SECTION: SPORTS, Pg. A35

LENGTH: 388 words

HEADLINE: Cone, Coy About Playing, Joins the Crowd

BYLINE: Bob Herzog

BODY:
Standing patiently in the first row above the portal between Sections 37 and 39 in the Yankee Stadium rightfield bleachers Friday, David Cone spent all of the pregame ceremony and most of the first inning signing everything thrust in his face. Yankees jerseys, hats, programs, scorecards, ticket stubs, baseball gloves.

A contract? "I'm a fan right now," he said with a grin. "Next week? Who knows?" Dressed in a well-worn brown leather jacket, blue jeans, a brown turtleneck and a black cap that said Ben Hogan in white script letters, the currently unemployed pitcher tried in vain to blend in.

Dozens of fans mobbed him, asking for autographs, thanking him for his contributions during his six seasons with the Yankees and urging him to pitch again.

"It's a lot less stressful now," Cone said, though he looked trim and only winked and smiled when asked if he would pitch again. "It's a blast out here. It's an honor to be with these fans. I always heard them from the dugout and now it's great to be with them, to interact with the true fans. The true ones have been here for years. This is where they want to sit."

It's also where Cone wanted to be, for the first game he ever attended as a spectator at the Stadium. "To me, the only place to be is the bleachers," Cone said. Asked how he managed to wrangle a seat in a section that has become the "in" place for serious Yankees fans, Cone flashed another smile and said: "I spent a lot of years in this town. I've got connections, you know. I set the whole thing up myself."

Cone played his role as celebrity fan to the hilt. Just before the Bleacher Creatures started their first-inning roll call, he signaled for quiet and bellowed, "Yo, Bernie," to the centerfielder, who could not hear his former teammate. After the regulars were saluted by the fans, they added an impromptu "Da-vid Cone! Da-vid Cone!" chant. Cone looked embarrassed and kept saying, "No, no."

But his mischievous side was evident as he joined in the familiar chant, "Box seats --!" that the Bleacher Creatures shout across the old Yankees bullpen to the fans in the lower seats in rightfield. Those fans countered, as always, with, "We've got beer!"

But the Creatures had the last word. Their retort from the Stadium's dry section:"We've got Coney!"





LOAD-DATE: April 6, 2002