Hi all.  There was a blog to write today, but I didn’t have the heart to write it until now.
The Mets, in their infinite wisdom (note sarcasm) let go one of only two pitchers who didn’t have major arm surgery during 2016.  They kept Noah Syndergaard (Who probably should have had surgery but elected not to) and let go Bartolo Colon, who at 43 is more sound in body than all the pitchers half his age who were  supposed to be the future of the Mets.  Time and again this team finds what they think are the next Seaver, Koosman and Matlac, and time and again they end up with sore-armed pitchers who, if they do anything in the game do it with other teams. (Note Jason Isringhausen)  Worse than the idiocy of letting Colon go was the idiocy of the Braves signing him.  Why in God’s name would a team moving into a spanking new ballpark get two pitchers (Colon and Dickey)  who pitched exhibition games to raise money to rebuild Atlanta after the Civil War.
With Jim Lucas on play-by-play I broadcast some of Bartolo Colon’s AA games with the Canton-Akron Indians in 1996.  yes, 1996.  Everybody and his brother didn’t have a cell phone then, though they were proliferating.  The Internet was a word only a few nerds in California understood. In certain areas if you did_ have a cell phone (or cellular brick as they were sometimes called then)  it still might not work, unlike today where they seem to work anywhere and everywhere except hospital emergency rooms. As of 1996 Bartolo Colon could still wear a uniform jacket made from only one cow.  (Thank you Dave Barry for the line.) I mean, at $15 a day meal money nobody could get the build that Colon will take with him to Atlanta. Since reaching the bigs his record is 233-162, needing 11 wins to surpass Hall of Famer and local politician Juan Marichal for most wins by a pitcher from the Dominican Republic. He’s been an All-Star 4 times, the last two in 2013 and 2016. Until he hit a home run this past May 7, he was the oldest player to never hit a home run in a career. He has the sad distinction of being the last active MLB player to play for the mmisbegotten and mismanaged disaster that was the Montreal Expos. He won 18 as an Indian, then 18 and 21 in different seasons with the Angels. He won the 2005 Cy Young Award, the only Angel to do that since Dean Chance in 1964. With the Mets he has become a cult figure, which is why his departure hits hard when you live where every Mets game plays from the TV.