Tony Plate - Congratulations to Bartolo Colon

Baseball history was made last Tuesday August 7,2018 in Arlington, Texas when former NY Met and NY Yankee Bartolo Colon defeated Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners and earned his 246^th victory to pass former Baltimore Oriole star Dennis Martinez to become the winningest Latin American- born pitcher in baseball history. The Texas Ranger fans have not had much to cheer about this season, however they were energized by watching this piece of history. Colon’s teammates were equally energized as they were also cheering and brought out the water bucket and doused Colon with it. He was trying for the record since June. He finally achieved the record after his sixth try.

The 45-year-old Colon has been like a fine wine meaning he gets better with age. In 2005 he won the Cy Young award while with the Angels. His 244^th victory prior recently pushed him past Hall of Famer Juan Marichal for the most wins by a Dominican pitcher. I remember when Colon first came up with the Cleveland Indians back in 1997. He pitched in a few regular season games, but he did not pitch in the World Series as Cleveland lost to Florida. Colon pitched in his only World Series with the Mets back in 2015. He has made the All-Star team on four occasions. The last time he made it was in 2016 with the Mets. Even though he hasn’t pitched well this year I thought a contending team would have tried to acquire him since he brings plenty of experience.

Colon wants to keep pitching much to the delight of the fans. He has the strength to continue. He has not given anybody any indication that he will retire in a couple of years. His career record thus far is 246-186 which is very good. It is a record that may enable him to be in consideration for the Hall of Fame, however that remains to be seen. Colon has been a tremendous competitor. His next goal is to beat the record of innings pitched currently held by Marichal.