If there is one team in all of baseball that invokes the true pride and spirit of the game, it’s the Yankees. With twenty-four World Series championships, they have been a shining example of how to play baseball. Joe Torre put it best when he said, “There is baseball, and then there is Yankee baseball.” That feeling was evident today when I was invited to City Hall to watch Mayor Giuliani honor Yankees pitcher David Cone for pitching a perfect game against the Expos on Sunday.

As soon as I got the invitation for the event from the Mayor’s office, I immediately thought of my friend Doug. He is the world’s biggest Yankee fan. He loves to see his favorite team on TV, so when I had the opportunity to invite him to see them in person, the invitation may as well have said, “CALL DOUG!”

When we arrived at City Hall, there were balloons and posters aligning the spiral staircase leading up to the hearing room where the ceremony was to take place. The hearing room was perfectly decorated to create an atmosphere of pride in a team that truly defines baseball. A large Yankee banner covered up a portrait of one of our country’s most famous leaders. Everyone in attendance was given Yankee hats to wear during the ceremony. Songs like, Take Me Out To The Ball Game and We’re Talkin’ Baseball echoed through the room, and when the Yankees entered the room, the crowd erupted the same way the fans did when the last pitch of David Cone’s perfect game was thrown.

Just to show you the enormity of what David Cone did, let me share this little piece of baseball trivia with you; Since the invention of baseball, there have been over 300.000 games played – and of those 300,000, only sixteen of them were perfect games – and of those sixteen pitchers who did the impossible, three of them were Yankees.

When the crowd stopped cheering, the Mayor introduced David Cone and praised him for his incredible achievement. “During the game, he threw 88 pitches, 68 of which were strikes,” Mayor Giuliani said. “How fitting that Don Larson and Yogi Berra, the first two Yankees to pitch perfect games, were in attendance to watch David Cone and Joe Girardi do the same.” You could see that every time the Mayor praised Cone for his perfect game, he got more and more humble, and when it was time for him to speak, the first thing he did was give credit to Yankee Manager Joe Torre and Catcher Joe Girardi for the perfect game, saying that he could not have done it without them – once again showing, in true Yankee spirit, that there is no “I” in team.

When Cone was finished with his speech, the Mayor presented him with a key to the City and thanked him for a perfect game and his team for a great season – reminding them that City Hall Park will be done just in time for the World Series – can you say three-peat?

When the event was over, I was left with a feeling of pride – pride in being a New Yorker – and pride in being a Yankee fan. Here’s to David Cone for pitching a perfect game. You deserve your place in history with the rest of baseball’s greats.

See you at the World Series – go Yanks!!