147 pitches

From Wiki Gonzalez

Buck Showalter is a moron. I understand it was Doug Strange, and there were 2 outs, but 147 pitches! David Cone was so tired he didn't even want to throw a fastball to Doug F. Strange? Doug Strange was about the 11th most fearsome bat on that Mariners team.

And don't even get me started on Jack McDowell.

A small consolation to Yankee fans (in addition to, you know, the huge consolation of winning four of the next five World Championships) might be the agony that Cone himself endured after that splitter to Doug Strange. Here, in his own words:

"It took me forever to get over that. I couldn't sleep. I almost didn't go out of my house for a couple of weeks after. I'd thrown a hundred and forty-six pitches in the game up to that point, and I had nothing left, but I was still sure that was the right call. I just didn't execute. Maybe I'm stubborn, but I have this conviction that I should be able to deliver any pitch in any situation. I'll never forget that flight home. My catcher, Mike Stanley, kept telling me it was his fault for calling the pitch, but I wouldn't let him get away with it. Buck Showalter, the manager, must have known that he was finished with the Yankees after the loss, and Donnie Mattingly is somewhere else in the plane, going home for good and knowing that he's never going to play in a World Series. I'd let them all down."

As Mariano Rivera sat in the bullpen, no less. -WJ

References:

• Seattle Mariners 6, New York Yankees 5 (http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B10080SEA1995.htm) (Retrosheet box score)

• A description of the game (http://thisdaybaseball.blogspot.com/2005/01/january-2nd-1963-edgar-martinez-and.html)