The altitude can be dizzying when you build your home at the height of expectations.
Gerrit Cole spent 28 years working to own one of the most prestigious pieces of real estate in baseball: The ace of the New York Yankees. Here at the summit, though, loneliness pervades the luxury everyone else can see.
“I think it’s the hardest job in the league,” Cole says. “I don’t think there’s a harder place to be the ace. I think it’s the most hunted job in the league and I think it comes with the most weight. The division is a fucking (gauntlet). Above all else, I’m paid to keep us in the game as long as I can and take the ball every single fucking time that I can and charge straight into the fire.”
The home that greatness builds is one in isolation. Those who aspire to legacy spend their entire lives obsessed with the sensation of separating themselves from the pack. But when your position is unique, so is the experience. The demands are different. The interpretation of your performance is different.
“Once you sign a big contract like he did, higher expectations come with the territory,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “His body of work is obviously excellent, but at the end of the day, we are all in it to win the whole thing.”
This is the responsibility Cole chose. In December 2019, he signed a nine-year, $324 million free agent contract with the Yankees — the biggest overall deal ever given to a starting pitcher. In doing so, he announced to the world that he would accept the burden of high expectations in exchange for the privileges of money, status, and one of the most exciting jobs in the world.
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(Photo: Wendell Cruz / USA Today)
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