Review: David Cone YES Announcing

May 7, 2008

By DailySkew

I listened to David Cone (first time I heard him call a 3-hour game) and Michael Kay last night on the YESNetwork via MLB.TV.

I also checked the official Yankees YES message boards to see how other fans felt.

Here are some general observations from that message board:

1) He talks too much.
2) And too fast.
3) And is a bit critical.
4) Repeats himself a lot to prove a point (lecture).
5) He’s rough around the edges, but should improve with more games under his belt.

Here are my pros and cons:

PROS:
He is well prepared.
He said more words than Michael Kay (the only YES announcer to accomplish that.)
He is a walking encyclopedia-he knows all the pitching mechanics, and history of each player, and can’t be stumped by Kay.
Very enthusiastic about the Yankees, and the competition about a baseball game.
He dropped two inside stories:

After he gave up his first career homerun (a grand slam against Barry Bonds), he took it real hard- like Joba- but his Mets teammates harassed him and were hard on him not to take it so bad…and were in his face for allowing a HR to Bonds, who was just starting out with Pittsburgh. He said players policed themselves back in that era to make rookies tough.
Derek Jeter had made an error while former Yankees pitcher (and DailySkew hater) David Wells was on the mound. Wells kept glaring at Jeter because Wells was frustrated. He lost his temper and focus due to the error. Jeter held his ground, and won their little fight. Jeter earned the respect of his teammates for standing up to Wells’ immature behavior, and became Captain shortly thereafter.

CONS:
His speaks very fast, and he’s monotonous, believe it or not.
He repeats his lectures.

Conclusions
Just having Cone (Enneagram: 7) and Kay (Enneagram: 5) in the booth was kind of tough, as there was way too many questions from Kay, which were answered in great detail and length by Coney. Cone is so serious, that I wish someone else was with them to lighten the mood a bit. Cone knows his stuff, I didn’t disagree with anything he said, I respect his opinions, but I just wish he was a bit more entertaining, which is very ironic, since he was one of the most entertaining and unique pitchers.

At this point, Al Leiter is probably better since he has more experience being an analyst. Like Tom Seaver, who used to call WPIX games with Phil Rizzuto and Bobby Murcer, Cone and Leiter are a bit too technical at times when describing pitch selection, and pitching mechanics (educational, yet boring).

I have faith Cone will improve with time, as he works with the other YES broadcasters- working in the booth alone with Kay is bad chemistry.