VIDEO: Gerrit Cole Reveals Famous Childhood Sign at Emotional Yankees Press Conference

As soon as news broke that former Houston Astros starter Gerrit Cole was going to sign a nine-year, $324 million contract with the New York Yankees, pictures of an 11-year-old Cole at the 2001 World Series holding up a sign that read "Yankee Fan Today, Tomorrow, Forever" flooded social media. Against all odds, Cole managed to hold on to that sign after all these years, and unveiled the faded, weather-beaten poster at his introductory press conference with the Yankees.

Even during his days with the Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates, Cole remained a Yankees fan through and through, as evidenced by the fact he kept this sign for almost 20 years.

Of course, there are going to be sign truthers claiming this is a recreation, but in that case, why would they make it a blatantly different color? Per Cole himself, it was his father who dug it out from the closet during their recent celebratory dinner.

It will take more than sentiment to win over the hearts of Yankee fans once the season starts, but Cole has done an exceptional job of immediately ingratiating himself into the Yankee community.

Cole is living his childhood dream, and he's getting paid $36 million per year over the next nine seasons to do so. Talk about batting 1.000 in life.