May 7, 2016: Bartolo Colón’s only career home run leads Mets to victory

No other player in baseball history has had a career quite like the iconic Bartolo “Big Sexy” Colón. Beginning as a fireballer with the 1997 Cleveland Indians and finishing as a wily, soft-tossing veteran with the 2018 Texas Rangers, the 285-pound righty pitched for 11 different franchises and amassed 247 career wins, the most of any pitcher born in the Dominican Republic.

There were plenty of ups and downs along the way, both on and off the field, but one moment in Colón’s career stands out above all the rest. Colón’s only big-league home run, hit on a sunny San Diego evening 17 days before his 43rd birthday, has become a must-see highlight in the annals of baseball lore.

Colón had become a cult hero since joining the New York Mets in 2014, endearing himself to fans by combining strong pitching with great comedic value in the field, at the plate, and on the bases. He had been one of the better pitchers in the league for a long time, even winning an American League Cy Young Award with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005. Injuries derailed his career for several years, but he came back and put together two strong campaigns with the Oakland Athletics in 2012 and 2013. This earned Colón, then in his 40s, a free-agent contract with the Mets, and at this point his popularity skyrocketed. The combination of big-market exposure, the rise of the Internet, and being required to hit in the National League provided an enhanced platform for Big Sexy’s charm.1 He was an everyman, America’s goofy overweight uncle, and people loved him.

On Saturday, May 7, 2016, Colón’s Mets were facing the San Diego Padres. The weather was pleasant at Petco Park in San Diego, and attendance totaled 41,028. The Mets were coming off a surprise run to the World Series in 2015, and expectations for the season were high.

New York was off to a strong start in 2016 at 17-11 but had dropped the first two games of the series to San Diego. The Padres were struggling with a record of 13-17 as they tried to recover from a series of ill-fated trades and free-agent signings that had changed the trajectory of the franchise for the worse.2 Colón took the mound with a 2.56 ERA in his first six appearances of 2016, including eight scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves in his most recent start on May 2. Fellow veteran right-hander “Big Game” James Shields took the ball for San Diego, hoping for improved luck in what had been a strong start to his season, but with little run support.

In the top of the first, the Mets jumped on Shields right away. Captain and team leader David Wright drew a one-out walk. One out later, Yoenis Céspedes, a vital addition in 2015 after coming over from the Detroit Tigers in a surprise deadline trade, pulled a hanging 2-and-2 changeup high and deep down the left-field line. The ball ricocheted off Petco’s Western Metal Supply Company building for a home run, giving the Mets a 2-0 lead.

Colón set the Padres down in order in their half of the first. Shields retired Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera to begin the second, but catcher Kevin Plawecki extended the inning by drilling a double to deep center, with Jon Jay having the ball go off his glove after a leaping attempt. With Colón – whose career batting average was .093 with two doubles and no home runs in 237 plate appearances – up next, the immediate impact of Plawecki’s hit seemed negligible.

Trying to get ahead with a fastball, Shields missed up and in and appeared frustrated with himself. He then dotted the inside corner with a fastball, evening the count at 1-and-1. Shields attacked with another fastball, this one down the heart of the plate. This was a mistake.

Colón unleashed every ounce of power in his massive frame, turned on the ball, and stunned everyone in the ballpark with a high, deep drive down the left-field line. Left fielder B.J. Upton had no chance as the ball sailed well over the fence. Colón had hit his first major-league home run.

“It’s outta here!” bellowed Mets announcer Gary Cohen in disbelief. “Bartolo has done it! The impossible has happened! This is one of the great moments in the history of baseball! Bartolo Colón has gone deep.”3

A wry smile lit up Colón’s face as he rounded first base. His teammates went wild in the dugout, screaming and pounding on the railing before leaving the dugout and giving him the “silent treatment” often given to players hitting their first home run.

Riding his big moment, Colón maintained his focus on the mound for a one-two-three second, but San Diego finally got the bats going in the third. After a Derek Norris single and a Jemile Weeks popup, Shields stepped in, looking to exact some revenge on his counterpart. On a two-strike pitch, he grounded a single through the left side, putting two Padres on with one out. Next up was Jon Jay, San Diego’s leadoff hitter, who was not known for his power. Jay fouled off multiple pitches before getting one he liked, a two-seam fastball left out over the plate. He drilled it deep to right-center field for a three-run homer, his first of the year. The Padres were back in the game at 4-3.

Both hurlers settled down from there. Shields allowed a one-out double to Cabrera in the fourth, but retired Plawecki on a grounder and struck out Colón to avoid damage. A leadoff walk to Brett Wallace produced nothing for San Diego in the bottom of the inning.

Shields allowed only more hit over the next two innings, Lucas Duda’s leadoff double in the sixth. San Diego manager Andy Green seemingly tempted fate by walking Plawecki to put two on with two out for Colón, but Shields was able to strike out the big man again to keep it a one-run game. Meanwhile, Shields delivered his second hit against Colón in the fifth, but it did not spark a rally, nor did Upton’s two-out single in the sixth.

Left-handed reliever Brad Hand took over for Shields in the seventh. Hand allowed a one-out single to Wright, who stole second base. After Michael Conforto flied out, the Padres issued an intentional walk to Céspedes, setting up a lefty-lefty matchup with Duda. Again, the free pass paid off as Hand froze Duda looking on a fastball, the seventh pitch of the at-bat, to escape the inning.

Mets manager Terry Collins continued to ride with Colón after the seventh-inning stretch, and Norris drilled another single to lead things off. Weeks then dragged a bunt to the right side of the infield, but tripped and fell halfway down the line, allowing Colón to tag him out easily. Weeks pounded the ground in frustration before being helped off the field by trainers. He left the game with a strained right hamstring.4 The sacrifice advanced Norris to second with the tying run.

Green then went to his bench, calling on Jabari Blash to bat for Hand. On a 1-and-2 pitch, Colón caught Blash looking on a two-seam fastball that painted the outside corner. That was the end of Colón’s historic night, as Collins went to left-hander Jerry Blevins to face Jay. The move paid off as Blevins struck out Jay swinging on a 69-MPH curveball, getting New York out of the jam.

New Padres reliever Carlos Villanueva worked a scoreless eighth, pitching around Plawecki’s second two-out double of the game. Mets reliever Addison Reed took over for the bottom of the eighth, and again the Padres threatened. With two outs, Wallace and Upton singled to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Reed, however, struck out Ramirez swinging on a fastball to end the inning. The game went to the ninth inning with New York still on top 4-3.

Villanueva went back out for the ninth. With one out, Wright pulled a hanging off-speed pitch high and deep down the left-field line, much like Cespedes and Colón’s earlier blasts. It flew out of the ballpark to give New York a much-needed insurance run. Not to be outdone, Conforto followed by launching an equally prodigious drive well over the right-field fence, making it 6-3.

Closer Jeurys Familia came in for the save in the bottom of the ninth. After Norris and pinch-hitter Alex Dickerson were retired, San Diego’s last hope was Adam Rosales, who had taken over at second for the injured Weeks. On a 2-and-2 count, Familia struck out Rosales chasing a low off-speed pitch. A win was in the books for the Mets, who snapped their two-game slide and secured a feel-good victory for their fan-favorite starting pitcher.

Colón would write about the home run in his 2020 autobiography, Big Sexy: In His Own Words, stating, “I knew I’d hit a home run because the bat didn’t vibrate. … [T]he contact was that solid.”5

Colón put together a fine 2016 campaign, earning his fourth and final All-Star selection and leading the Mets in wins (15) and innings pitched (191⅔).6 Big Sexy pitched for two more years and finally hung up his spikes after the 2018 season, concluding a truly unique and unforgettable career. He did not hit another home run.

During his retirement, Colón has continued to make public appearances for the Mets faithful. He appeared at the Queens Baseball Convention on December 3, 2022, and threw out the first pitch at Citi Field on May 7, 2023, the seventh anniversary of the home run.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. He also reviewed a game highlight video and a full-game video from MLB.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN201605070.shtml https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2016/B05070SDN2016.htm “5/7/16: Colón Leads Mets Past Padres.” YouTube. YouTube, May 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN-KLGliTbM&t=116s. “NYN at SDN – May 08, 2016.” YouTube. YouTube, October 31, 2016. NYN AT SDN – May 08, 2016.

Notes

1 “Colon’s popularity is just a special case of multiple factors coalescing all at once. He’s a giddy, overweight, 42-year-old starting pitcher who’s got some of the best baseball instincts in the league and who’s playing the final years of his career in New York City during the Social Media Age,” wrote Yaron Weitzman. “How Mets’ Bartolo Colon Has Become MLB’s Lovable Mascot,” The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions, April 15, 2016, https://thecomeback.com/mlb/how-mets-bartolo-colon-has-become-mlbs-lovable-mascot.html.

2 Rany Jazayerli, “Today, the Padres are a bad team saddled with bad contracts and no farm system. It’s hard to do this much damage this quickly without the use of heavy artillery,” in “Teardown Artist,” Grantland, July 15, 2015, https://grantland.com/features/aj-preller-mlb-san-diego-padres-national-league-west/.

3 New York Mets television broadcast (WPIX-TV), “New York Mets at San Diego Padres, May 7, 2016,” YouTube.

4 Weeks was placed on the disabled list and would not play in another major-league game.

5 Bartolo Colón, Big Sexy: In His Own Words (New York: Abrams Books, 2020).

6 The Mets finished second in the NL East behind the Washington Nationals at 87-75 and earned a spot in the NL’s wild-card game, which they lost to the San Francisco Giants on October 5.