David Cone

Motivation can come from unusual sources, but Wednesday night the Dodgers needed to look no farther than their clubhouse walls, which were decorated with the published prose of New York Mets pitcher and budding sportswriter David Cone.

Now there's no doubt: David Cone is all the way back. "This might've been the best I've ever thrown in terms of being ahead and throwing all my pitches for strikes," Cone said after striking out 16 in eight innings Monday night to lead the New York Yankees to a 5-2 victory over the Tigers at Detroit. Cone, who has lost only once in 13 starts since April 16, had his most strikeouts in six years.

David Cone will be unemployed in a week or two. Anybody need a pitcher? Anybody need somebody who can hold the Oakland Athletics to five hits over eight innings? That is what Cone did Thursday night in Game 2 of the American League playoffs, won by Toronto, 3-1. That also is what Cone did in Game 6 of the 1988 National League playoffs, pitching a complete game and stopping the Dodgers on five hits. "I would put (this game) right up there with that game," Cone said.

A year from his perfect game, New York Yankee pitcher David Cone showed again Monday night how far he has fallen in that time. Cone gave up a two-run homer to Mike Lieberthal and a three-run shot to Pat Burrell in losing for the sixth consecutive time, 10-8, to Philadelphia. "Clearly I'm down. Clearly I'm frustrated," said Cone (1-8), who last won on April 28. "But I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to end things this way. This has to end.

Yankee pitcher David Cone has never had a cancer diagnosis, but he has a good idea of what teammate Darryl Strawberry is going through this week. Cone's career was jeopardized in 1996 when doctors discovered an aneurysm in his right arm, and the right-hander missed four months of the season because of surgery. Like Strawberry, Cone underwent numerous medical tests, and he eventually underwent surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.

The summit at Shea Stadium took place in a corridor outside the Dodger clubhouse early Friday night. It was not the most private of spots, but then, this had not been a private feud. David Cone, the New York Mets pitcher and erstwhile newspaper columnist whose derogatory statements about Dodger pitchers Orel Hershiser and Jay Howell after Game 1 of the National League championship series caused such a fuss, approached Howell to apologize for what he had written.

Tim Belcher calmly removed a bat from the rack in the corner of the Dodger dugout, slammed it against the dugout steps, then flung it under the bench. At that moment in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the National League's championship series Wednesday night, Belcher wasn't thinking about the David Cone column that had so enraged and ignited the Dodgers. He was only angry, frustrated and disappointed with himself.

In the battle of athletes-turned-authors, David Cone took a conciliatory stance in his as-told-to column in Thursday's New York Daily News, but Wally Backman, collaborating on a similar column in the New York Post, might have picked up the slack, providing the Dodgers with some more motivational fodder. The headline on Backman's column read: "We've got 'em where we want 'em--at Shea."

David Cone was back letting his actions speak louder than his words Saturday. Cone, 20-3 as a member of the New York Mets rotation this season, came out of the bullpen to pitch a perfect ninth inning in the Mets' 8-4 victory over the Dodgers in Game 3 of the National League championship series. Cone was chased after 2 innings of Game 2, when the Dodgers were aroused by what they perceived to be Cone's belittling remarks in his New York Daily News column, which he has since given up.