David Cone of the New York Yankees pitched a perfect game against the Montreal Expos by retiring all 27 batters he faced on Sunday, July 18, 1999. This event took place at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx in front of 41,930 fans in attendance. The game took 2:16 from 1:35 PM ET to 4:24 PM ET. The game was interrupted by a 33 minute rain delay in the bottom of the third inning in the middle of an at-bat for Tino Martinez.
It was the 16th perfect game and 247th no-hitter in MLB history, 3rd perfect game and 11th no-hitter and last to date in Yankees history. The last perfect game in MLB history was 14th months prior on May 17, 1998 when David Wells of the New York Yankees pitched a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium. Wells' perfect game was also the previous no hitter in franchise history. Cone's perfecto also gave the Yankees the record for the franchise with most perfect games. At the time the Cleveland Indians were the only team to have 2 perfect games. Since Cone's perfecto, the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics and Philadelphia Phillies recorded perfect games to give their franchises 2 perfect games.
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David Cone was a 3rd round pick in the 1981 Major League Baseball Draft by the Kansas City Royals. Cone made his major league debut on June 8, 1986. He pitched the 9th inning in a 5-2 loss against the Minnesota Twins. He allowed one earned run and three hits. He was traded to the New York Mets prior to the start of the 1987 season. The Mets made him a starter and made his first career start on April 27th against the Houston Astros. He pitched 5 innings, giving up 10 hits, 7 earned runs and striking out 3. Cone would pitch for the Mets until 1992. He was traded at the deadline to the Toronto Blue Jays and helped them to their first World Series. Cone would return to the Royals for the 1993 and 1994 seasons. He was traded for a second time to the Blue Jays prior to the 1995 season. At the 1995 trade deadline he was dealt to the Yankees. Prior to his perfecto he helped the Yankees to the postseason 4 straight years, winning 2 world series and was a 20 game winner in 1998.
Before the game began, Don Larsen, who himself had thrown a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Yogi Berra, who caught that game.[1] It was Yogi Berra Day at the stadium, as he had recently reconciled with owner George Steinbrenner.[2] To date, it is the only perfect game achieved in regular season interleague play.[3]
David Cone never worked a count more than 2-0. A 33-minute rain delay interrupted the game in the third inning.[4] The Yankees scored the bulk of their runs in the 2nd inning. Chili Davis walked, then Ricky Ledee proceeded to hit a homerun into the upper right field deck. Scott Brosius was hit by a pitch, then was knocked in on a double by Joe Girardi. Girardi was tagged out for trying to stretch the hit into a triple and was caught between 2nd and 3rd. Chuck Knoblauch worked a walk and then Derek Jeter hit a homerun to make it 5-0. In the eighth inning, O'Neill led off with a double to right and was scored on a single to center by Bernie Williams. In the third inning, Paul O'Neill saved the game with a diving catch in right field. In the eighth inning, Knobluach made another game saving play when Jose Vidro hit a ball hard between first and second. He had rapid range to his left and preserved the perfect game.
A summer afternoon game at Yankee Stadium always brings harsh visibilty conditions due to the sun. The latter innings of the game would always test the defense for both teams. Cone struck out Chris Widger swinging to start the inning. Ryan McGuire pinch hit for Shane Andrews and hit a soft fly ball to left field for Ricky Ledee. Ledee struggled to meet the ball due to blinding sunlight but made the play and would claim afterward he wasn't sure how he did so. The last batter, Orlando Cabrera, popped up to third baseman Scott Brosius in foul territory to end the game.[4] Immediately afterwards, David fell on his knees and into the arms of catcher Joe Girardi. This has become one of the most enduring images in baseball history.
July 18, Yankee Stadium, New York, New York
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montreal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New York | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | x | 6 | 8 | 0 |
| W: David Cone L: Javier Vazquez | ||||||||||||
| HRs: Ledee (3), Jeter (16) | ||||||||||||
| Attendance: 41,930 Time:2:16 Umpires: HP: Ted Barrett, 1B: Larry McCoy, 2B: Jim Evans, 3B: Chuck Meriwether | ||||||||||||
| Montreal Expos | AB | R | H | RBI | New York Yankees | AB | R | H | RBI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilton Guerrero, dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Chuck Knoblauch, 2b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Terry Jones, cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Derek Jeter, ss | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| James Mouton, cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Paul O'Neill | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Rondell White, lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Bernie Williams, cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Vladimir Guerrero, rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Tino Martinez, 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Jose Vidro, 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Chili Davis, dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Brad Fullmer, 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ricky Ledee, lf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Chris Widger, c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Scott Brosius, 3b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Shane Andrews, 3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Joe Girardi, c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ryan McGuire, ph | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | David Cone, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Orlando Cabrera, ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NONE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Javier Vazquez, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NONE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bobby Ayala, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NONE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Totals | 30 | 6 | 8 | 6 |
| Montreal Expos | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | New York Yankees | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Javier Vazquez | 7.2 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 3 | David Cone | 9.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Bobby Ayala | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NONE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 8.0 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 3 | Totals | 9.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
David Cone had nearly the same Yankee lineup behind him for his perfect game as David Wells did. The only exceptions were that Cone had Ledee as his left fielder and Davis as his designated hitter, while Wells was backed by Chad Curtis and Darryl Strawberry respectively. In addition Jorge Posada who was on the bench for Cone's perfect game was David Wells' battery mate in 1998.
After his perfect game, Cone seemed to decline rapidly. He never threw another shutout in his career. In 2000, he posted a career-worst 4-14 record[5] with a 6.91 ERA. In the 2000 World Series, he faced one batter, Mike Piazza in Game 4, to whom he induced a pop-up to end the fifth inning.[6]
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