Boston Red Sox: the time Bartolo Colon brought sexy back to Beantown

Bartolo Colon has pitched for several franchises and his stay with the Boston Red Sox was the shortest of them all, but memorable nonetheless.

His numbers are staggering. The longevity with which he pitched is phenomenal. Before the stoppage hit he was scheduled to pitch in the Mexican League. He was the last active player to have played in a Montreal Expos uniform. He is Big Sexy, Bartolo Colon, and he once suited up for the Boston Red Sox.

He was a young man still, relatively speaking, and not in terms of baseball age. He was just three years removed from a 21-win season where he won the Cy Young Award for the Los Angeles Angels.

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The Boston Red Sox were fresh off a World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies, their second title in the past four years. Curt Schilling was out of the rotation, granted free agency at forty years of age.

All the components for a storybook partnership, the iconic pitcher with the catchy moniker, and the historic franchise pitching in baseball’s oldest stadium.

Fenway and the Red Sox held up their end of the bargain. Bartolo did not. Possibly it was because the lore of Big Sexy was still several years down the road.

Colon pitched just seven games for the Red Sox in 2008, the fewest games he pitched in any single year of his twenty-one years in the league.

An oblique injury kept Colon on the disabled list until mid-May until he was finally cleared to pitch. He was off to a 4-1 start with a 3.41 ERA and the Red Sox looked to have themselves quite a find. Unfortunately, the injury bug bit again, while Colon was swinging the lumber ironically. A pulled muscle would put him on the shelf for two-plus months.

He returned to make one September start then left the team to tend to personal matters in the Dominican Republic. The Red Sox placed him on the restricted list after he refused to return and that was that. Colon would not pitch again in a Red Sox uniform.

Seven starts, four wins, two injuries, one restricted list. His time in Beantown was just a blip on the radar, though we will never forget his presence there.

Colon would win 97 games in the Majors after leaving Boston and hit one home run. His stop with the Sox just a side note in an otherwise storied career.