Legends Never Die
Whoever synced up this video of Bartolo Colon crushing a sandlot dinger with Gary Cohen’s most iconic call is an American hero
Last week, the baseball world was handed a great gift when Mexican League squad Acereros de Monclova announced the return of 47-year-old Bartolo Colon to the mound. There’s not too many of us out there watching Mexican League baseball, but the mere knowledge that somewhere in this vast cosmos Bartolo would still be slinging hot, hot heat was a welcome comfort—a sign that things, for one fleeting moment, were just as they should be.
But if that news was a gift, what came next may as well have been Richie Rich’s birthday party. Following word of Big Sexy’s new gig, a video emerged of Colon crushing an absolute bomb in a sandlot game deep in the rolling countryside of his native Dominican Republic. Good enough on its own? Certainly. But then some genius—nay HERO, nay HERO GENIUS—went ahead and synced up the footage with Mets play-by-play broadcaster Gary Cohen’s iconic call of Colon’s sole Major League homer and, well, let’s just say we can now pass from this mortal coil in peace.
Goosebumps. If you’ve somehow never seen it (or just want to watch it again), here’s the original dinger for reference.
Double goosebumps. Put the Mona Lisa in mothballs. Bulldoze the Sistine Chapel and build a ballpark. This is all we need. It is art and science. Alpha and Omega. Maker and unmaker. Most importantly, however, it is the perfect prelude to a new and assuredly absurd baseball season. Come on April 1st, hurry it up already.