In fact, Coletta was in the Red Sox minor-league system for ten seasons (1963–72)--- from age 18 to age 28. In 1963, he hit .312 for Waterloo (Class A). In 1964, he hit .326 for Winston-Salem (Class A). Promoted to Class AA in 1965, he hit .318 for Pittsfield --- then in 1966, he hit .311 for Pittsfield. During these four seasons, his on-base percentage was around .400, and his slugging percentage always over .435—all healthy numbers given the low offensive output of the era. After a poor season in 1967, he hit .314 for Savannah (Class AA) in 1968, at which point he was finally promoted to the Class AAA Louisville team. Coletta then was stuck in AAA Louisville for four seasons despite some superb statistics—he hit .294 in 1969, .332 in 1970, .311 in 1971, and .319 in 1972 (with on-base percentages around .400, and slugging percentages around .450).\n', '

In mid-August 1972, about a week after turning 28 years old, Coletta was finally liberated from the (at the time) dysfunctional Red Sox organization --- he was traded to the Angels for Andy Kosco --- so that the Red Sox could employ a journeyman (Kosco) in their (failed) attempt to win the AL East that year.\n', '

In his month-and-a-half stint with the Angels, Colleta hit .300. His OPS+ (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage normalized to the league average) was 130, meaning his performance was 30% better than the league average. Because 1972 was such a poor season for batting in general – the DH was instituted in the AL the next year because scoring was down so much – translating Coletta\'s batting average to an "average" season (average ballpark, average runs scored, etc.), Coletta would have hit .353 under those circumstances.\n', '

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