David Cone: Partying Produced Great Pitching and Greater Yankees Seasons

Rob Gronkowski and Matt Light hope that partying does for them what it did for the 1998 Yankees.

After the New York Yankees were eliminated by the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 playoffs, David Cone and some of his teammates partied. The idea was to not allow the devastating defeat destroy the team or the 1998 season.

Cone did some of his best pitching under duress. A prime example was the game he pitched on the last day of the 1991 season against the Philadelphia Phillies when he was a New York Met.

The Mets threw a party the night before their last game despite the fact that their season gave them nothing to celebrate. Cone stayed up all night, having a wild time.

He returned to his hotel room at 6:30 In the morning. At about 8:30, general manager Frank Cashen called Cone's room.

Cashen, not known for mincing words, told Cone that he had a problem.

"David," Cashen said, "you need to know you've been accused of rape."

Cone was told that a woman from New Jersey claimed that Cone had invited her to his hotel room and forced her to have relations with him.

Cashen told Cone that he could be arrested at any moment. Cone's response was that he wanted to pitch that afternoon, which is what he did.

It wasn't easy. While on the Veterans Stadium mound, he kept looking into the stands for the police. He continually closed his eyes between pitches and imagined himself being handcuffed.

The awful situation affected Cone's pitching. He tied the National League single game strikeout record of 19 shared by Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver as he allowed only three hits in a 7-0 win.

After the game, Cone explained to the media.

"If anything, it made me stronger," he says. "It gave me a cause. Either fold or get mentally strong, that's how I was thinking. I chose to get strong."

Three days later, the police dropped the investigation because the woman's claims were unfounded.

The point is that some individuals, whether they are athletes or those that watch athletes perform, thrive under pressure.

Cone and the Yankees knew what they had to do in 1998. They realized the pressure that they would put on themselves to win it all after 1997.

Cone used baseball to get through the accusation of rape. He pitched one of his greatest games.

In five World Series starts, Cone is 2-0 with a 2.12 ERA.

In his only World Series relief appearance which occurred in 2000 against the Mets and Mike Piazza, a David Cone that had nothing left but courage retired the Mets catcher in a key situation.

The greater the pressure, in or out of baseball, the better Cone performs.