Autograph of the Week: Bartolo Colon

 

Bartolo Colon’s 1997 Donruss Signature Series baseball card (from my collection)

Right now, Bartolo Colon is one of my favorite New York Mets players – he’s nearly three years older than me and could not look less like a professional athlete if he tried, but he was an All-Star and runner-up in the American League Cy Young Award voting last year.

There are good reasons to doubt whether Colon can duplicate his success away from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum O.co Coliseum’s spacious foul territory, but that’s something Sandy Alderson can worry about now and the rest of us can think about in April if we need to.

Colon began his career 16 years ago with the Cleveland Indians as a 24-year-old rookie, and he certainly looked different then than he does now. He could potentially earn his 200th career victory in 2014, and is likely to reach 2,000 career strikeouts. Those aren’t Hall of Fame numbers by any stretch, but that is the record of a pitcher who’s had a very good career.

Beckett Media identifies 19 different Bartolo Colon baseball cards with certified autographs, but most date from his days as a prospect or his early career with Cleveland.  This is the most common version of a card from the 1997 Donruss Signature Series set. If you look around, you can find one for around $5.

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