Inside Gerrit Cole’s final moments of control before the second act begins

Before making his long-awaited return on Friday, once warm-ups are over and the ball is being hit around the infield, New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole will walk behind the mound, put his elbows on his knees, crouch down, and remain there for a moment.

This solitary moment, surrounded by a packed Yankee Stadium, is as important to Cole as a fastball or a grand slam.

“You get in the ring,” he explained recently. The Athletic. “Up until that point, you were in control. Then, within about 15 seconds, the ball leaves your hands and you have no control over what happens.”

It remains to be seen what will happen after Cole makes his first pitch of the season Friday night against the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays. It’s arguably one of the biggest games of the year for the Yankees, who will be hoping he can continue on his Hall of Fame trajectory and help end their 17-year World Series championship drought.

But Cole will take a knee and take some time for himself before beginning the second act of an illustrious career that has been on hold for the past 15 months as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

It’s something he’s been doing for years, but Friday will feel a little different and mark a merciful end to exile for the baseball-obsessed Cole. Although he frequently tinkers with his setup, pitch grip, and throw, he made a major change during rehab to include an old-fashioned overhead motion during his windup, but crouching has long remained a mainstay of his routine.

Sometimes Cole crouches behind the mound to collect his thoughts. Sometimes he does it to block out 50,000 screaming fans or to focus on a matchup plan against a tough leadoff hitter. Sometimes I keep my eyes on the dirt, and sometimes I close my eyes. He also uses the breaks to steady his breathing.

But he knows every time that once he finally moves to the rubber and throws the first pitch, he’ll spend the rest of his energy doing what’s most important to him while on the mound: maintaining control.

Control his emotions. Control the pace of action. Controls everything he can influence in a volatile game.

“I’m just getting ready for it,” he said.

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Cole, 35, learned the importance of discipline on the mound as an 18-year-old freshman at UCLA. That’s when he met the late Dr. Ken Ravizza, a pioneer in sports psychology. He co-authored a popular book with Tom Hanson called “Heads-Up Baseball,” which basically taught baseball players how to beat themselves.

“Before you can control your performance, you need to control yourself,” the book says. “Top performance is not about being perfect, but about compensating and adjusting.”

Even at that young age, Cole looked like someone who would accomplish a lot in this match, with his big frame and smooth mechanics. And he earned honors such as a 153-80 record, two ERA titles, the 2023 Cy Young Award, and five other top-five finishes.

But Cole required a mental effort, UCLA head coach Jon Savage said in a phone interview this week.

“Physically,” Savage said, “he was on his way to stardom. I think what he really needed was the emotional part of things and the mental part of things. That was a big part of his development. Mental game, game management. How to deal with things throughout the week and throughout the game.”

Cole is still struggling in his six years with the Yankees since signing a nine-year, $324 million contract, which was a pitching record at the time. Often his body language instantly tells you how he’s feeling, whether he disagrees with the umpire or is angry at himself for a bad pitch.

But Cole knows the more he controls himself, the more he can control the outcome of his start. So when the intensity picks up, he’ll likely find a familiar face on the mound — another tip from Ravizza. He would rub the baseball a certain way. He cleans the cleats of the spikes behind the mound and tries to concentrate on the sounds they make as he does so.

“Every sport is different in what you can do, and most elite athletes will tell you the same thing: whether it’s activating your vision or activating your hearing, whatever it is, there’s some kind of feeling that pulls you back into your process,” Cole said.

“It never gets old,” Savage said. “It’s never going to run out. It’s never going to be inapplicable. It’s very, very real. I think Gerrit understands that. And he likes the preparation part of things and the feeling of being definitely in control.”

Cole cited the area around the Yankees’ clubhouse as an example. He noted how Aaron Judge grabbed the dirt in the batter’s box and threw as a way to throw away the moment after being disappointed with his previous pitch. He pointed out that Giancarlo Stanton dug his back foot into the box in the same spot every time and never moved it.

Orel Hershiser, a longtime starting pitcher and National League Cy Young Award winner, was thinking in stages on the mound. Walking around the lawn, Hershiser pondered the situation of the game. On the mound, he was thinking about pitches to throw. And when he reached the rubber, he thought about making that pitch.

Max Fried said The Athletic He said he likes to reset before most innings by going behind the mound, placing his glove between his knees, tucking in his jersey and taking one last deep breath. Then use the cleat to move over the dirt near the rubber and “wipe it clean.”

“There are ways to take back control and focus on what you can control,” Cole says.

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Maintaining control and focus is a priority for Cole elsewhere as well.

If you talk to him a little bit, you’ll see that he works harder than anyone I’ve ever met. He maintains eye contact. He listens actively, nodding and affirming.

When you watch him play catch, there is not a single wasted movement. He targets his partner every time. He wears it on his face when he misses the mark, even from a distance.

Last October, on a quiet morning after the Yankees were eliminated from the postseason, Cole walked to the Bronx for a bullpen session. Problem: It has started snowing. That didn’t matter to Cole. He threw a fastball into the snowflakes, and the sound of the catcher’s mitt echoed through the empty Yankee Stadium.

“If you’re only trying to focus when the s- is hitting the fan, there’s nothing to keep the fan fixed other than doing the s- (flirty waving) when the s- is hitting the fan. That’s not very productive,” he said.

Cole said the key to getting through difficult moments in baseball and life is the ability to focus regardless of the situation. —““When things are going well” or “When things aren’t going well, when no one is looking, or when things seem monotonous.”

“That creates continuity in all your work, and it puts you back in the moment and regulates you when the bases are loaded and you have to get out of that situation,” he said.

Cole is looking forward to his first chance to take a major league mound on Friday night, the first time in 569 days since the disappointing Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.

“It was pretty nostalgic,” he said Tuesday. “I’m confident. I’m optimistic, but there’s definitely work ahead of me. It’s the right time to take the next step.”

But before Cole takes that step, he’ll straddle himself behind the mound, crouch down again, and enjoy one last fleeting moment of control before the glorious battle to get it back begins.