Cone’s, Johnson’s Heroics Have Left Them In A World Of Hurt

Last October, Randy Johnson and David Cone watched each other commit sport’s most unnatural act - throwing a baseball from 60 feet 6 inches. They have great respect for how the other man suffered.

“We’ve both been humbled this year,” Cone said.

In the fifth and final game of the most exciting series in baseball’s expanded post-season, Johnson and Cone both pushed their arms and their backs and their legs far beyond any conceivable comfort zone.

“‘Be a man. Suck it up,”’ Johnson said, parodying the internal pressures that any major-leaguer hears. He and Cone are discovering there must be limits.

In that final game, Johnson cranked up his aching left arm for six strikeouts in three innings of relief. Cone kept throwing with his right arm until he walked Doug Strange in the eighth inning, allowing Seattle to tie the score, and ultimately win the series.

“And look what happened to him - he’s got an aneurysm in his shoulder,” Johnson was saying Friday night.

Johnson is trying to come back with a bulging disk in his back. Cone is recovering from surgery for that aneurysm. Both of them can only assume their injuries are connected to the heroics of last October.

The Seattle lefty and the Yankee righty know their teams are counting on them, but they have to fight the temptation to “be a hero,” just because they were in that position a year ago.

“You’ve got to be honest and not jeopardize yourself,” Cone was saying.

Cone is preparing to go to the minor leagues for two or three rehabilitative starts before returning to the Yankees in September.

Johnson is currently slightly less exuberant than Cone. He has pitched two innings in the minors and nine innings of relief for the Mariners. Coming into this weekend there were rumors Johnson might try to start Monday night, but on Friday he said his back felt “a little achy” and “maybe it’s telling me I’m not ready to start yet.”

Reality says Cone and Johnson pitched in one of the great postseason games. Reality also says that is how Cone and Johnson got this way.