David Cone to undergo hip surgery during All-Star break
YES broadcaster David Cone, a former pitcher with the Yankees and Mets among other teams, on-air for a pre-game report as the Yankees played the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Derek Jeter's last day in baseball on Sept. 28, 2014. Credit: Newsday/Mark La Monica
An arthritic left hip caused David Cone to retire from his second stint with the Mets in 2003. At the time, the then 40-year-old said he was hoping to avoid hip replacement surgery.
Nineteen years later, Cone is finally having that hip replaced. But ever the gamer, Cone scheduled it so he would miss the least possible time in his two broadcasting gigs.
“I’m getting hip replacement surgery during the All-Star break,” the 59-year-old YES Network and ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” analyst told Newsday on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
The All-Star Game is scheduled for July 19 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Cone said he plans to return to the booths two weeks after the surgery.
Cone walked haltingly around Yankee Stadium on Tuesday before calling the Yankees’ 2-0 victory over Tampa Bay. That was about 48 hours after he was part of ESPN’s Sunday night broadcasting crew for the Mets-Angels game in Anaheim, California.
Cone, who is in his first season with “Sunday Night Baseball,” pitched for the Mets from 1987 to 1992 and then again during a five-game comeback in 2003.
Cone also pitched for the Yankees from 1995 to 2000 and has been a YES commentator since 2011 after two earlier stints with the network (including one in 2002 during his first retirement from pitching).
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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