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 Game 3 crucial to Cone and Hitchcock
Posted: Monday October 19, 1998 11:17 PM
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- David Cone wants to atone. Sterling Hitchcock just wants to pitch. Game 3 of the World Series has more subplots than a soap opera, and chief among them is Cone's desire to make amends to Joe Torre for nearly blowing the AL pennant clincher last week against Cleveland and slugger Jim Thome. "I kind of felt like I let him down the other night when I gave up the grand slam to Thome," Cone said Monday as the World Series switched to California. With the Yankees ahead of Cleveland 6-0, Cone walked David Justice with the bases loaded. Thome then homered, and suddenly the clincher was no sure thing. "I trust him. I've been second-guessed for trusting, but I can't help that," Torre said. "He may be able to talk me into something, and he takes advantage of that trust at times, but I'll live with that because I know there are times that he'll say he's OK, and I want to believe him. But I think that also makes him say, 'Well, since I made that commitment, I've got to do this,' and there's something he can call on that a lot of other people can't." Cone, standing a few feet away in the interview room, took that as high praise. "I've been able to pitch my way into jams and pitch my way out it, but it caught up with me the other day," he said. "I hope that trust factor is still there tomorrow night. But that is the ultimate compliment any player can get from a manager." Even if San Diego wasn't trailing the Yankees 2-0 in the Series, Hitchcock could be excused from having extra motivation. New York traded him to Seattle after the 1995 season. "It doesn't matter if we're playing the Bad News Bears right now, it's the World Series," he said, clearly stuffed up from sinus congestion caused by a cold. "As a kid, that's what you dream of." Hitchcock was 14-11 for the Yankees in 1995, the first time he stayed in the majors for an entire season. But when the opportunity to obtain Tino Martinez came up, his New York career was history. "I'm very thankful to the Yankees to give me an opportunity to play at this level," he said. "They gave me the ball and gave me a chance to go out and prove myself. And they let me pitch the last game of the season there, with basically the whole season on the line, trying to get into the playoffs." After going 9-7 with a 3.93 ERA during the regular season this year, Hitchcock beat Houston's Randy Johnson in the Game 4 clincher of the first round. He then went 2-0 against Atlanta in the NL championship series, winning the third and sixth games. Hitchcock was voted MVP for allowing just one earned run in 10 innings as he beat Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Looking back, he said Cone and Jack McDowell influenced him greatly, "as far as gritting it out and trying to go as long as you can and as deep as you can into games." Cone is a 20-game winner for the first time in a decade, going 20-7 with a 3.55 ERA. After surgery to repair an aneurysm in his right shoulder and another shoulder operation last October, he began 1998 with two terrible starts, allowing 16 runs in 9 2-3 innings. Retirement crossed his mind. "It was an embarrassing situation where I was searching for respectability. Obviously, I thought to myself: 'This can't go on. I can't go out there and hurt the team,"' he said. "There were a lot of jokes in the year about me being the weakling and the fifth starter. I wanted to do something to contribute. I was able to win 20 games, and now it's been one of the most gratifying years of my career."
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A Sterling performance needed: David Cone (left) will start against former Yankees pitcher Sterling Hitchcock in a crucial Game 3 for the Padres 