Bartolo Colón was more than just a baseball caricature
Tennessee Titans schedule release video + Jokic is a basketball god
Past: People forget how good Bartolo was before he slugged that home run
On May 7, 2016, Bartolo Colón slugged his first career home run at the age of 42 years old off veteran pitcher James Shields at Petco Park in San Diego. In that moment, he both set the record for oldest player to ever hit their first career home run and forever engrained himself in our memories as the large and loveable pitcher who looked more like your next door neighbor than a professional athlete. Is a 300 pound Colón mashing a home run our lasting memory of the former pitcher? I fear that is when people think of Colón, that home run comes to mind before anything else, overshadowing a career in which Bartolo set the MLB record for most wins by a Latin American pitcher, with 247.
Colón is up for the Baseball Hall of Fame this winter and I can tell from the chatter already that many don’t think he will make it past the first cut. And they could be right. I mean, after that 2016 season with the infamous home run, Colón posted a 6.48 ERA in 2017, followed by a 5.78 ERA season in 2018; that doesn’t necessarily leave the best taste in your mouth.
If you can get past the twilight of his career, it gets much prettier. Colón won 18+ games 5 different times. He led the AL in complete games with Cleveland in 2003 with 9. He recorded 2,535 strikeouts, which is the 36th most in MLB history. He won the damn AL Cy Young award in 2005 with the Anaheim Angels. He got Cy Young votes a number of other seasons and finished with the 58th most Cy Young shares in MLB history. That is more than HOF pitchers Bert Bveleven, Don Drysdale, Don Sutton, Phil Neikro, and Jack Morris.
At his peak, Colón was one of the better pitchers in baseball. He started off as a power pitcher and ended it as a crafty veteran who generously threw in the mid 80s with pinpoint precision. His career looked like it was over various times during the course of his 21-year career, but he seemed to always bounce back. He wore about a third of the uniforms available in the major leagues, but was beloved everywhere. He pitched a complete game for ten of the eleven teams he played for. He has the 50th most Wins in MLB history.
Does he deserve a plaque in Cooperstown? That is another story. Yes, he has some worthy career numbers, but he also lost 188 games. He recorded a less than healthy 4.12 ERA. He only made four all-star teams. He had some REALLY rocky years. And, he tested for PEDs in 2012, which is a big no-no when it comes to Cooperstown. Want to know what I think? You can listen to this week’s podcast to find out.
Present: I can’t stop laughing at the Titans schedule release video
I don’t know when Oscar-worthy NFL schedule release videos exactly started and I could care less. They are here now and we are all better for it. I like to think that each NFL franchise has dedicated significant resources to building out their social media teams for the sole purpose of producing their schedule release video. That is their only purpose and failure is not an option.
A team’s schedule used to be announced with little fanfare in the local newspaper, but just will not due in today. Now, that information has to be relayed in a highly produced and creative video by each NFL team.
No professional sports league is better at making a non-event more important the Christmas day than the NFL. The NFL draft started as a one-day event in 1936, shifted to a two-day event in 1950, and since 2010, has become a three-day celebration. By the time I hit 50, you know the draft will be kicking off on Monday night and running through Saturday. The NFL draft combine lasts a whole damn week. Why? Because the NFL knows we will watch it. I swear if they had a press conference announcing what new soft drink the Chicago Bears were offering at Solider Field next season, I would probably tune in. Yes, that is idiotic, but I have a football addiction; a lot of us do and the NFL has no problem exploiting that.
Back to the schedule release video; each team has their own spin on it and most franchise’s social media teams should be retained for another season. A few deserve bonuses though. The Chargers social media staff brought us another anime video, which was phenomenal, and my Chicago Bears knocked it out of the park with a video that payed tribute the the FX hit show “The Bear.” Despite everyone’s best efforts though, no one outdid the Tennessee Titans. Their video was one for the ages and had me in tears.
The concept was simple: interview random people walking up and down Broadway street in downtown Nashville and ask them to name the football team who the Titans were set to play in 2023 by only looking at their logo. Not only did most people get the teams wrong, but invented many new NFL franchises during the process.
Some of my favorite new NFL franchises included:
Red Stallions (actually the Atlanta Falcons)
49ers 69ers Stars (actually the Pittsburgh Steelers)
Pirates from the Islands of the Caribbean (actually the Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
If you haven’t seen it already, you need to watch it for yourself. It will only take a second.
Future: Will Jokic continue his rampage against the Lakers?
Similar to Shohei Ohtani, it takes a lot for Denver Nuggets Center Nikola Jokic to surprise me these days. I have conditioned myself to understand that nothing is off the table. A playoff triple-double consisting of 30 points, 17 rebounds, and 17 assists? Why not? A 53 point, 11 assist performance? Of course he did. Having those games within 48 hours of each other in the Western Conference Semifinals? If you told me anything different, I would think you were lying.
This is Nikola Jokic’s world and we are just living in it. And just as he did in the regular season, Jokic making it clear that he is the best player in the NBA. In his six-game second round matchup against the Phoenix Suns, Jokic averaged 34.5 points, 13.2 rebounds, and 10.3 assists. He accomplished this on a hyper-efficient 59.4% from the field, 44.4% from three, and 85.4% from the charity stripe. He did this all as a 7-footer with slow feet and and limited athleticism. He outplayed Kevin Durant, a top 15 all-time talent, and Devin Booker, who was able to match Jokic in the first four games, but ran out of steam by games five and six. He looks unstoppable.
Jokic now faces LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, which start this Tuesday. There, he will face his biggest test to date, Anthony Davis, who has looked as good as ever through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Will Davis, one of the best defensive big men in the NBA when healthy, slow down Jokic? I doubt it.
In three regular-season matchups this year, Davis was far from having Jokic’s number, although to be fair, no one really does. Maybe he doesn’t have a number to own? Jokic put up a 31 point triple-double in the first matchup of the season back in October, followed by a 23 point triple-double just four days later. The last time they played, all the way back in December, Jokic put up a mere 25 points, as he collected 11 rebounds and dished out 8 assists. Now, to be clear, not stopping Jokic does not mean the Lakers cannot win the series. Despite Jokic’s efforts during the regular season, the Lakers actually beat the Nuggets in two of those three matchups. However, the Nuggets supporting cast has been firing on all cylinders in the playoffs so far and Jokic has reached another level, although that was previously thought to be impossible.
I expect Jokic and the Nuggets to handle the Lakers in six games and head to their first NBA Finals. Will Jokic continue his rampage? While his 50-point performances might be over for this run, several triple-doubles and a few box scores that are rarely seen in playoff basketball are most likely on the horizon.