Two hundred and thirty four career victories, and I hope he learns the knuckle-ball and pitches until he's well past fifty years. I'd love to see him get three hundred wins, but it won't happen. He could still make the HOF, you never know.
He turned in yet another first rate season in 2016, and now he's off to yet another new team, this time it is the Braves in Atlanta. Bart Colon is the last remaining player who once played for the Montreal Expos. He's the last of the Mohicans.
Bartolo Colon
You
have to admire Bartolo Colon. How could you not? He is now 42 years
old, and still a starting pitcher in the Major Leagues. Yes, this has
been done before, but not often. Bartolo isn't done yet. Who knows how
long he may be able to go on? Personally, I hope he learns the
knuckleball, or something, and pitches into his 50's.
Longevity
is something I admire in a person. 42 isn't old for a human, but it is
for a professional baseball player. Especially, it is old for a pitcher.
But Colon has adapted over the years. He'll be the first to tell you.
At one point, years ago, Bartolo Colon was known as the guy who threw
the most pitches in the upper 90 mile per hour and 100 mile per hour
range of all pitchers in the Major Leagues. He did that for a season or
three, but Bartolo was just a thrower of a pitcher then. Nowadays, he
barely breaks 90 miles per hour at all.
Bartolo Colon is one very successful human being
You
can measure a person's success in many different ways. But if you
measure it by looking at where someone came from, and where they got to,
then Bartolo Colon's success is tremendous. He grew up very poor in the
Dominican Republic. When you are as poor as the Colon family was, you
probably don't realize how poor you are, as your whole community is just
as poor. Bartolo grew up working 12 hour days picking beans and fruit.
As did the rest of his family, and many another community member too.
But
look where Bartolo has gone from there. He's a millionaire many times
over now. He's a United States citizen, and at 42 years of age, is maybe
a better pitcher than ever before. He certainly provides a role model
for a New York Mets pitching staff, and Colon is the one man there who's
ever experienced the kind of transitions he has. Those flame throwers
on the Mets staff, Syndergaard and DeGrom, they're going to get older
too someday. I bet they'll never forget the time they've spent with
Bartolo Colon. What a great role model Colon must be for young pitchers!
Young Bartolo Colon with the Cleveland Indians
Bartolo Colon with the Cleveland Indians
Colon's
career began with the Cleveland Indians organization. He was signed by
them in 1993 and sent to A ball, where he did quite well, and won 13
games. This earned him a promotion. By 1997 he had made it to the
Indians AAA ball club, and he threw a no-hitter for their AAA team at
Coca-Cola Field. Before the 97' season was done Colon would be in the
Major Leagues.
Though his numbers
were far from good in his initial half season with Cleveland, he would
certainly improve. One oddity is Colon has the MLB record for pitches
thrown in a single at-bat. In a 1998 game he threw 20 pitches to a
batter before finally striking out the tenacious man.
The
Cleveland Indians were quite good in 1998, and they made it to the
post-season. Colon got a start in the ALCS, and threw a winning complete
game, allowing just one run. Colon was a legitimate starting pitcher
workhorse in 1998. He went 14-9, with a 3.71 ERA. He threw 204 innings
too.
1999 was a breakout season
for Colon. He won a lot of games that year, going 18-5 for a .783
winning percentage. He pitched over 200 innings for a second consecutive
year, and he only allowed 185 hits in his 205 innings pitched.
In
these early years Bartolo Colon was one of the hardest throwing
starting pitchers in all of Major League Baseball. His average fastball
speed was the fastest in the Big Leagues at least one season. He was
officially documented at 100 miles per hour a few times in 1999, and
afterwards too. But Colon would tell you he was just a thrower then. He
could barely throw any pitch other than a fastball. He was doing better
than you would expect for someone who's every pitch was in the same
range of velocity.
Colon's best
seasons as a power pitcher, i.e., someone who strikes out a lot of
batters, came with the Cleveland Indians in 2000 and 2001. Both seasons
he struck out over 200 batters. Bartolo was a winning pitcher for
Cleveland, and outside of his first half season, always posted a winning
record. He had a terrific won/loss record in 2002 for Cleveland, but
was traded to the Montreal Expos.
Bartolo Colon with the Montreal Expos
Source
Colon splits 2002 between Cleveland and Montreal, and he wins 20 games in total
Another
interesting fact about Bartolo Colon is he is the last player in Major
League Baseball to have been a member of the Montreal Expos. The team,
of course, does not exist any longer, but long lived pitcher Colon
pitches on. Bartolo Colon is a very positive sort of person. In
interviews, he has only positive things to say. Perhaps this trait
contributes to longevity in athletics? I would suspect so. Colon says he
loved playing in Montreal.
He had
a terrific year the year he spent divided between Cleveland and
Montreal. He went 20 wins and 8 losses, winning ten games in Cleveland,
and ten for the former Canadian team. He had also progressed into a guy
who a team could rely on to pitch a lot of innings. He had thrown 222
innings his last full season in Cleveland, and the year he split between
Cleveland and Montreal, he threw 233 total innings.
2003 with the Chicago White Sox
Colon
would spend 2003 with the White Sox of Chicago. He had another winning
season. He went 15 wins and 13 losses. Which may not seem so wonderful,
but baseball is a team sport. Bartolo had a very respectable earned run
average of 3.87. He also pitched a lot of innings, posting a career best
total of 242 innings pitched, and 9 complete games.
Bartolo Colon with the Angels
Bartolo Colon with the Angels
Bartolo
Colon is a well traveled pitcher. With the Anaheim or Los Angeles
(depending on which year you look at it, the team didn't move anywhere,
they just changed where they designated the team to be located, even
though the location didn't change. Make sense? Of course it doesn't.)
Colon would reach the highest and maybe, the lowest points of his long
career.
I have no explanation for
why teams traded Colon so frequently. It always seemed to work in his
favor, and not theirs. But Bartolo is a happy and positive sort of man,
and so, who can hurt him? If it is permitted for me to hazard a guess, I
would guess his large size makes him appear to be less athletic than he
actually is. Call it body bias or something. Colon is a very large man.
He is listed as weighing in, now, at 285. I suspect the weight is more
or less correct. But Bartolo was always large. Of course he was smaller
when he was much younger. He is also only five feet and eleven inches
tall. So he does not have what you would call the ideal body for
pitching. But then again, Bartolo is still pitching today, and will soon
be 43 years old. So maybe MLB scouts should start taking notice that
not every great pitcher needs be built like Justin Verlander.
In
2004 Colon had yet another winning season. He's over his career rather
reliable for putting out a winning record. He won 18 games and lost 12.
This is good for a .600 winning percentage, and when you have that sort
of number as a winning percentage, you will certainly find employment in
Major League Baseball. The thing was, Bartolo's ERA in 2004 was a
rather horrible 5.01. So in that regard, he had a poor season. But again
he pitched over 200 innings.
2005
was the season where Bartolo joined the greats in that he won a Cy
Young award. He seemed to have everything together that year, and he won
21 games, losing 8. His earned run average in 05' was a much more
typical, for him, 3.48. He again pitched over 200 innings, and the total
was 222.2. His .724 winning percentage was superlative. As the years
had wore on, Colon was much less of a strikeout pitcher, and much more
of a control pitcher. He still and always has thrown fastballs at least
90% of the time. Some 4 seem fastballs, some 2 seem sinking fastballs.
He does have a change of pace and a slider, but those are seldom used.
In
the 2005 post-season Colon partially tore his rotator cuff. So his 2006
season was largely spent on the disabled list, and when he did get to
pitch, he wasn't himself. He had a losing record in 2006. This was not a
healthy Bartolo Colon. The man affectionately called either Big Bart or Big Sexy,
was hurting for the first time in his career. Bartolo would have a
better year in 2007 with the Angels, but he again spent a lot of time on
the DL, and he posted another losing record.
Big Sexy with the Boston Red Sox
Big Bart and the Boston Red Sox
The
Angels gave up on Bartolo Colon, even after he showed them the best he
had to offer. A torn rotator cuff is no small matter for an aging
pitcher. So in defense of the Angels management, there was reason to
believe Colon could not recover.
Perhaps
people giving up on him added fuel to his fire? All great athletes love
to compete, and Colon came from a poor background in the Dominican
Republic, and so how could he ever stop working as hard as he could to
play a game as wonderful as baseball, and in the Major Leagues where he
made so much money?
The Red Sox of
Boston gave Colon a minor league deal. They wanted to see if he still
had gas left in his tank, and he showed them he certainly did. He threw a
one-hitter for the Red Sox AAA team in Pawtucket. So he was soon on the
Big League team. Sometimes a man has to put family matters above all
else, as is right, as he should. Bartolo ended his career with the Red
Sox by leaving for the Dominican Republic while the season was still on.
He had personal matters to attend to. His choice should be respected.
Bartolo Colon had his second sting with the Chicago White Sox in 2009
2009 with the Chicago White Sox
When
you think of pitchers in any league of baseball. You need to realize
the human body wasn't designed over the millions of years to throw
baseballs over, and over, and over again. It is an un-natural sort of
thing for a Homo sapien to be spending his time doing. But such is the
nature of many sports and many other activities humans are involved in
in this ever increasingly complex world we share.
All
that to say Colon, as he advanced in years, had more and more problems
with his arm and shoulder. In 2009 the White Sox gave him one million
dollars to compete for a spot in their starting rotation. Colon had a
very nice winning percentage in his career, and a strong work ethic, and
stronger desire to play, so the million bucks was a reasonable risk for
such a workhorse starting pitcher as Big Bart. He'd had surgery in the
off-season to remove bone chips from his pitching elbow. He made the
team as the 5th starter in the rotation, but his season didn't go so
well as he and the Sox may have liked.
Big Bart goes to New York City, and pitches for the Yankees
Bartolo Colon with the New York Yankees
As
so often happens, a player who's been a winner over the course of his
career, winds up in New York, playing for the Yankees. Gotham's finest.
You love them, or maybe you hate them. That's just how it goes with the
Yankees.
The Empire State wasn't
where Bartolo spent 2010 in uniform. He didn't play in 2010. He spent
the entire season recovering from injuries. But he still burned to play
baseball. Such is to be admired. Colon could have surely retired
comfortably at any time, but he loved the game. Big Sexy loves baseball.
This is how you have a long career, a successful career, and at
anything. You keep pursuing it because you love it. Colon would pitch
for the Yankees in 2011. He had a controversial stem cell implant. His
controversial surgery was scrutinized by MLB brass. Why? The surgery he
had usually involved human growth hormone. But the surgeon didn't use it
with Bart.
He attempted a
comeback. With the Yankees. The biggest team in the Big Leagues. The
brightest of all bright lights. Supposedly, Big Sexy showed up to spring
training 30 pounds overweight. How can you be 30 pounds overweight when
you are always at least 30 pounds overweight? Maybe he was 60 pounds
overweight. Doesn't matter, he made the team. No, he would not yet
return to winning form. He had some very bright moments, moments where
he proved he could still compete. He finished the season with 8 wins and
10 losses and a respectable earned run average of around 4 runs per 9
innings.
Bartolo Colon with the Oakland Athletics
Bartolo Colon, throwing strikes with the Oakland Athletics
The
Oakland Athletics gave Colon 2 million bucks to play for them in 2012.
As the game of baseball has progressed, it has advanced in statistical
analysis in ways the players of old may have struggled to comprehend.
Everything is tracked, everything is measured. What is and isn't
valuable, truly valuable in terms of success for a player and for a
team, these things have been reckoned anew. Colon threw 38 consecutive
strikes in a game, it was figured to be the most consecutive strikes a
pitcher threw in a game since 1988.
Colon
ran into some trouble with Major League Baseball brass. He tested
positive for a performance enhancing drug, synthetic testosterone. He
was suspended for a whopping 50 games, but that is the standard
suspension for a PED positive piss test these days, ask Nelson Cruz.
Anyway, the Athletics asked Bartolo back for the next season, and it was
agreed upon too.
Pitchers and
other players who've lasted as many seasons as had Bartolo at this point
in his career, have often had to make many adjustments to make up for
their declining skills. You know how it goes, it is possible for a man
to do at 35 or even 45 what he could do at 25, but it isn't likely
because the same man would have to work much harder as he advances in
age to keep up his physical ability. Nolan Ryan is the ultimate example
to us all insofar as a man maintaining his physical ability to the
utmost late into his middle age years. Nolan Ryan was sort of like T.H.
White's Lancelot in this way. But Colon was never truly a strikeout
pitcher. A power pitcher - he wasn't ever really one.
He
made the All Star team for the 3rd time in 2013. He'd had a wonderfully
successful first half of the season. But the entire season was a
resounding success. Colon had returned after years of nagging injuries
and problems to top form. He recorded a record of 18 wins and 6 losses.
His earned run average was a superlative 2.65. The best ERA he'd had
since 2002!
Big Bart Colon with the New York Mets
Bartolo Colon and the New York Mets.
What
makes the Bartolo Colon story so inspiring is how he's just never ever
gave up. Many many pitchers who've probably had more talent have come
and gone during Bartolo's career. But Big Sexy is still here, still
pitching. And why is that? Because he loves the game more than the
others did in a lot of cases. He had more will to continue. Most players
don't miss an entire season and come back - except in the instance of
Tommy John surgery, and Bartolo hasn't had that injury.
The
Mets signed the ever like able Colon for two years at a total of $20
million bucks. He's certainly given the team their money's worth too.
With the Mets he's become the 3rd pitcher from the Dominican Republic to
eclipse 200 total wins. The other two are in the Hall of Fame, hello?
Colon is a good candidate for the Hall of Fame. His longevity and
tenacious pitching self make him a possible. He now has more wins than
persons like Curt Schilling, who many of us believe deserves to be voted into the Hall of Fame.
Colon
did what Colon does in 2014. He pitched over 200 innings and posted a
winning record. But his 2015 season was where the real fun came in.
Colon, inning eating workhorse that he has so often been, got a decision
in his 26th straight game in which he started. The Mets won big in
2015, making it all the way to the World Series. Colon did lose a game
in the World Series, but he became the oldest pitcher to ever do so.
There is certainly much to be applauded in this distinction of his. He
finished the 2015 season at 14 wins and 13 losses. The Mets signed Colon
for another round in 2016, and thus far, Big Sexy is still Sexy. I hope
to God he does very very well, and comes back again next year. Bartolo
Colon is an inspiration to us all, my friends. Lets wish him the best.
Thanks for reading.
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