37 Quotes by David Cone

My buddy David Wells is a big motorcycle guy, so when I go visit him in San Diego, he takes me out on his bike. He’s got some antique Indians. I never really rode during my career, because I was afraid I’d fall off and ruin my career.

This is the place to be. Baseball town. The intimacy of Fenway, the toughness of it. I like that. I’m used to it. I need it. If I went somewhere else, it might have been a bit of a letdown. I like the edge.

We played hard and we partied hard. I’m not ashamed of that. I was no angel – I did some things I shouldn’t have done, lived a lifestyle I shouldn’t have lived. I had a blast at times; other times, I probably compromised my job, my duty to do my job, to be ready as a professional.

I think I rushed and I needed more time with my comeback. I needed more time to get my legs stronger to be able to handle the workload. You can only train for that by pitching innings. You can’t simulate pitching off a mound in a game inside a weight room.

I love being out there on the mound with the ball in my hand. I can control the game. I’m out there. No clock – nothing happens until I throw that thing. Nothing happens. I love that feeling.

I like to think of the world’s greatest athlete coming up to bat against me – Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, I don’t care who it is – and I’m looking at him thinking, you have no chance.

We charted individual pitches by hand, so I had that data from game to game, but from year to year, I didn’t really have that data, because a lot of times it was discarded.

I can’t remember a major league game where I could make eye contact with my dad. I kept wondering if he was going to yell at me for hanging a pitch or something.

Part of what makes you great as a young player can hurt you at the end of your career, in terms of you need a certain amount of ego, a certain amount of arrogance to be able to play well and to push yourself and trick yourself into thinking you’re better than you really are.