(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Video by MLB Film; Photo by San Diego Padres Twitter)
IN MEMORIAM
...Nate Colbert...
(1946 - 2023) |
 Former San Diego Padres-star and Hall of Famer Nate Colbert passed away
Nederlands
 LAS VEGAS, Nevada (USA) -
Former first baseman Nate Colbert, who played in ten Major League-seasons (1966, 1968-1976) for five clubs, passed away on Thursday (January 5) at age 76.
Colbert was one of the players of the San Diego Padres when that team made its Major League-debut in 1969.
He played in six seasons for San Diego and went on to become the all-time homerun-leader, a record which is still standing.
In 1999, Colbert was a member of the inaugural group that was inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame.
Nathan (Nate) Colbert, Jr. was born on April 9, 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended Sumner High School.
His father Nathan Colbert, Sr. played professionally in the Negro Leagues, where he was a teammate of the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige, who in 1971 was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1964, the young Colbert signed a professional contract with St. Louis Cardinals.
In November 1965, his contract was purchased by Houston Astros in the Major League-draft.
That Colbert was a tatented player was quickly underscored, as he made his Major League-debut shortly thereafter during the 1966 season.
In 1964 and 1965, Colbert played in the Minor League in the Cardinals-organization, respectively in the Rookie League and Single-A.
In his first season, he batted .217 and in the next season, Colbert batted .274 in Single-A.
After his contract was selected by Houston Astros in November 1965, he was promoted to the Major League-team.
And so, in only his third professional season, Colbert made his Major League-debut on April 14, 1966.
On that day, Houston Astros played an away-game against Los Angeles Dodgers.
In the top of the seventh inning, with Los Angeles leading 2-1 and one out, Houston-catcher John Bateman reached on an error.
After he had reached first base, Colbert was inserted as pinch-runner.
He moved into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt, but stranded at second base.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Colbert was replaced by new catcher Ron Brand.
In his debut-season, Colbert played in 19 games for Houston, but in none of them he played defensively.
He was inserted in twelve games as pinch-runner and in seven games a pinch-hitter.
Colbert got seven at bats (four strikeouts), remained hitless, but scored three runs.
He scored his first Major League-run in his fourth game against Atlanta Braves.
Colbert also played in the Rookie League during the 1966 season.
In 1967, the first baseman played the entire season in the Minor League in the Double-A (120 games) and Triple-A (two games) teams of Houston, hitting .289 with 28 homeruns and batted in 67 runs.
Initially, Colbert again played in Triple-A in 1968, but he then returned to the Major League-team in July and appeared in 20 games in the remainder of the season.
Although he again was inserted several times as pinch-runner, Colbert also saw action as outfielder and as first baseman.
In his first game back in the Major League, on July 1, Colbert was the starting rightfielder for Houston in a home-game against Cincinnati Reds at the famous Astrodome.
In the fourth inning, Colbert collected his first Major League-basehit off of Jim Maloney.
This time, Colbert batted 8-for-53 (.151) in the 20 games he played, scored five runs and batted in four.
In his two seasons with Houston Astros, amongst Colbert's teammates were Bob Aspromonte, John Bateman, Ron Brand, Jim Gentile, Chuck Harrison, Sonny Jackson, Felix Mantilla, Denis Menke, Joe Morgan, Doug Rader, Rusty Staub, Hector Torres, Bob Watson and Jim Wynn and pitchers Mike Cuellar, Larry Dierker, Turk Farrell, Dave Giusti, Bob Lillis, Claude Raymond and legend Robin Roberts.
Morgan was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990, Roberts in 1976.
In October 1968, the expansion draft was conducted to compose the rosters of the four new clubs that would join the Major League in 1969.
These teams were San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos in the National League and Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots in the American League.
After its inaugural season, the Seattle-team moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Brewers.
After the 2004 season, Montreal Expos moved to Washington, DC to become the current Washington Nationals.
Colbert was one of thirty players drafted by the new San Diego-club.
Other players selected included Cito Gaston, Dave Giusti, Fred Kendall, Clay Kirby, Jerry Morales and Zoilo Versalles.
From 1969 on, Nate Colbert was a regular in the San Diego Padres-team in six seasons.
In those seasons, he developed into one of the first stars of the team.
Colbert also was one of the offensive leaders for San Diego.
In his first season with San Diego, Colbert played in 139 games and batted .255 with 123 basehits, including twenty doubles, nine triples and 24 homeruns.
He scored 64 runs and batted in 66.
Colbert led the team with his 24 homeruns, nine triples, 66 RBI's and 45 walks and became the prime first baseman after Bill Davis was traded.
His 139 games played, 64 runs scored, 123 basehits and 20 doubles were second-best in the team.
His 24 homeruns were the highest total amongst all rookies.
In the next four seasons, Colbert played in 145 or more games annually.
He played in 156 games in both 1970 and 1971, then in 151 in the 1972 season and in 145 in 1973.
With his 156 games in 1970, he led all San Diego-players, as he did with his 38 homeruns.
He was second-best with 84 runs scored behind (future Major League-Manager) Cito Gaston.
In 1971, Colbert led the National League in games played (153) and innings played (1,362 2/3) at first base.
He also led in putouts (1,372), assists (106) and double plays (125).
Besides being a solid defensive player, Colbert also was a productive hitter.
After his 123 basehits in his first season with San Diego, Colbert recorded 148 in 1970, then 149 in 1971, which was his career-high.
In 1971, he also played in his first All-Star Game.
...San Diego Padres remembers...
...Nate Colbert on Twitter with a photo...
...of his 5-homerun day in 1972...
(© Photo: San Diego Padres Twitter) |
His batting average raised annually, from .255 in 1969 to .270 in 1973.
Although Colbert struckout 119 or more times in all of his first five San Diego-seasons, he also batted in a lot of runs.
In 1971, Colbert led the Padres-team with 27 homeruns and 84 runs batted in.
In 1972, he batted in a career-high of 111 and scored a career-high of 87 runs.
August 1, 1972 was a memorable day in the career of Nate Colbert, as he then hit five homeruns in a double-header against Atlanta Braves, with San Diego winning 9-0 and 11-7.
The five homeruns on one day equaled the record which was set in 1954 by legendary Stan Musial, who was Colbert's idol.
Coincidentally, as an 8-year old, Colbert was in attendance when Musial hit his five homeruns in a double-header on May 2, 1954
Colbert batted in thirteen runs, which broke the record of eleven, which had been accomplished three times.
In 1972, he was seleced to play in his second All-Star Game, which was played in Atlanta.
With the score tied at 3-3, Nate Colbert was inserted as pinch-hitter for the National League-team in the bottom of the tenth inning.
He led off with a walk, moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Chris Speier and scored the winning run on a walk-off single by Joe Morgan.
In 1973, Colbert had a strong season and finished with a career-high .270, being the best hitter in the San Diego-team.
He again played in the most games and also led in runs scored (73), basehits (143, sharing with Fred Kendall), doubles (25), homeruns (22), runs batted in (80) and walks (54).
In this year, he played in his third and final All-Star Game.
In his first five seasons with San Diego, Nate Colbert hit 22 or more homeruns each season, highlighted by 38 in both 1970 and 1972.
With his 38 homeruns, Colbert shared fifth place in the National League with Hank Aaron in 1970.
His 38 homeruns in 1972 were second only in the National League behind Johnny Bench, who had 40.
Aaron was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1982, Bench in 1989.
In 1974, his sixth season with San Diego, Colbert batted only .207 with 76 basehits (14 homeruns), 53 runs scored and 54 runs batted in.
In that season, Colbert returned to the outfield, becoming the leftfielder after San Diego had acquired Willie McCovey.
During the 1974 season, Colbert was bothered by some injuries and in November, he was traded to Detroit Tigers for three players.
As player of San Diego, Nate Colbert hit 163 homeruns, which still is the all-time record of the club, more than club-icon ('Mr. Padre') Tony Gwynn.
Colbert is followed on the all-time list by powerhitters Adrián Gonzalez (161), Phil Nevin (156), Dave Winfield (154) and Gwynn (135).
Colbert also is in the top-10 lists of the club in runs scored, runs batted in and games played.
Amongst Colbert's teammates in all his six seasons at San Diego were Cito Gaston and Fred Kendall.
After his career, Gaston was a Major League-Manager in twelve seasons with Toronto Blue Jays.
In five seasons, Colbert played together with Jerry Morales and Ivan Murrell and pitcher Clay Kirby.
Other teammates included Matty Alou, Ollie Brown, Chris Cannizzaro, Pat Corrales, Tommy Dean, Al Ferrara, Johnny Grubb, Enzo Hernandez, Mike Ivie, Don Mason, Ed Spiezio, Larry Stahl, Fred Stanley, Derrel Thomas, Bobby Tolan and pitchers Mike Caldwell, Danny Coombs, Pat Dobson, Dave Freisleben, Randy Jones, Joe Niekro, Fred Norman, Frank Reberger and Dave Tomlin.
...In the 1972 All-Star Game in Atlanta, Nate Colbert scores the...
...winning run for the National League in the 10th inning...
...on a walk-single by Joe Morgan...
Video: MLB Film |
In his final two seasons, amongst Colbert's teammates were two future Hall of Famers, Dave Winfield (elected in 2001) and Willie McCovey (1986)
In 1973 and 1974, Winfield played in his first two seasons of his long Major League-career.
McCovey came to San Diego via a trade with San Francisco Giants after the 1973 season.
Although San Diego finished in sixth (and) last place in the National League West Division in all of Colbert's six seasons, the team was led by several experienced and wellknown coaches.
Preston Gomez was the Manager when Colbert played for the team in 1969-1972.
Don Zimmer took over during the 1972-season and also led the team in 1973, then John McNamara was the Manager in 1974.
Amongst the coaches were Sparky Anderson (1969), Roger Craig (1969-1972), Dave Garcia (1970-1973), Bob Skinner (1970-1973) and Johnny Podres (1973).
All went on to become Managers themselves, except Podres.
In 1975, Nate Colbert played in only 45 games for Detoit, hitting .147 with four homeruns.
Halfway the season, in June, his contract was sold to Montreal Expos for whom he played in 38 games in the remainder of the season.
He batted .173 for Montreal, also with four homeruns.
In his stay with Detroit, Ralph Houk was the Manager and amongst his teammates were Gates Brown, Bill Freehan, Willie Horton, Ron LeFlore, Dan Meyer, Ben Oglivie, Leon Roberts, Aurelio Rodriguez, Gary Sutherland, Tom Veryzer and pitchers John Hiller, Lerrin LaGrow, Mickey Lolich and Vern Ruhle.
The following season (1976), Nate Colbert mostly played in the Minor League.
He appeared in only fourteen games for Montreal Expos, then was released in June.
A week later, he was signed by Oakland Athletics for whom he played in only two games towards the end of the season.
In both games, Colbert was used as designated hitter and got only five at bats.
He stayed hitless, walked once and struckout three times.
In November 1976, he became a Free Agent.
Before the start of the 1977 season, Colbert participated in Spring Training with another new team, Toronto Blue Jays.
This Canadian team made its debut in the American League in 1977, as did Seattle Mariners.
However, due to back injuries, the 30-year old Colbert never made the final roster and his career ended.
His teammates at Montreal include Bob Bailey, Larry Biitner, Gary Carter (Hall of Fame 2003), Tim Foli, Barry Foote, Mike Jorgensen, Pete Mackanin, Pepe Mangual, Jose Morales, Larry Parrish and pitchers Woodie Fryman, Steve Renko, Steve Rogers, Chuck Taylor and Dan Warthen.
In 1976, his former teammate Clay Kirby also pitched for Montreal.
In 1975, Gene Mauch was the Manager and Walt Hriniak, who briefly was a teammate of Colbert at San Diego in 1969, was the 1B Coach.
In his two games at Oakland, he played together with veterans player such as Sal Bando, Don Baylor, Bert Campaneris, Phil Garner, Jeff Newman, Bill North, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace, Claudell Washington and pitchers Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers (Hall of Fame 1992).
In his 10-year Major League-career, Nate Colbert played in 1,004 games and collected 833 basehits, including 141 doubles, 25 triples and 173 homeruns.
He scored 481 runs and batted in 520.
After his playing career ended, Nate Colbert was active as a Minor League hitting coach for San Diego Padres in 1987-1990.
Later, as a minister, he worked with disadvantaged youths.
In 1999, Colbert was a member of the inaugural class that was inducted into the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame, together with pitcher Randy Jones and longtime club-owner Ray Kroc.
In a statement, published on Twitter and its website, San Diego Padres-chairman Peter Seidler said:
,,We are deeply saddened by the passing of Padres Hall of Famer Nate Colbert.
Our hearts go out to his wife, Kasey, and the entire Colbert family at this very difficult time.
An original member of the Padres in 1969, Nate was a trailblazer in the San Diego sports community.
He was a three-time National League All-Star in brown and gold and became the Padres all-time home run king (163), a record that still stands today.
Nate was devoted to his community off the field as well, dedicating his time to disadvantaged youth through his ministry.
He was a magnetic person who will be dearly missed.''
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to the family and friends of Nate Colbert and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(January 11)
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