Houston • Gerrit Cole rattles off the names of the pitching greats with ease, featuring the same command he shows with his vaunted four-seam fastball.
Plus the guys he saw in person as a kid — Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling — when they dominated in October.
Now in the midst of perhaps the most remarkable run in baseball history, it’s his turn, starting Game 1 of the World Series.
“The people you keep referring to,” Cole said Monday, “got the job done. So I’m trying to deliver on that front.”
Because as we all know, heading into Tuesday night’s opener between his Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals, this is when reputations are built — or wrecked.