Thom  Henninger
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The Last Expo Standing

3/6/2016

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Eleven years ago the Montreal Expos left for Washington and became the Nationals, which may not seem so long ago. But in baseball years, that’s almost a generation ago when you consider that 42-year-old Bartolo Colon is the lone former Expos player still in the majors.
 
In doing so, Big Bart has not only defied age, but the tenets of fitness that suggest a player of his bulk doesn’t play into his late 30s, let alone his 40s. The 5-foot-11, 285-pound righthander has averaged 16 wins and 196 innings a year over the last three seasons; pitching for the Mets in 2015, he finished 14-13 with a 4.16 ERA and an NLCS victory over the Cubs.
 
Colon will be in the Mets rotation for a third-straight season in 2016, keeping his run as the last Expo standing alive for another year.
 
Two years ago, Al Yellon, writing for SB Nation’s Bleed Cubbie Blue, assembled a list of the 10 former Expos still in the big leagues. Remarkably, Colon was the oldest guy on the list and has survived them all. Here is Yellon’s list from April 2013, with the former Expo’s age and his team at the time:
 
Bartolo Colon, 40, A’s
Jamey Carroll, 39, Twins
Ted Lilly, 37, Dodgers
Scott Downs, 37, Angels
Luis Ayala, 35, Braves
Endy Chavez, 35, Mariners
Bruce Chen, 35, Royals
Jon Rauch, 34, Marlins
Maicer Izturis, 32, Blue Jays
Brendan Harris, 32, Angels
 
Colon became the last Expo standing when Maicer Izturis officially retired a few days. Izturis was a 23-year-old rookie with the Expos in 2004, the franchise’s last year in Montreal.
 
Believe it or not, Colon wasn’t on that final Expos roster. By then, he had been dealt to the White Sox and later signed as a free agent by the Angels. Big Bart had been with the Expos two years earlier in 2002, a season which he split between Cleveland and Montreal and won 20 games at age 29. Fourteen years later he's still pitching.
 
Interestingly, Yellon’s 2013 article highlighted the other final survivors from moved franchises during the modern era. And who would have stayed in the majors the longest after one of his former teams changed locations?
 
That would be longtime Twin Jim Kaat, who pitched for the original Washington Senators in 1959 and 1960, the franchise’s final two years in the nation’s capital. Kaat won his first and only World Series ring with the Cardinals in 1982 before retiring a year later—23 years after the franchise shift to Minnesota.

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Do You Have a Favorite Harmon Killebrew Memory?

3/3/2016

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Because the date is 3/3 and Harmon Killebrew wore No. 3, the Minnesota Twins are asking fans for their favorite Harmon memory on the team's Facebook page. On the field, there are plenty of memorable Harmon moments; a big one for me are the two monumental blasts he hit at the Met on consecutive days in June 1967. The first one, a 522-foot moonshot on June 3, struck a seat in the upper deck in left field, which the Twins painted red and now hangs in roughly its original location at Mall of America.

Though that home run is considered the longest ever hit at the Met, his shot the next day may have traveled just as far. It struck the facade of the upper deck one section over toward center field, causing Twins players to debate which home run would have traveled farther if the upper deck wasn't in the way. Harmon thought the blast off the facade would have because he says he hit it harder.

But my favorite Harmon memory took place off the field. I was in the Twins' offices at the Metrodome to interview him for the Tony Oliva bio. He had just arrived from the airport, and as we walked through the office to a conference room, he stopped and greeted every employee. He called them by name, referenced a story they had shared, and was pleasant to all. It was hard not to be touched by the Hall of Famer's humility.

Harmon was a legend on the field and off the field. On another occasion, he may have been the only player, current or retired, when asked if he might sit down for an interview with me, responded with: "How about now?" He was always so kind to me, and I won't forget that either.
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Photo: Jim Mone, AP
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