Bartolo Colon

 Bartolo Colon was a 4 time all star, Cy Young winning, all around hilarious pitcher that Showdown fans will fondly recall as one of the final players depicted in the official cards to still be playing long after a majority of the players had moved on. He was featured on the 2024 Hall of Fame ballot but the voters clearly got it wrong as he not only fell short of the 75% needed to gain immortality, but he didn't even get the 5% needed to stay on the ballot.

Unacceptable.

So as we wait for the Veterans Committee or something to correct this mistake in future second look ballots, he can still be immortalized in Showdown card form. Mauer and Beltre may be getting plaques in Cooperstown, but Colon is getting the real honor here. Ladies and gentlemen, I now give you the career of Big Sexy himself: Bartolo Colon.

The legend begins. Humble start with a useless 0 control but an almost acceptable tradeoff of almost half his chart keeps the ball out of play. The Indians went to the World Series that year, but did not use Colon on their postseason roster.

1998 brought in Bartolo's first all star season as his progress brings him from irrelevant 0 control to a tempting 5 control. This time the Indians used him in the postseason. How valuable was he? The 1998 Yankees won 125 games in total and are generally considered one of the greatest teams of all time. They lost only 2 games during the entire postseason. Bartolo Colon was the source of one of those losses. And it wasn't a cheap win, he went the distance and only surrendered one run.

Colon got very good representation during the official MLB Showdown years, but there were a couple notable exceptions. One of them is that sadly, due to his all too brief 2002 stay in Montreal, Colon never got proper representation as an Expo. So here is what a card in the 2003 set would've looked like.

The 2005 and final Showdown set was missing a lot of things (there were no Expos/Nationals in the main set) and Colon was one of the unfortunate snubs as far as I could research. So let's represent his 2004 season.

Showdown ended before Colon's Cy Young season. 2005 Colon was also so good that he received a few MVP votes.

Colon got hurt in the 2005 postseason, so he missed most of 2006. He did show up for 10 games and despite his bad stats on the year, his card ended up quite comparable to his Cy Young season the year prior.

2007 was a very forgettable year for Colon and the Angels. He just missed hitting 100IP and his ERA was over 6.00. He was granted free agency and his tour of baseball was about to get going.

Colon signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in 2008 and in about a month the parent club brought him into the rotation. Another forgettable season that saw him leave the team for "personal reasons" for the Dominican Republic...then just not want to come back. Red Sox put him on the restricted list and did not use him in their failed postseason run.

Colon returned to the White Sox in 2009. Things got off to an alright start only to get hampered with more injuries and not only the loss of the rest of the season, but the entirety of the 2010 season.

Through 2010 it seemed like Colon was destined for an anonymous and unspectacular ending. Another could've-been derailed by injuries. But in 2011 his revitalization began. He joined the Yankees and after finding an opening in the rotation, finally put up signs of the classic Bartolo. For the first time since his Cy Young season he was able to put up over 100 innings and strikeouts and made 26 starts. Things would only improve from there.

Colon hooked on with Oakland in 2012. Things were off to a solid start, but in the 2nd half he was suspended for testing positive for synthetic testosterone. Any while it wasn't Big Papi using steroids, you wouldn't be faulted for banning this Big Sexy card for his PED use.

Despite the suspension, Oakland saw fit to bring Colon back in 2013 and he put in his best season since his comeback began, winning 18 games and getting Cy Young votes.

2014 saw Colon join the Mets for his first full season in the National League. His pitching was solid across the board, but the real question was now that Colon was in a place where he could swing the bat, could he go deep?

Colons 2015 was pretty much a carbon copy of his 2014, but the Mets season wasn't as they recached the World Series for the first time since 2000...Unfortunately for the Mets it was pretty much a carbon copy of that series where they lost in 5 games. Colon for his part came out of the bullpen in 3 games, taking the L in Game 1.

Either Colon broke the Bot, or he was the Madden games of Mets pitching where it's the same content with just the year updated on the cover. One big difference in Colon's 2016 wasn't on the mound, however...

On May 7, 2016, Bartolo finally ran into one. Going deep for his first career home run. Look at that homer chart! I'd say, worth the laughable 4 on-base risk.

Colon began 2017 in Atlanta after signing with them in the offseason. The Braves didn't have much patience for him and his 0 control however, and released him..

...and the Twins would pick him up for the 2nd half. While he brought some control to the Twins rotation, he now offers the ugly sight of homers allowed on his own chart.

Colon would sign with Texas in the spring of 2018 and it is there he will put forth his final season. Unfortunately, his last decent card will prove to be with the Mets as he yet again allows homers on his own chart here. And so Bartolo closed the book on a career that saw 11 teams, 247 wins, over 2,500 strikeouts and a bottomless supply of smiles and memories.