Bartolo Colón. USA Today

Sunday afternoon, the New York Mets welcomed back former starting pitcher Bartolo Colón to Citi Field where he officially retired as a member of the organization. The festivities were kicked off via a press conference that included Colón and his former manager, Terry Collins. During the conference, Collins explained, “During my tenure here we made some good signs as everybody know and this guy was one of the best.”

Current manager Buck Showalter was also asked about Colón during his pregame press conference and he said, “It wasn’t funny when he was on the other team. It wasn’t fun facing hi and we didn’t have a good time when he pitched, so no I don’t have funny stories about him,” he quipped.

Colón, now 50 years old, spent parts of three seasons with the Mets (2014-2016) where he made one All-Star team (2016). Over his Mets’ tenure, he posted a 44-34 record with a 3.90 ERA across 588 2/3 innings. This is the third-most innings he threw with a team over his career, which longed over 21 years and 11 teams.

Colón won 247 games over this 21-year career. He made four All-Star appearances and won a Cy Young back during the 2005 season with the Los Angeles Angels, winning 21 games that season. He threw his first major-league pitch as a 24-year-old in 1997 and ended his career in 2018 at 45.

Bartolo had several memorable moments throughout his career. Some notable Mets’ moments included being apart of the 2015 National League Pennant winning team that lost in the World Series to Kansas City, as well as making the impossible happen:

Oh do not forget about this sparkling play the 42-year-old made back in 2015:

All-in-all, it was a terrific career for the 565-game veteran. What makes it that much better is he got to spend a sliver of it with the Mets’ franchise and gave the fanbase so many unforgettable memories in such a short period of time. When asked what was so special about his Mets’ tenure he said, “It’s not that they are the most important to me, but they are the ones that did give me a good amount of happiness.”

Oh, in case you were wondering where the nickname “Big Sexy” came from, Colón gave that secret away in the press conference explaining it was former Met pitcher Noah Syndergaard who gifted him with that.