Who’s on First? It Wasn’t Mets’ Cone : Pitcher Turns His Back on Reality and 2 Runs Score

David Cone of the New York Mets was so upset he didn’t even recognize his own teammate.

“Mike Marshall almost ripped my arm out of the socket trying to take the ball away from me,” Cone said in describing his Monday blunder that allowed two Atlanta runners to score as he argued a safe call with the first base umpire in a 7-4 loss.

Marshall? It was second baseman Greg Jefferies that the Mets’ pitcher was talking about.

“Well, I thought it was Marshall, which shows you how disoriented and out of focus I was,” Cone said.

The Braves, leading 2-1 at the time, suddenly found themselves with a 4-1 lead and wound up ending a six-game losing streak to the Mets dating to last July 16.

“He gets hyper,” Mets manager Davey Johnson said of Cone. “Sometimes to a fault.”

Make that a double fault. With Dale Murphy on second and Ernie Whitt on first with two outs in the fourth, Mark Lemke hit a grounder between Jefferies and first baseman Marshall. Jefferies fielded the ball and threw to Cone, who was covering first.

First base umpire Charlie Williams ruled that Cone failed to touch the bag, drawing an immediate argument from the pitcher. In his rage, Cone forgot to ask for time and, with his back to the infield, he allowed Murphy and Whitt to score as teammates shouted at the pitcher to get rid of the ball.

“Emotionally, I snapped and lost control,” Cone said. “I knew I was right about the call and I kept arguing with him and became unfocused.

“But I did have it in my mind that time had been called before they allowed the two extra runs to score. I went into a mental funk or mental block.”

Cone said he touched the side of the base with his foot.

“My complaint is that he was in no position to see the play from where he was,” Cone said. “I question his position only. It cost us two runs.”

Although Johnson agreed that Williams blew the call, he didn’t exonerate Cone.

“That’s no excuse,” Johnson said. “It happened the way it happened and, right or wrong, he should have recognized that’s the way it was and got back after them. He shouldn’t have blown his stack and lose track of what was going on, not knowing time was not called. I’ll probably have to hit him in the head with a sledge hammer to get him to concentrate.”

“I’ve been fighting myself,” Cone said. “I had good movement and control of my pitches, but Davey was right. I had lost control. I take full responsibility for what happened. For about two minutes, I was totally in my own world. I mentally was not there.”

“Right now I’m as low as I can go,” he said. “I’ve hit rock bottom. I’m pretty deep into it.”