FIRST & BLAST
Looking back at Colon’s lone Amazin’ homer
ATLANTA — The old saying is: Good pitchers aren’t paid to hit.
But when the pitcher hitting is Bartolo Colon, you might pay to see it. Witness what happened one year ago — May 7, 2016, in San Diego.
“Shocking,” Mets second baseman Neil Walker recalled.
“A moment I don’t think any of us will ever forget,” catcher Kevin Plawecki said.
“They say anything can happen in a game, well …,” said shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera.
“This is one of the great moments in the history of baseball,” SNY play-byplay man Gary Cohen boomed at the time.
That moment was the 226th at-bat of Colon’s career: a second-inning plate appearance resulting in his first home run during a 6-3 Mets win. OK, maybe not one of baseball’s great moments, but it was a moment that will be recalled by anyone purporting to be a Mets fan, a moment that will be remembered by anyone in Petco Park that day, a moment that will be cherished by Colon forever.
“I still think it’s one of the greatest moments of my career,” said Colon, now with the Braves. “I know I’ve won a lot of games and I’ve had a lot of other accomplishments and accolades, but it was just a very special, emotional moment for me because I never thought or imagined I would be able to hit a home run in a major league game.”
That is saying something, considering Colon’s résumé shows him as the game’s winningest active pitcher with 234 victories. That also makes him the third-winningest Latin-American pitcher, trailing just Dennis Martinez (245) and Juan Marichal (243).
See? He is a lot more than just the oldest player — 42 years, 349 days — to hit his first homer. That shot is still discussed. Who really thought Colon could do it?
“I didn’t,” hitting coach Kevin Long said. “I did have a picture in my mind of him doing it and what a day it would be, and it was. It was talked about for a long time — not only in our clubhouse, but in clubhouses around baseball.”
One guy who thought it possible was Wilmer Flores, who with Cabrera, were the first to mob Colon in the dugout — after the traditional freeze-out.
“That day I told [Juan] Lagares, I said, ‘Man, he’s got pop. He’s just got to hit one right where his spot is and he’ll hit it out,’” Flores said. And he finally hit one right in a game. With two out, Plawecki doubled. Up stepped Colon, who got the count to 1-1. In came a fastball from James Shields. Out went the fastball from James Shields.
“I had a good feeling that it was gone from the moment I hit it,” Colon said. “I was pretty confident that I’d gotten all of it.” Sluggers just know. In the on-deck circle, Curtis Granderson did a Carlton Fisk.
“I thought, ‘Let’s see if Bartolo can get himself on,’ and sure enough he hit one,” Granderson said. “He hit it good, high and down the line. That’s a ball that usually hooks drastically foul, or, if it’s a power hitter, it’s gone.”
It was gone. And the 7 Line Mets fans in attendance were “just erupting and going nuts,” Granderson recalled. They were not the only ones. “First reaction, amazement,” reliever Jerry Blevins said. “I remember Logan Verrett and I jumping up and down in the bullpen, holding each other like we won the World Series.”
Catcher Travis d’Arnaud was rehabbing in Florida.
“I actually lost it,” d’Arnaud said. “I was watching and it was unbelievable, the coolest thing I’d seen in baseball in a long time.”
Maybe not everybody was overjoyed. Shields later was asked about the homer. “Next question,” he said. From the time he made contact, Colon needed 30.4 seconds to round the bases and step on home.
“I want to say that was one of the longest home-run trots I’ve ever seen, but I think that’s how fast he runs,” SNY analyst Ron Darling said on the broadcast. There was a reason. “The most surprising thing was the space between the bases,” Colon said. “That’s why it took so long to round the bases: I didn’t think they’d be so far in between.”
As he rounded third, Colon saw the dugout emptying to give him the silent treatment. One man stayed behind: man-
ager Terry Collins, who fist-bumped Colon on his return.
“When he hit it, someone yelled, ‘ Oh my God, he did it,’ ” Collins said. “He is so beloved by his teammates, there was a big roar, and that’s when everybody said, ‘Hey, get everybody out of the dugout.’ So they were all running past me. But I couldn’t leave. I thought he deserved to have somebody waiting for him. It was certainly a great moment for us and for him.”
True. Fans, players, even announcers loved the moment.
“To me, the greatest moments in baseball are the ones you don’t expect. The last thing anybody expects is a portly 42-year-old pitcher, who’s never hit a home run before and had been something of a sideshow as a hitter, hit a home run,” Cohen said. “You prepare if a guy’s going to hit his 50th home run. This you could never even anticipate, much less prepare for.”
On WOR radio, Howie Rose tied together a slew of vignettes — the 7 Line, the dugout, Colon’s Boston Marathon trot time.
“On radio, you rarely get a chance to just enjoy a call for what it is,” Rose said. “Thinking back, the unbridled joy the call delivered is what stands out more than anything to me. … I don’t know that I’ve made a whole lot of calls that I just enjoyed as much as making that.”
Nor has he observed a scene enjoyed by so many.
“I had a view from second base, and knew it was gone when he hit it. Just a cool moment,” Plawecki said.
“Everybody loves Bartolo,” reliever Jeurys Familia said. “With all his years in the big leagues, for him to hit a homer, everybody was just surprised and happy.”
Michael Conforto: “I was excited, in complete shock. It was something we all wanted to see, and some of us thought it might not actually happen.”
“A lot of pitchers who have had a lot of at-bats under their belt can handle the bat, and he, well, it’s just not one of his strong points,” Walker said. “To watch him hit a home run was really impressive.”
The fact it was Colon — super teammate, mentor to young pitchers, Santa Claus figure — made it special.
“He appeals to the common fan,” Collins said. “His body type, he’s not a 10 percent body-fat guy, even though he works hard. He looks like he likes what he does.
“People love it. He swings, his helmet is flying off, he’s got a smile on his face. People like that.”
One year later, Colon’s home-run count is stuck at one. Guess word has gotten around he is a power guy.
So how would pitcher Bartolo attack slugger Bartolo?
“I would use the strategy all the other pitchers use against me,” Colon said, laughing. “Throw breaking balls to get me out, because it works.”