Pete Hamill would tell this story a lot: he was at P.J. Clarke’s one late night, around 1970 or so, and the discussion at the table was who the better writer was: Hemingway or Fitzgerald. Frank Sinatra voted for Fitzgerald, citing “The Great Gatsby”: “Hemingway couldn’t do that.”
Jimmy Cannon, who’d spent years as a sports columnist at The Post, argued for Hemingway: “He could do a lot of other things. And Fitzgerald could only do that one thing.”
The men looked to Hamill to arbitrate the case. And Hamill repeated something that Dizzy Gillespie, the great old jazz trumpeter and bandleader, told him once.
“The professional,” Gillespie had said, “is the guy who can do it twice.”
Nestor Cortes wants to prove he can do it twice, at the very least. In 2022, he was one of the great stories in Major League Baseball. He went 12-4 in 28 starts. He pitched to a 2.44 ERA and a 0.922 WHIP. He finished eighth in Cy Young balloting. He pitched well in two ALDS starts against Cleveland, winning Game 5, before a balky groin cut his ALCS short after two innings. He was brilliant, start to finish.
He’d hinted at this a year earlier in 14 starts, but ’22 established Cortes as a genuine major leaguer — and an All-Star. But there are always questions, especially for a well-traveled journeyman like Cortes, blossoming for the first time at age 27. Can he do it again?
One game into the new season, it feels like he’s on his way.
“He’s been such a good pitcher here,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees were done demolishing the Phillies, 8-1, Monday night at Yankee Stadium. “He’s been given nothing, he’s had to scratch and crawl his way though the minor leagues and take advantage of his opportunities up here.
“He’s obviously done that since he entered the rotation,” Boone said. “He’s taken it and run with it.”
Monday morning Cortes learned that he’d been named the Latino MVP for AL starting pitchers in 2022. Monday night he threw five innings against Philly — longest outing of an injury-shortened spring — and allowed one run and seven hits, pumping his four-seamer for strikes and grinding through a bunch of long at-bats.
He also contributed the first genuine defensive gem of the year for the Yankees. In the fifth, nursing a 3-1 lead, with two outs and Brandon Marsh on second, Cortes threw his 80th and last pitch of the night which Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto laced to right. Franchy Cordero came up throwing but airmailed catcher Jose Trevino.
Marsh, held late while rounding third, froze seeing the bad throw. Cortes, backing up the play, caught it, whipped a throw to third, and DJ LeMahieu slapped a quick tag. It was quite a mic drop for the evening.
“He’s really athletic,” Anthony Rizzo said, smiling, resisting the temptation to add: “For a pitcher.” Though he did say: “You don’t see a lot of pitchers make that play.”
“I knew I had to be back there just in case,” Cortes said. “Luckily, I was.”
Cortes also covered first base flawlessly, a good sign given his troublesome hamstring.
Cortes is a solid defensive player so none of that is surprising. Still, he is being counted on for his arm. That’s his moneymaker, and that’s what the Yankees are banking on. More than just about any pitcher in MLB, Cortes ought to be unaffected by the new rules because he was already one of the quickest workers in the sports: get the ball, throw the ball.
Monday, he threw the ball a lot like he did last year.
“They were fouling off lots of good pitches, making me throw the ball over the plate,” Cortes said. “They kept putting the bat on the ball.”
Said Boone: “Stuff-wise, he was very good.”
Stuff-wise, he was vintage 2022, he was Nasty Nestor, building on one of the genuine feel-good stories in baseball. Proving he’s more Dizzy Gillespie than Dexys Midnight Runners. No one-hit wonder.
