First off, I was really hoping to find a better image of Colborn in a Royals uniform for this card. But sadly, this was the best (and ONLY) one I could find that had the adequate resolution. So forgive the slightly “off” clarity.
Colborn came over from the Milwaukee Brewers over the Winter and put together a great season for the eventual American League West champions, going 18-14 with an earned run average of 3.62 over 36 appearances, all but one starts.
A former 20 game winner with the Brewers in 1973 (the first 20-game winner in franchise history), he made the only All-Star team of his 10-year career that season when he paired those 20 wins with a 3.18 ERA and four shutouts over 43 appearances and 36 starts.
The 1977 season would end up being his second best season under the Big League sun, and it’s peak was that May 14th evening when he went on to face only 26 “official” batters, getting the only blemish on his night, a walk to catcher Jim Sundberg, was quickly erased by a double-play off the bat of Juan Beniquez.
He would strikeout six batters, while cruising along to a no-hit gem in two-hours and 10 minutes, improving his record to 5-3 at that time, with a sparkling 2.23 ERA.
Ironically, that 1977 season would be his last solid year as a Big League pitcher, and as a matter of fact he’d play ony one more year, 1979, when he split the year with the Royals and Seattle Mariners, going a combined 4-12 with a 5.24 ERA over 28 appearances.
But just like that, his career was over at the age of 32, finishing up with a record of 83-88, with an ERA of 3.80 over 301 appearances and 1597.1 innings pitched between 1969 and 1978.