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Friday, January 06, 2023
Three-time MLB All-Star Nate Colbert dead at 76
Nate Colbert, who hit more home runs than anyone in San Diego Padres history, died at 76, the team announced Thursday. A cause of death was not given.
Colbert, an original member of the Padres, smashed 163 home runs with the team from 1969-74.
“Nate was devoted to his community off the field as well, dedicating his time to disadvantaged youth through his ministry,” Padres Chairman Peter Seidler said in a statement. “He was a magnetic person who will be dearly missed.”
The first baseman played briefly with the Astros before being selected by the Padres in the expansion draft. He was an All-Star from 1971-73 and finished eighth in the 1972 NL MVP voting.
RoyalsRetro (AG#1F)
Posted: January 06, 2023 at 02:13 PM | 52 comment(s)
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1. salvomania Posted: January 06, 2023 at 03:47 PM (#6112200)Coincidentally, the 8-year-old Colbert, who was born in St. Louis, was in the stands that day in 1954 when Musial hit the five homers.
My father---also from St. Louis---tells the tale that he, too, was at that game, and the next day one of the local papers had a photo of one of the balls heading into the stands, and my father claims that in the photo he is visible looking up as the ball flies overhead, and his only recognizable features are his two enormous nostrils. He was also a yarn spinner, so I'm pretty sure that the photo, and probably his attendance at the game, are fabricated.
Not a tall tale, though, is that my mom taught art at the high school Colbert attended--Sumner High (go Bulldogs!)--and I remember her stories of dodging the erasers that were continuously being strewn about the classroom.
RIP Nate.
Rather than sending him back to the Cardinals, the 20-year-old Colbert spent the entire season on the bench, making zero appearances in the field, and getting just seven pinch-hit at-bats all year. What a horrible thing to do to a prospect.
I know RBIs are overrated, but that's still impressive.
Still one of the best sluggers in Padres history.
Wil Myers trails by 29, but he hit just seven in 2022 at age 31. Manny Machado would seem to have the best chance: trails by 55 but hit 32 last year at age 29.
All-time home run leaders for the 1969 expansion teams:
Ryan Braun (352, Pilots/Brewers) [most as a Pilot: Don Michener, 25]
George Brett (317, Royals)
Ryan Zimmerman (284, Expos/Nationals) [most as an Expo: Vlad Guerrero Sr, 234]
Nate Colbert (163, Padres)
not eerie, not eerie at all
Colbert and Stan Musial are the only players to hit 5 HR in one day in a doubleheader.
According to that story, Colbert said he was in the stands in St. Louis as a young lad when he saw Musial do it.
Bob Costas piled on w MLB Network last night with: "Nate looked at his Dad and said, 'I want to do that too, someday, Dad!"
(Colbert's 13 RBI are still a record for a doubleheader.)
Player dWAR PA OPS+ Rbaser HR RBI BA Rfield PosDon Hurst -7.0 3762 116 -3 115 610 .298 -30 *3H/8
Nate Colbert -7.4 3863 119 3 173 520 .243 -18 3H7/89D5
Mike Easler -8.3 4061 118 -3 118 522 .293 -17 7DH93
Khris Davis -8.4 3804 117 -9 221 590 .242 -28 7DH
Provided by Stathead.com: View Stathead Tool Used
Generated 1/6/2023.
The Padres basically have one great hitter who played his career there and dominates all the counting stats leaderboards. And that guy, Tony Gwynn, was not a home run hitter.
Everyone else was just there for a (relatively) few seasons. Winfield is #2 on their WAR list and he was there for 7+ seasons.
That should change with some of the long-term contracts they’ve been giving out.
It's the same on the pitching side. Eric Show is the all-time wins leader at 100.
Yes, but I love it in some ways. It epitomizes the futility of the franchise (though hopefully that is changing), and Colbert was the only "star" the team had for those early years which coincided with me becoming a baseball fan so I have a soft spot in my heart for Nate.
Yep, I feel for Show a bit like I feel for Nate. He was an integral part of the team when they finally broke through the decade plus of abject failure and when they went to the WS in 1984. A tragic end for him, he was such a misfit for baseball intellectually. Can you imagine sitting down on the mound when the all time hits record was just broken?
https://www.espn.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=5543839
And the team seems to feel he's going to opt out after next season. Wouldn't be surprised myself, it's the Curse of the Garvey.
1) 733 - Braves (Aaron)
2) 659 - Yankees (Ruth)
3) 646 - Giants (Mays)
4) 559 - Twins (Killebrew)
5) 548 - Phillies (Schmidt)
6) 545 - Cubs (Sosa)
7) 521 - Red Sox (Teddy)
8) 475 - Pirates (Stargell)
8) 475 - Cardinals (Musial)
10) 449 - Astros (Bagwell)
11) 448 - White Sox (Thomas)
12) 431 - Orioles (Ripken)
13) 417 - Mariners (Griffey)
14) 399 - Tigers (Kaline)
15) 389 - Reds (Bench)
15) 389 - Dodgers (Snider)
17) 372 - Rangers (JuanGone)
18) 369 - Rockies (Helton)
19) 363 - A's (McGwire)
20) 352 - Brewers (Braun)
21) 350 - Angels (Trout)
22) 337 - Guardians (Thome)
23) 336 - Blue Jays (Delgado)
24) 317 - Royals (Brett)
25) 284 - Nats (Zimmerman)
26) 267 - Marlins (Stanton)
27) 261 - Rays (Longoria)
28) 252 - Mets (Strawberry)
29) 224 - Diamondbacks (LuGo)
30) 163 - Padres (Colbert)
Last by a longshot! Good job, San Diego! ;-)
Pujols could return for 1 more year and surpass Musial with a mere 7 HR's. I guess Goldschmidt could decide in a few years he wants to retire as a D-Back and pass Luis Gonzalez with another 16 homers.
Salvy Perez is signed for four more years. He could make a run at Brett's, particularly if he has another 48-homer season in him.
You had to go there? :-)
Judge only has to average about 49 a year to pass Ruth. :-) Julio Rodriguez has a kinda 12-year contract, hit 28 HRs as a rookie and is only turning 22 so he could make a run at Griffey. Check back with me in 10 years. I'm not sure anybody on the 2023 Cubs will clear 20. Sammy's pretty safe.
Colbert, Winfield, Gwynn, Hoffmann, Peavy. That's all I can think of.
Randy Jones is definitely identified as a Padre, though he only had a couple of good years. Benito Santiago?
Re the list on #19: A bit surprised that Braun hit more HR than any of the Wallbangers. Ditto Zimmerman over guys like Dawson/Carter/Parrish.
Zimmerman benefited from never playing anywhere else (unlike Dawson or Carter). But Braun finished with more dingers than any of the 82 Crew.
Came here for this. It was my favorite book! The angle on the Colbert chapter was that he has watched his favorite player (Musial?) hit 5 HR in a doubleheader as a kid and then grew up and did it himself. I really loved that book. RIP.
He's a possibility. More games as a Padre, though significantly better in Pitt.
I always see Brian Giles as a Pirate.
Not sure he was outstanding, but I think of Phil Nevin as a Padre. He had a few big power hitting years.
On the pitching side, I think of Andy Benes. And Sterling Hitchcock although he was only really outstanding for one postseason.
I think this gets it right. There are definitely other players people might identify as a Pad, but they're generally not outstanding players. Randy Jones is outstanding to Padres fans of my age/era, but he blew out his arm and couldn't maintain his success. Nevin was very good for a few seasons, but his one really big season was in 2001 when everyone had massive offensive numbers. He was 7th in oWAR and HR, 9th in OPS+. Giles was really good, but his great years were with Pittsburgh for sure. Benes was a very good pitchers but not outstanding really. Love the Gene Richards pull!
I've mentioned before that although the Cubs were a pretty sorry team for most of my first 50 years, they almost always had a "real" star player on the team and they usually kept that guy around for a while. Even a guy like Madlock that they didn't keep around won two batting titles while there so easy to remember. I might be wrong but, if you're gonnna mostly stink, I think that's an important element of retaining fan loyalty.
Given the massive amount of common/shared revenue that every team gets then, other than it not being in the owners' pockets, what's the harm in a team like the Pirates making a "ridiculous" buyout offer to a guy like Oneil Cruz right now. I don't expect him to be as good as, say, Wander Franco but he's a fun, highlight-reel kinda player and Franco never earns more than $25 M in any single season on that deal. Just do it and don't worry if it goes belly up.
Certainly under anything like MLB's current revenue model, no cheap team has a legit excuse for letting a star player they developed get away. Even if they wait until the player is FA and even if they have to pay him an extra $5 M a year or whatever, it's easy to afford one or two such contracts.
When well designed uniforms are used brown and gold as the base are great. Beats the hell out of one more blue jerseyed team
I took a look at Tony Gwynn's career. I had never noticed he scored 100 runs only twice in his career. Odd for a player with a lifetime .388 OBP.
Ozzie
Alomar
McGriff
Maddux
Edit: Oh yeah, and Gaylord Perry won a CYA with them
EDIT: Dick Williams mgr ... I assume Doug Harvey umped many games there. :-)
EDIT2: Whos, is Dick Williams the winningest Padres manager by percentage? Never a losing season.
Definitely, those were horrendous! I liked the very simple sand colored uniforms of the earliest years with a brown cap and gold lettering. The uniforms they went to in 1985 were really nice as well although they went with orange more so than yellow. Now that they've gone back to brown and gold, I think they are excellent uniforms right now, except for the godawful city connect things
Harvey definitely umpired many games in San Diego, he lived here, too. I went to high school with one of his kids.
Edit: And I meant to say I would go with Williams as best percentage without even looking. I'm sure it's not even close.
Williams is a native San Diegan who grew up here and went to high school here, as well as played minor league ball in San Diego.
Williams had a pretty rough time of it in San Diego, to hear Ben Bradlee II tell it. He and his brother were sort of raised by the neighborhood while his parents were off doing other stuff, including various missionary activities. Also, despite the all-American name, Williams was Mexican, which carried a real stigma in California in those days -- which probably goes a long way to explain his stances on civil rights, despite otherwise being a right-wing jock type.
Yes, family was poor. Father was uninvolved, and his mother was extremely active in the Salvation Army, to the point of leaving the kids unattended while she was out prosletyzing. Williams felt abandoned by both of them. His mother was Mexican, or of Mexican descent at least, his father was not, AFAIK. Nonetheless, I'm sure he experienced some prejudice even so.
This is a perfect encapsulation of why I gave up on actively following the Pirates (and mostly baseball), specifically in the case of Andrew McCutchen. McCutchen loved Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh adored him right back. I thought he would finally be a Forever Pirate, retire as a Bucco, build a life in the city in a way that other sports figures have done (Hines Ward and Jerome Bettis are great examples, Mario Lemieux on a much larger scale). When they traded him for, ironically, Bryan Reynolds (even though Reynolds was not the key figure in that deal), I was done.
It is clear the Pirates will probably not be good for at least another 5, probably 10 years and that was clear over 5 years ago when they traded Cutch (that they were not ever really going to be good). But Cutch was fun, he was good enough, and he made watching the Pirates fun even when they lost. It just seemed like a cynical decision to trade him and I've never really forgiven the franchise for doing so.
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