NEW YORK – To commemorate the 20th anniversary of David Cone’s perfect game, fans at Yankee Stadium will collect a Cone bobblehead – one that evokes the 27th out.

It’s Cone, at his knees, ready to throw his hands over his head as Scott Brosius catches the final out.

And it was something to see from the press box at the former Yankee Stadium, where I was fortunate to be on the afternoon of July 18, 1999, watching the Montreal Expos flail away at Cone’s slider.

This was the perfect matchup for Cone, who had that pitch working exceptionally on a hot day against a young, free-swinging lineup anchored by future Hall-of-Famer Vladimir Guerrero.

And a 33-minute rain delay, after the third inning, didn’t break up the momentum of Cone’s special day.

Cone threw only 88 pitches to complete the 16th perfect game in MLB history – accomplished seven more times since.

Later, Cone would reflect on that number 88. It was Yogi Berra Day, and No. 8 was Berra’s retired number.

And only in the Hollywood-made version of Cone’s perfect game would Don Larsen be there to throw out the first pitch.

But that’s exactly what happened that afternoon, with Larsen – author of the only perfect game in World Series history, in 1956 against the Brooklyn Dodgers – tossing to Berra, his catcher that day in the Bronx.

More:Jack Curry goes inside 'Full Count' with David Cone

Klapisch:Q-and-A with David Cone

Joe Girardi was Cone's catcher and would later be his protector, shielding him on the infield grass as his teammates swarmed him after that 27th out.

But before that ceremonial first pitch, Cone asked Larsen if he was going to re-enact his last out by jumping into Yogi’s arms.

“You got it wrong, kid. He jumped into my arms,’’ Cone has recalled several times.

By day’s end, Cone was posing for pictures with Larsen, who stayed and watched in a suite for all nine magical innings.

And that déjà vu all over again feeling – to borrow a phrase from Berra – was all around the Bronx.

We’d just been here a year earlier, when David Wells – who attended the same high school as Larsen – pitched his perfect game on May 17, 1998, against the Minnesota Twins.

There were a lot of turbulent times in pinstripes for Wells, and Cone was a friend as well as a teammate.

Some of the more hilarious scenes from Wells’ game are the camera shots of Cone, camouflaging himself on the bench with his warmup jacket up, cap down and sunglasses into the late innings.

After Wells was triumphantly carried off the field by his teammates, Cone pulled Wells back onto the field. He wanted Wells to look at the scoreboard, with all those zeroes.

He wanted Wells to absorb that: “Look what you’ve done.’’

Cone’s own reflective, private moments during his perfect game were captured in his recent book, “Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher,’’ authored the YES Network’s Jack Curry.

Before the ninth inning, Cone stared at his reflection in a clubhouse mirror and said to himself: “You’d better not blow this.’’

Cone knew how to attack the Expos; this was about the mental edge he needed to bring back to the mound, with 40,000 people screaming and – at age 36 – a moment of a lifetime at hand.

There's no cheering in the press box, of course. But anyone who'd covered Cone - gracious with his time and insight - and witnessed his ups and downs with the Mets and Yankees, had been riding along with every pitch as the afternoon lengthened.

"I hustled to the mound in the ninth,'' Cone wrote. "And believed, truly believed, I would get those three outs.''