Bartolo Colón Marquee

b. May 24, 1973 · Cleveland Indians 1997–2002, Montreal Expos 2002, Chicago White Sox 2003, 2009, Anaheim Angels 2004, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2005–2007, Boston Red Sox 2008, New York Yankees 2011, Oakland Athletics 2012–2013, New York Mets 2014–2016, Atlanta Braves 2017, Minnesota Twins 2017, Texas Rangers 2018

Twenty-one seasons and twelve clubs gave him 247 wins against 188, with 2,535 strikeouts across 3,461 innings. No pitcher born in the Dominican Republic has won more: Juan Marichal finished with 243 and Pedro Martínez with 219. He won the Cy Young Award in 2005, the year he led the American League with 21 wins.

He was thirty-two then and might reasonably have been near the end. He pitched thirteen more seasons instead, led his league in shutouts in 2013 at forty, and was picked for the All-Star team in 2016 at forty-three, eighteen years after his first selection. His last appearance came in 2018, at forty-five.

In 2016 he hit a home run, the only one of his career in 299 times at bat, and it is what he is best remembered for. That is unjust to the 247 wins and entirely fair to the moment. The writers gave him five votes of 385 in 2024 and he came off the ballot after one year.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
All-Star selection	4	1998, 2005, 2013, 2016
Player of the Week	5	1998, 2000, 2003, 2015, 2016
Pitcher of the Month	4	1998, 2002, 2005, 2013
Cy Young Award	1	2005
MLB Players Choice Outstanding Pitcher	1	2005
The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year	1	2005

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
1997	CLE	19	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
1998	CLE	31	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	.500
1999	CLE	32	7	0	1	0	0	0	0	5	.143
2000	CLE	30	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	.000
2001	CLE	34	7	0	1	0	0	0	0	5	.143
2002	CLE/MON	33	45	1	6	0	0	3	0	23	.133
2003	CHW	34	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000
2004	ANA	34	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
2005	LAA	33	3	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	.333
2006	LAA	10	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
2007	LAA	19	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
2008	BOS	7	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000
2009	CHW	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
2011	NYY	29	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
2012	OAK	24	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000
2013	OAK	30	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000
2014	NYM	31	62	3	2	1	0	0	0	33	.032
2015	NYM	33	58	2	8	1	0	4	0	24	.138
2016	NYM	34	60	4	5	2	1	2	1	40	.083
2017	ATL/MIN	28	19	1	0	0	0	0	0	10	.000
2018	TEX	28	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000
Career	—	565	299	11	25	4	1	11	1	166	.084

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1997	CLE	4	7	19	17	94.0	107	59	45	66	5.65
1998	CLE	14	9	31	31	204.0	205	84	79	158	3.71
1999	CLE	18	5	32	32	205.0	185	90	76	161	3.95
2000	CLE	15	8	30	30	188.0	163	81	98	212	3.88
2001	CLE	14	12	34	34	222.1	220	101	90	201	4.09
2002	CLE/MON	20	8	33	33	233.1	219	76	70	149	2.93
2003	CHW	15	13	34	34	242.0	223	104	67	173	3.87
2004	ANA	18	12	34	34	208.1	215	116	71	158	5.01
2005	LAA	21	8	33	33	222.2	215	86	43	157	3.48
2006	LAA	1	5	10	10	56.1	71	32	11	31	5.11
2007	LAA	6	8	19	18	99.1	132	70	29	76	6.34
2008	BOS	4	2	7	7	39.0	44	17	10	27	3.92
2009	CHW	3	6	12	12	62.1	69	29	21	38	4.19
2011	NYY	8	10	29	26	164.1	172	73	40	135	4.00
2012	OAK	10	9	24	24	152.1	161	58	23	91	3.43
2013	OAK	18	6	30	30	190.1	193	56	29	117	2.65
2014	NYM	15	13	31	31	202.1	218	92	30	151	4.09
2015	NYM	14	13	33	31	194.2	217	90	24	136	4.16
2016	NYM	15	8	34	33	191.2	200	73	32	128	3.43
2017	ATL/MIN	7	14	28	28	143.0	192	103	35	89	6.48
2018	TEX	7	12	28	24	146.1	172	94	25	81	5.78
Career	—	247	188	565	552	3461.2	3593	1584	948	2535	4.12

On this day & linked events

1973

Born May 24, 1973

Altamira, Puerto Plata, D.R.

1997

Major-league debut: Bartolo Colón

Bartolo Colón made a major-league debut on April 4, 1997.

2018

Final major-league game: Bartolo Colón

Bartolo Colón played a final major-league game on September 22, 2018.

Image: Keith Allison on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0