Who is the man: This is the first solo card of Jim Colborn. Look how pleased he is.
Can ya dig it: Colborn is one of three Royals pitchers to throw a no-hitter. The others are Steve Busby and Bret Saberhagen.
Right on: Colborn's blue eyes match with the Cubs' baby blue road unis.
You see this cat Colborn is a bad mother: Colborn runs his own baseball league, called the "Jim Colborn Baseball League." If you have a baseball league named after you, it's pretty much a given that you're a bad mother.
Shut your mouth: When Colborn was pitching coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he got into several arguments with players on the team. He was eventually let go from his job in 2007.
No one understands him but his woman: Colborn became the Brewers' first 20-game winner, winning 20 in 1973. The feat was totally unexpected as the Cubs traded him at the end of 1971 and Colborn proceeded to go just 7-7 in his first season with the Brewers. After his 20-game season, Baseball Digest did a story on him and called it "Jim Colborn -- the Unknown 20-Game Winner."
(A word about the back): Yup, he still looks very pleased.
I was going to write that the Brewers had only 3 20 winners in their history, which strikes me as a small number. But when I look at all the 1969 expansion team, other than the 15 year stretch by KC Royals, no team has done well on the field. The Montreal franchise has only one, Padres, like the Brewers 3. KC is best with 8 20 game winners, but none in the last 23 years. All of these team overall franchise are from .20 to .37 points below .500 over course of close to 7000 games. It leaves to wonder, after two franchise moves, and many near misses were these franchises worth it?
ReplyDeleteThanks to you and Baseball Digest, we all know about him now. I'd be pleased too, even if the two guys behind me weren't paying attention.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty good trivia question--who was the only 20-game winner for the Expos? None other than......Ross Grimsley. Didn't think of him, did you?
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