Athlete Run-Ins: David Cone's Faded Memories

Pick a dingy bar in New York City, particularly around the East Village area, and you're darned near guaranteed to find a picture of David Cone somewhere in the bar, taken at the bar, with his arms around whoever happens to be within pint distance. The stories of his partying with the rank-and-file rival Al Leiter's. So we weren't surprised when the following athlete run-in story showed up in our mailbox, from Sean in New York.

A friend of mine in Milwaukee used to run a club in near the hotel where the visiting baseball teams would stay and got to know many of them as he was incredibly cool, took very good care of them and knew basically every hot woman in town. He opened up his own place across the street from the hotel a few years later which became the official party spot for almost every major league team. I helped him run the basement bar when I was home for the summer from college.

Of all the athletes that came through the place, David Cone was the best. He loved to hang behind the bar all night and play music, pour drinks and generally be "the guy." His big move would be to yell to me "Hey! Someone just bought us these shots!" (of course, nobody did, he just wanted me to do a shot with him). This would go on all night until I was vomiting in a garbage can.

About six years later, I was living in NYC and writing for a big magazine so I had access to some pretty good parties. One night at a club, a local hipster told me about an after-hours party at a brownstone in the Village. My friend and I showed up and quickly realized that it was the home of one of the Yankees and they were all there partying, house full of hot women, etc. Shane Spencer tells me that the bar is in the dining room, and I go make myself a drink. Someone else walks up next to me and start making a cocktail and I look over to see that it s Cone. He stops for a second and says "Milwaukee, right? D s bar?" I reply with "Good memory." Cone finishes making his drink and says "Those were good times..." turns and casually walks back into the party like Bruce Willis at the end of one of his shitty action flicks. I don t remember much after that.

Athlete Run-Ins: The Calm Bill Romanowski [Deadspin]