three for a second time. All the Expos could manage in the fifth were three lazy fly balls; Montreal hitters spent almost the entire game either whiffing badly on Cone’s breakers, or making weak contact on off-balance hacks, lofting easy outs to the Yankee defenders.

It was even easier in the sixth, with Cone using five pitches to slice through the bottom of Montreal’s order. As Cabrera lifted a high pop-up into foul territory, the crowd rose in anticipation, with Girardi making the catch at the edge of the field of play. Cone was 18 up, 18 down, and everyone in attendance was now aware of the history at stake.

To Vázquez’s credit, the righty shook off the Yankees’ second-inning explosion and the rain delay to pitch almost as efficiently as Cone through the middle innings. Vázquez allowed just two hits, a pair of singles, between the third and seventh frames.

But of course, Vázquez’s efforts weren’t nearly enough. Cone rang up two more strikeouts in the seventh, with James Mouton and Rondell White both swinging and missing in ugly fashion on sliders off the outside corner.

Perhaps the scariest moment of Cone’s outing came in the top of the eighth. After retiring Vladimir Guerrero on a foul popout for his 22nd consecutive out, Cone fell behind 2-0 to José Vidro. Cone threw a pitch in the zone (indeed, he didn’t go to a three-ball count once in the entire game), and Vidro struck a hard grounder toward the middle. Chuck Knoblauch, already in the process of developing the yips during the 1999 season, ranged to his right and fielded it cleanly, firing a strike to first to record the second out of the inning:

Cone followed up by striking Brad Fullmer out looking on another dastardly backdoor breaking ball. To set up the two-strike count, Cone had fooled Fullmer with a breaking ball that Fullmer had fouled off on a half-swing. It’s remarkable how many awkward hacks and half-swings the Expos took all day. At no point did they ever look comfortable against Cone.

Paul O’Neill led off the home half of the eighth with a double, and Bernie Williams drove him in with a single to at last chase Vázquez, who had lasted far longer than anyone could have expected him to. Now, with a 6-0 lead, Cone took the mound in the ninth three outs from perfection.

Cone dealt a first-pitch breaking ball to Widger leading off the ninth, one that the batter swung through. The second pitch was another curve, one that buckled Widger’s knees. Down 0-2, Cone went breaking ball again, and Widger had no chance, swinging through it for Cone’s tenth strikeout of the day.

Ryan McGuire pinch-hit for Andrews, and worked a 2-2 count against Cone. Cone’s slider got more plate than he intended, and Andrews lofted it to short left field. Ledee appeared to fight the sun, but secured a running catch for the second out.

If you’ve made it this far, you surely remember how this story ends. In a 1-1 count, Cabrera, the 27th batter Cone faced, lofted a weak pop fly into foul territory on the third-base side. Brosius ranged over and made the catch to end the perfect game. The Yankees icon had thrown just 88 pitches.

Cone fell to his knees in disbelief. Nearly a quarter million MLB contests have been played, and only 24 of them have ever resulted in a perfect game.

On this day, Cone was perfect, etching his name into Yankees and baseball history using one filthy breaking ball after another.

Read the full 1999 Yankees Diary series here.