Was Joe Coleman Traded By the Senators Because He Was Too Good?

After finishing my Air Force enlistment in  Japan, my wife and I spent a couple of years living in her familial home of Salt lake City Utah before returning home to Washington D.C.

It was there that my first daughter, Kira Katrina, was born on June 19, 1981.

She is 27 now and married with a daughter. Where has the time gone?

Sigh .....

Anyway, the doctors let her go home three days later with the admonition that we get her outside and into the sunshine.

My daughter was suffering from jaundice and was a little too yellow for the doctor's liking.

We were driving home from the hospital when we passed Derks Field, home of Salt Lake's 'AAA' baseball franchise, the "Gulls," then an affiliate of the California Angels.

Cool. That's outside. We'll do that.

With my wife's official okey-dokey, we pulled into the parking lot and made our way to the ticket booth. Two tickets; $3.50 total.

Not bad at all. Even for 1981.

As we entered the grandstand, we realized that it was "Picture Day" at Derks' Field. We could go right on to the field and have our picture taken with our favorite Salt Lake City Gull.

Historical note: Shortly after Brigham Young led the Mormon exodus into the Salt Lake valley, an invasion of crickets began to devour the group's first real crop. Prayers were answered when thousands of sea gulls came literally out of nowhere and munched the insects into oblivion.

So the team name "Gulls," had real meaning for the locals.

Along the first base line, separated by twenty feet or so, were each of the Gulls' players and coaches. My wife-just 72 hours removed from pushing the equivalent of a bowling ball out from between her legs-begged off and took a seat just behind the first base dugout.

Carrying my new daughter, I walked down the steps and onto to the field, and headed over to Daryl Sconiers, a high average, good field, medium power first baseman from California.

I handed him my baby daughter and he eagerly grabbed her into his arms. As I was setting up the shot, he reached into his mouth and pulled out a small piece of his tobacco plug and said, "Hey baby, want some of my chew?"

I snapped one quick picture and moved on.

I began to walk towards the Gulls' star outfielder Tom Brunansky, who was just a few days away from beginning a stellar major league career.

As I got closer, I noticed a man in a Spokane Indians' uniform watching with amusement at what the Salt Lake players were having to endure.

While waiting for Brunansky's line to shorten I kept looking at this guy. He was too old to be a minor league player, but certainly young enough to still be in the major leagues.

The more I stared, the more I began to realize that I'd seen him somewhere before.

Suddenly, while talking to first baseman Jim Maler, the other guy went into a mock windup and pretended to throw a pitch.

Bingo!

It was former Senators' pitcher Joe Coleman. I recognized the follow-through.

Just as Brunansky put out his hands to take my daughter, I turned and walked away and headed straight for that other guy whose team wasn't even participating in "Picture Day."

I approached the man, handed him my daughter and said "Hold this please."

I took a few steps back and began to set up my camera. Confusion didn't begin to describe the look on his face.

"Um, we're not part of the picture day event" the man said. "Oh, I know; hold still please," I replied.

He then gave me a half-smile and said, "Oh, you must be from Spokane!"

"Nope. Can you move your head to the left please?"

"Seattle?"

"Never been there. Raise your cap just a bit."

I snapped the above picture while he was still trying to figure out why this guy from Salt Lake City shoved a baby into the arms. You can clearly see that "what in the heck is going on?" look on his face.

Now, I wasn't just a Washington Senators' fan you understand. I knew every stat of every player who ever wore the expansion team's uniform.

I knew all about this guy.

I was refocusing my camera when I said almost matter-of-factly, "In your first three starts, you went 3-0, all complete games, and all before the age of 20 at that. How'd that feel?" 

For those of you too young to remember, Coleman was traded by the Washington Senators following the 1970 season with Ed Brinkman, Jim Hannan, and Aurelio Rodriguez to the Detroit Tigers for Denny McLain, Don Wert, Norm McRae, and Elliott Maddox.

This was one of the worst trades in memory, as the Senators traded their ace pitcher, another solid starter/reliever and the entire left side of their infield for three reserves and a guy who used to be Denny McLain.

Many of us old-timers believed that team owner and general manager Bob Short had already decided to move the team to Texas and gutted his Senators to lower attendance and make MLB approval more certain.

I've always seen a parallel between what Bob Short did and the movie "Major League."

When I mentioned the trade, Coleman began to chuckle and shake his head in disbelief. "Obviously you know who I am. Who are you?"

I smiled and said, "Just another fan who'd loved to have had the chance to beat the hell out of Bob Short when he made that trade in 1970."

The man dropped his head and began to laugh. "If you want to beat up Bob Short, you must be from Washington," he said, still shaking his head.

He put my baby girl onto his left shoulder and walked to me with his arm outstretched. "Hi, I'm Joe Coleman" said the lanky pitcher with still a "tinch" of his Massachusetts accent remaining.

We talked for about 15 minutes before the "Picture Day" event came to an end.

He told me that he really enjoyed his time in Washington, and yes, he couldn't believe that he went 3-0 with three complete games to start off his major league career.

Coleman told me that-at first anyway-he was saddened to move on to Detroit, but he began to realize that he moved with a large part of his team, so at least he wouldn't be lonely, and maybe, just maybe, he'd have a chance to finally win a pennant.

I asked him about Ted Williams. He said that during spring training of 1969, Williams scared him to death. "I was 22 for crying out loud, just a kid, really. And me, being a kid from Natick, playing for a guy I grew up watching, a guy my dad pitched against? It was crazy."

His dad was Joe Coleman Sr., a pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics for many years and finished his career with a 52-76, 4.38 record.

Was Frank Howard as nice as he seemed? "Nicer."

Who was the better left side of the infield, Mark Bellanger and Brooks Robinson of the Orioles or the Senators' Eddie Brinkman and Ken McMullen?

"No one was better than Robinson but Kenny was the best of the rest. Eddie was better than Mark, and was a much better hitter in 1969 and 1970."

Could Frank Howard have been a better fielder if he practiced more? (smile) "Well, Frank was never much for practice, but then he didn't need it usually."

What did you think of your trade when you first heard about it?

"At first, I thought it was one-sided like everyone else, but not as much as you might think. I believed that Denny (McLain) would regain his stuff and win 15-20 games for Washington in 1971.

"I thought Toby Harrah was close enough to take over at short or third, so they really needed to replace only one starting infielder. I didn't think it was a great trade, but not a bad one. I guess I was wrong."

I got the impression that no one had asked Coleman these questions for some time, and that he enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

Although he had three or four outstanding years for the Tigers, he was never a household name, especially in his team's hometown of Spokane Washington. I think he actually enjoyed the time we spent talking about his past.

I shook his hand and told him I enjoyed coming to RFK and watching him play. I had gotten about five or six steps towards the stands when he said, "Hey!"

I turned and looked back to see that he had walked towards me. He put his hand out one more time and said, "If you paid those ticket prices at RFK, I guess I can 'comp' you a few tickets now."

For the remainder of the series, I got into Derks Field free, thanks to Joe Coleman, former Senator.

Coleman didn't just burst on to the scene in 1965; much was expected of the kid. Most of us with graying hair remember that Rick Monday was the first pick of the very first major league baseball amateur draft ever held.

Few remember, however, that Coleman was selected by the Senators with the No. 3 pick, just after the Mets' Les Rohr.

Coleman was terrible for Burlington of the Carolina league that first year, going 2-10, 4.56 in 12 starts. Amazingly, Coleman got a September callup (probably a P.R. move by the Senators) and got an opportunity to start two games.

Two amazing games

Coleman completed both of them, allowing an average of eight base runners per nine innings. In 1966, following a 7-19, 3.75 season at 'AA' York, Coleman got the opportunity to pitch another game in Washington.

Again, he pitched a complete game, giving up just six hits and two runs.

In his first 27 major league innings, Coleman allowed a total of four runs.

During the remainder of his time in D.C., Coleman was slightly below average, going 40-50, with a 3.68 ERA. In the next four years with the Tigers, however, Coleman blossomed, going 58-50, with a 3.48 ERA.

His ERA was a little better, but his accomplishments clearly were helped by playing with a much better team.

Following a couple of sub-par years with the Tigers, Coleman became a baseball gypsy, playing with the Cubs, Athletics, Blue Jays, Giants and Pirates before finally retiring in 1979 at the young age of just 32.

He was 34 when we met in Salt Lake City.

Baseball has been Joe Coleman's life since his earliest days when he watched his father pitch for the Philadelphia Athletics at Fenway Park.

His father opened a sporting goods store in their home town of Natick after retiring in 1955. The sign read "Joe Coleman & Son" in hopes that Joe Jr. would one day take over the business.

It never happened.

Instead, Coleman followed in his father's other footsteps and became a professional baseball player instead.

His father closed down the store a year or two later.

Was Joe Sr. saddened by his son's decision?

Not in the least.

It was a win-win situation for the elder Coleman. His son could have followed his father into the family business, or he could have followed his father and become a major league pitcher.

Either way, papa Coleman must have been very, very proud.