The moment you realize your life will never be the same again

Gerrit Cole agreed to a mammoth $324 million, nine-year contract with the Yankees last week. It's the most expensive deal for any pitcher in baseball history.

That's a lot of pressure, nine years of pressure, in a city where radio hosts known as da sports pope will go on nine-minute rants about baseball teams, on a team where fans will react like this any and every single day of the week, in a media atmosphere that never, ever lets up.

And on Monday night, right after arriving in New York City, this -- every single part of this -- seemed to hit Cole all at once.

It may have hit the man behind him even harder.

Can Gerrit ever walk to a bodega to get a bagel? Can he turn on the TV or radio without hearing his name? Can he stroll through Central Park, admiring the fall foliage while skipping rocks into the 86th Street reservoir and whistling his favorite George Gershwin tune?

No, probably not.

And you probably shouldn't throw rocks into a reservoir. Isn't that illegal? Will the drinking water taste like rocks? How do reservoirs actually work?

But after the initial reaction, Cole seemed to keep his cool and embrace the fans who came out to see their new pinstriped hero. He probably just remembered that he's, you know, the best pitcher on planet earth and none of this really matters.