Rocky Colavito, one of baseball’s greatest sluggers at the time and a huge fan favorite as an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, died Tuesday at his home after being traded in 1960 in one of the most infamous trades in club history. Bernville, Pennsylvania. He was 91 years old.
His death from pneumonia was announced by the Cleveland Guardians, for whom the team is now known.
Colavito hit 374 home runs over 14 years in the major leagues, eight of those seasons with Cleveland. He returned to his native Bronx and finished his career playing for the Yankees. The six-time All-Star was only the third player in the major leagues to hit four home runs in one consecutive plate appearance, and he had one of the most powerful weapons in the game.
At a burly 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, Colavito played the game with enthusiasm and was willing to sign autographs, even though flat feet limited his mobility. Time magazine featured him on the cover of its summer 1959 profile of baseball’s young stars, raving about how the curly-haired, handsome Colavito “made the Bobby Sox players scream.”
“Rocky had tremendous charisma.” Cleveland’s fast-pitch left-hander Herb Score told Terry Pluto in “The Curse of Rocky Colavito” (1994), which chronicled the team’s years of failure after Colavito was traded. “Fans weren’t attracted to him because he hit a home run. Rocky enjoyed clutch situations. “He didn’t always succeed, but he wanted to be the one to carry that burden on his back.”
In 1958, when rumors circulated that newly appointed Cleveland general manager Frank Lane would trade Colavito, fans chanted “Don’t knock the Rock!”
Colavito hit 41 home runs in 1958 and 42 in 1959, tying him for the American League lead with Harmon Killebrew, and drove in more than 100 runs in each season. Lane told The Saturday Evening Post in July 1959 that when Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams finished their careers, Colavito “will easily become the biggest gate attraction in the American League.”
But Lane thwarted Colavito’s efforts for a significant salary increase, infuriating Cleveland fans by trading Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for outfielder Harvey Kuenn two days before the 1960 season opener. Kuenn, the league batting champion in 1959, was three years older than Colavito and hit just nine home runs that season.
Gabe Paul, then general manager of the Cincinnati Reds and future general manager of Cleveland, reportedly said, “The Indians traded a slow player with power for a slow player without power.”
Colavito hit at least 35 home runs in three of his four seasons as a Tiger. Kuenn played only one season in Cleveland before being traded to the San Francisco Giants.
“I loved Cleveland and the Indians. I didn’t want to leave,” Colavito told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland in 2010.
And he insisted he never swore at the team. As he said, “Frank Lane did it.” Either way, Cleveland still hasn’t won a World Series since 1948.
Rocco Domenico Colavito was born in the Bronx on August 10, 1933, the son of a truck driver. He idolized Joe DiMaggio as a child and dropped out of Theodore Roosevelt High School at age 16 to play semi-professional baseball. After scouting him at a Bronx tryout, Cleveland signed him to a minor league contract in 1951 with a $3,000 bonus.
After four years with Detroit and one year with the Kansas City Athletics, Colavito returned to Cleveland in January 1965 in a three-team trade involving the A’s and Chicago White Sox. But Cleveland made as much of a mistake in bringing Colavito back as the team did in letting him go.
Colavito was still a productive hitter, but by then he was entering the twilight of his career. Cleveland gave the White Sox pitchers Tommy John, who won only two games in Cleveland but won 286 games with Chicago and other teams, and Tommie Agee, who was Rookie of the Year for the White Sox in 1966. He was also the center fielder for the Mets’ 1969 World Series champions.
Colavito remained in Cleveland until mid-1967, then finished his career with the White Sox, Dodgers, and Yankees, who signed him in July 1968 when he was released by Los Angeles.
In his first game as a Yankee, he hit a three-run home run in his second at-bat against the Washington Senators in front of a sparse Yankee Stadium crowd of 11,503.
In August, he pitched 2 1/3 innings as a reliever in the first game of a doubleheader against the Tigers, entering the fourth inning with Detroit ahead 5-0. He allowed no runs and one hit, and the Yankees came from behind to win 6-5. He hit a home run in the second game of the Yankees’ doubleheader sweep.
But Colavito’s brief Yankee career was otherwise unremarkable. He hit five home runs but had a batting average of just .220. When the Yankees signed him, he was uncertain about his future and requested that they release him at the end of the season. They did so and he decided to retire.
In addition to his 374 home runs, Colavito hit 1,159 home runs, leading the league with 108 home runs in 1965 and having a career batting average of 0.266. When he hit four consecutive home runs against the Orioles in Baltimore in June 1959, he matched a feat only accomplished by Bobby Rowe in 1894 and Lou Gehrig in 1932.
Colavito’s survivors include his wife, Carmen; his sons Rocky Jr. and Steven; daughter Marissa; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
After his playing career, Colavito served as a coach for Cleveland and the Kansas City Royals. He was one of the Royals players ejected from a game known as the pine tar incident at Yankee Stadium in 1983. Umpires ruled out a home run by Kansas City’s George Brett because Brett’s bat was coated too much, even down to the handle, with pine tar, which can improve a batter’s grip. After the call, Colavito tried to keep the bat away from the umpire.
Cleveland, which inducted him into the team’s Hall of Fame, honored Colavito on his 80th birthday at Progressive Field, the same stadium where he wore his old number 6. Eight years later, a statue honoring him was unveiled in the city’s Little Italy. . “I am so thankful and happy that God chose me to play for Cleveland,” he told the assembled crowd.
Ash Wu contributed to the report.
