Tuesday night baseball can be a tough sell in May, but those venturing out to the ballpark in Queens have a bounce in their step. Memories of the Mets magical early-season 11-game winning streak may have given way to a more familiar malaise, seven losses in 10 games. And the offense, playing without its main cog in David Wright, failed to score in 18 innings after back-to-back 1-0 shutouts by the Washington Nationals. Still, it’s a perfect night for baseball, with a cozy, summer-like humidity blanketing the ballpark, and even better, their beloved unlikely hero, Bartolo Colón, is pitching as the home team faces the Baltimore Orioles. Lately at least, that virtually guarantees a fun night by all.

Overheard in Flushing...

I bet you he doesn’t even stretch!

Colón takes to the field, and before most fans can find their seats he’s caught Manny Machado and the slugging Chris Davis looking - two strikeouts sandwiched in between a harmless Jimmy Paredes single and an Adam Jones pop out. Side retired in the top of the first.

We often celebrate the success of, shall we just say, big men, in sports. One of the defining memories of Super Bowl XX is Chicago’s William “The Refrigerator” Perry stumbling over New England’s defensive line and into the endzone, and at least part of Babe Ruth’s larger than life lore is connected to his size. Colón has the trifecta - a rotund figure, age and in 2015, elite performance that has Mets fans reveling in this unique brand of entertainment.

Colón, opened the season with four straight victories, all of which included at least six innings of work, while posting an ERA of 2.77 and walking just a single batter (more on that later). His only blip, if you want to call it that, came in his prior start when he allowed four runs over 6.2 innings pitched in Miami. Getting ace-like play out of a self-effacing, unflappable, 41-year-old teddy-bear-like pitcher who is a dead ringer for Andre the Giant in The Princess Bride is already enough to make Mets fans grin from ear to ear, but it wasn’t like that when he was signed - quite the contrary.

In December of 2013, when Sandy Alderson, General Manager of the financially challenged, Bernie Madoff Mets, announced that he had somehow found $20m for a pitcher and that it was to ink an aging Colón, New York’s sports-radio airwaves filled with venom, even if the hurler was coming off an All-Star campaign with Oakland. Now, after a season in which he ate 200 innings while helping his team win 15 games, Mets fans are thankful they didn’t deal him at the trade deadline last summer.

Overheard in Flushing...

If his helmet comes off it’s a good night.

In the bottom of the third inning, fans walking the ballpark stop in their tracks, transactions at concession stands grind to a halt, cameras come out and all eyes are on home plate. Colón, who spent much of his baseball career in the American League where pitchers rarely bat, is at the plate. He wildly waves through a 1-2 pitch from Bud Norris, sending his helmet into mid-air during a swing for the second time this season. Over 20,000 smiles, including his own, light up the ballpark.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest One of Bartolo Colon’s many talents.

Colón, now in his 18th season on his seventh team, wasn’t always as endearing, especially to the sabermetric baseball community. In 2005 he won the Cy Young Award with the Los Angeles Angels by posting 21 wins, the only category he led, prompting protests from more statistically advanced fans and media who shun victories as a baseline for success. Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins won five fewer games, but was superior in nearly every other way, leading the league in strikeouts, WHIP, FIP, and hits per nine innings while compiling a 7.2 WAR. The New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera allowed just 12 runs in 78.1 innings and posted a WHIP of 0.868, numbers worthy of consideration. Years later, no one is denying Colón’s achievements.

“The whole game is just getting ahead and staying ahead, throwing almost everything within the approximate boundaries of the strike zone,” said Jeff Sullivan, a senior writer for FanGraphs. “Main difference here being, nearly everything Colon throws is a variety of his fastball. Colón is living proof that command trumps stuff, and he’s also proof that one pitch can really be any number of different pitches, as long as you’re able to move it around. Colón is a baseball miracle, and he’s as effective now as he’s ever been.”

Overheard in Flushing...

He’s like a cat out there. Where’s his gold glove?

It’s still scoreless when Colón allows back-to-back base hits to Adam Jones and Chris Davis to lead off the top of the fourth inning. Then Delmon Young bounces to the left side - the 265lbs Colón races off the mound, sticks out his arm and makes a backhanded grab, stops on a dime and throws a one-hopper to first base, in time to get the O’s outfielder. The next batter, Caleb Joseph, whiffs on one of Colón’s whiffleball fastballs, which leaves it up to Travis Snider, who grounds to the right side - Mets first baseman Lucas Duda has it, and tosses to the streaking Colón who tags the base to get out of the jam.

The fact that Colón was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for testosterone in 2012, while also being linked to the ensuing Biogenesis performance enhancing drugs scandal, hasn’t had any impact on Mets fans newfound love for the hurler. It’s interesting to gauge who takes heat from the public when it comes to PEDs and who escapes the boo-birds.

“He’s never been the guy with an ego bigger than everyone else’s, and that’s what fans don’t like,” said Bob, a Mets fan who travelled from the Bronx to watch his team. “And I think Bartolo is a guy who is working his tail off at 40 plus and he’s not doing it with overpowering stuff. He’s like a guy who could be around the corner from you. He’s relatable.”

It doesn’t hurt that he throws strikes. Colón’s last walk came in the sixth inning of the Mets’ opening day game against the Nationals. His walks per nine innings ratio is at 0.2493, which, if he can manage to keep up such a pace, puts him within percentage points of a record reserved for 19th century players – George Zettlein set the bar in 1876 at 0.2308. His strikeout to walk ratio is 34, which is over 22 better than Phillip Hughes’ single-season mark set in 2014. Early season or not, it’s impressive.

Overheard in Flushing...

He’s a warrior.

In the top of the seventh inning, Colón is on the mound, throwing with a 3-0 lead. His 96th pitch is lifted into the left field stands by Manny Machado. A batter later, Mets manager Terry Collins emerges from the dugout to get his man. The locals show their admiration with a standing ovation and he salutes back en route to the dugout. Colón tossed 7 2/3 innings, allowing a single run on six hits, with nine strikeouts and, of course, no walks.

The bullpen holds on and struggling New York win 3-2 - Mets fans file out, content with a victory with help of baseball’s most entertaining everyman, one whose rising value has shifted him from one-time trade bait to indispensable.

“The team needed a game like today,” Colon said after the game. “It was really important for me to perform the way I did. I had that in mind.”



