Rocky Colavito
April 17, 1960: A trade is made in baseball. At the time, it was merely curious. In hindsight, it was very damaging.
Rocco "Rocky" Colavito had been the right fielder for the Cleveland Indians. He had the best right field arm in the American League, along with Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates having the best in the National League. He was also a heavy hitter: In the last 2 seasons, he had hit 41 and 42 home runs, and 113 and 111 RBIs.
He was the most popular player on the team, and his league-leading 42 homers helped them finish 2nd in the AL in 1959, behind the Chicago White Sox, whose Nellie Fox was named Most Valuable Player. It was generally agreed that, had the Indians won the Pennant instead, Colavito would have been named the MVP.
But just 1 day before the Indians were set to begin the 1960 season, their general manager, Frank Lane, traded Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. Kuenn had led the AL with a .353 batting average, and had led it in doubles 2 years in a row. This was the 1st time the defending batting champion and the returning home run leader had been traded for each other, in either League. People wondered why.
Harvey Kuenn
It has been suggested that "Trader Lane," a.k.a. "Frantic Frank," wanted to get rid of any star on the team, so as to keep salaries down. Kuenn was a good player, but he wasn't as big a star as Colavito. The effect on the Indians was immediate: After going 89-65 and finishing just 5 games out of 1st place in 1959, they fell to 76-78 in 1960, 21 games behind the Pennant-winning Yankees.
At first, the trade worked pretty well for Colavito: Tiger Stadium's short power alleys suited him well, and, in 1961, he had career highs with 45 home runs and 140 RBIs, helping Detroit win 101 games. But that was the year that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs and Mickey Mantle hit 54, leading the Yankees to 109 wins. So not only did his best year as a player, individually and team-wise, not give him the league lead in any major offensive category -- although, in this 1st year of AL expansion, he did become the 1st player to officially play in 163 games, thanks to a rainout and replay -- it didn't even get him as close to the Pennant as he got with the '59 Indians.
The Indians continued to struggle. In 1964, the Tigers traded Colavito to the Kansas City Athletics. The following year, the Indians got him back, in a 3-way deal with the A's and the White Sox that sent Tommie Agee and Tommy John to Chicago.
That season, Colavito had 108 RBIs, good enough to lead the AL. But in 1966, though his home run total went up from 26 to 30, his RBIs dropped to 72, and his batting average fell from .287 to .238. Injuries ended his career 2 years later, only 35 years old. He finished with 374 home runs and 9 All-Star berths -- but, oddly, no Gold Gloves. He is one of the best all-around baseball players not in the Hall of Fame.
Terry Pluto, longtime Cleveland newspaper columnist and the man who knows more about the franchise now known as the Cleveland Guardians than anyone, titled his 1994 book about the team's history The Curse of Rocky Colavito, pointing out that, from 1960 to 1993, the Indians never even finished within 10 games of 1st place, except for the strike-split season of 1981.
Pluto has also suggested that the worst trade the franchise has ever made is the one in which they got rid of Colavito. And the 2nd-worst was the one where they got him back. Fans can't blame that one on Frank Lane, who was already gone.
Lane died in 1981. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn asked Bobby Bragan, who had managed under Lane with the 1958 Indians, to be Major League Baseball's official representative at Lane's funeral. When Bragan got there, he saw that he was the only person connected with baseball there. Lane was that much of a pariah.
In 1971, as GM of the Milwaukee Brewers, Lane hired Kuenn, a native of the Milwaukee suburbs, as a Brewer coach. Lane was fired in 1972, but Kuenn was still there in 1982, when he was named Brewers manager, and led them to the American League Pennant. He died in 1988, from diabetes, only 57 years old.
As of April 17, 2022, Rocky Colavito is still alive, and remains beloved by Cleveland baseball fans.
UPDATE: He died on December 10, 2024, at the age of 91. He was the last surviving player to have participated in the TV show Home Run Derby in the Winter of 1959-60.
The Guardians have a team Hall of Fame. From Colavito's rookie season of 1955 to his near-MVP season of 1959, they have honored him, and also ill-fated pitcher Herb Score. It says something about the gap between their 1959 Pennant race and their 1995 American League Pennant that only these players have been honored from that period: Sam McDowell, Gaylord Perry, Frank Robinson and Andre Thornton. And Robinson is honored mainly because the Indians made him MLB's 1st black manager, not because he hit much for them.
Score has also been elected to the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. So have 1970s players Andre Thornton Rick Manning and Mike Hegan, and coach Joe Nossek. But Colavito has not. And Manning, Hegan and Nossek have likely been elected because they were Cleveland natives. (Hegan was the son of Indians star Jim Hegan.)
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April 17, 1960 was a Sunday. This was the same day as the car crash in England that killed early rock and roll star Eddie Cochran. I have a separate entry for that event.
Football was out of season. Hockey season had ended 3 days earlier, when the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Stanley Cup. Basketball season ended 5 days before that, when the Boston Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks for the NBA Championship.
There were 5 baseball games played that day:
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Bob Buhl outpitched Robin Roberts. Eddie Mathews hit a home run. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, 5-0 and 6-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Friend pitched a 4-hit shutout in the opener. Over the 2 games, Roberto Clemente and Frank Robinson both went 2-for-8 with 2 RBIs, although Clemente also hit a home run in the opener.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Larry Sherry pitched 6 innings for the win, and Sandy Koufax pitched 3 innings of relief for the save. Brooklyn holdovers Gil Hodges and Duke Snider, and Los Angeles acquisition Wally Moon, hit home runs for the Dodgers. Stan Musial homered for the Cards.
* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at the newly-opened Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Jim Davenport singled relief pitcher Billy Loes home with the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning. Willie Mays went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Orlando Cepeda hit a home run. Ernie Banks went 1-for-5 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.
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