Bartolo Colón was 42 years old, had started his sixth game of the season, and was supposed to be doing what he had always done for the Mets: pitch. Instead, on May 7, 2016, at Petco Park in San Diego, he drove a 90-mph fastball on a 1-1 count over the fence and into baseball memory.
The home run came after a brutal start at the plate that matched his reputation more than it broke it. Colón was 0-for-9 with six strikeouts to open the 2016 campaign, and over the first 17 seasons of his career he owned a.093/.100/.102 slash line with 20 total hits in 237 plate appearances. Only two of those hits had gone for extra bases, a double in 2014 and another in 2015, which is why the swing in San Diego landed with such force.
When the ball cleared the wall, the Mets announcer erupted: “It’s outta here! Bartolo has done it!” Colón later called it “the biggest moment in my career.” That is a remarkable line from a pitcher who was already a four-time All-Star and the 2005 AL Cy Young award winner, but it fits because the hit was more than a novelty. It was the rare baseball moment that made a pitcher’s bat as famous, for one night, as his arm.
Colón’s swing endures because it had everything a lasting sports clip needs: the age, the odds, the timing and the surprise. A 42-year-old pitcher with a career line that barely reached.100 put one over the fence, and the image still stands as one of the most memorable moments of the last decade.