Rocky Colavito

      It's been over sixty years since the most controversial trade in Cleveland sports history, 

And while the number of fans who saw him play dwindles, I'm not sure you can be a Cleveland sports fan and not be familiar with the name Rocky Colavito.

The power-hitting outfielder had everything that one needed to become a star for Cleveland fans for his career and one ridiculous general manager took it all away.

Colavito's recent passing at the age of ninety-one brought more to mind than the trade that lives on today and a career that was one of the premier home run bombers.

Colavito smashed 128 homers in his first four seasons in Cleveland, including forty-one and forty-two in 1958 and 59, the latter leading the American League. And as the team's most popular player at only twenty-six years of age, one would think Colavito would be untouchable in trade for anyone shy of Mickey Mantle.

You would be wrong.

Indians general manager Frank Lane didn't receive his nickname of "Trader" for his love of holding his cards. In spring training in 1960, Lane traded Colavito to Detroit for the reigning batting champion Harvey Kuenn.

Lane infamously explained the deal as trading "a hamburger for a steak".

Kuenn would hit .308 for Cleveland in his only season for the Tribe before being traded to the Giants for a washed-up Johnny Antonelli (who finished 0-4 for Cleveland and was out of baseball by the end of the season) and outfielder Willie Kirkland (Kirkland hit .238 and eight homers in three Cleveland seasons).

The Colavito for Kuenn trade may have been the trade that turned Indians fans ambivalent off the field but it was Kuenn for Antonelli and Kirkland that started the multiple-decade decline on the field as in only one season, the Indians had turned one of the best power hitters in baseball into Willie Kirkland.

Colavito would hit 139 homers in four seasons as a Tiger with a high of forty-five in 1961 and knock in over one hundred runs twice. But Rocky's 1963 stats declined a little, dropping to twenty-two home runs and "only" ninety-one RBI, so Detroit traded Colavito to the Kansas City Athletics along with pitcher Bob Anderson and fifty thousand dollars for Jerry Lumpe, Dave Wickersham, and Ed Rakow.

Wickersham won nineteen games for Detroit in 1964 and Lumpe made his only All-Star selection in that season, so Detroit didn't give Colavito away, however, Rocky hit thirty-four homers and finished with 102 RBI in what would be his only season in green and gold.

Meanwhile, Cleveland not only has struggled on the field since Rocky left town (no winning seasons), attendance has fallen and the rumors (which would continue until the team built Jacobs Field in 1994) of the Indians moving the franchise had started to multiply.

Returning "The Rock" to Cleveland would be an easy way to help attendance and appease a dwindling fan base was a great idea except the Indians didn't have anyone that Kansas City wanted in return.

The Chicago White Sox were interested in the Indians catcher Johnny Romano and were told to acquire Colavito and Cleveland would produce Romano.

Chicago was able to bring Colavito over, and the talks began with Cleveland, which also traded two minor leaguers with Romano: Tommie Agee, a solid outfielder who would be named Rookie of the Year in 1966, and Tommy John, who would win 288 games in the big leagues—two of them as an Indian.

Colavito's return was the story of the 1965 Indians, who finished 87-75 and temporarily derailed the talk of moving the team, led by Colavito's twenty-six homers and American League-leading one hundred-eight RBI.

Colavito hit thirty homers for the Indians in 1966, but his average plunged almost fifty points. Midway through the 1967 season, Cleveland sent Rocky to Chicago for journeyman outfielder Jim King and a player to be named later. Rocky would finish the year with a combined eight home runs.

Colavito was obtained by the Dodgers before the 1968 season but struggled and was released in July.

Colavito was signed and finished the season with the Yankees before being released after the season.

Known for his powerful throwing arm from right field, Colavito was feared by American League baserunners who rarely attempted to take liberties on The Rock.

Colavito pitched two games in the majors and in his final season, 1968, Colavito was the last position player to earn a win before Brent Mayne's win in 2000, when Colavito fired two and two/third scoreless innings against the Tigers.

However, the biggest day of Colavito's career would be June 10th, 1959 when Colavito became only the second player in American League history (Lou Gehrig was the first) to hit home runs in four consecutive at-bats against the Orioles at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium.

Baltimore was the toughest park for power in the American League in 1959.

Colavito hit homers off Jerry Walker, Arnie Portocarrero (two), and Ernie Johnson, the father of the current sportscaster of the same name in his record-setting game.

Colavito worked for the Indians from 1973 through 1978 as a coach or broadcaster. In 1976, he would work in both roles, coaching before the game and then broadcasting the game from the booth.

Colavito finished his baseball life in 1982 and 83 as the hitting coach for the Royals and was ejected along with George Brett in the famous "Pine Tar" game against the Yankees.

Rocky returned to his longtime home near Reading, Pennsylvania after baseball and suffered through diabetes-related problems that would lead to a partial amputation of his right leg in 2015.

In 2021, Colavito received a life-size statue in his honor in Cleveland but its home wouldn't be around the ballpark where the now-Guardians play.

Instead, it would be in the Little Italy section of Cleveland where The Rock would stand the test of time in the batter's box waiting to uncork his powerful swing.

Colavito was named to the All-Star team in seven seasons, and finished his career with three hundred and seventy-four home runs, and over eleven hundred RBI.

Colavito also was one of the players selected to participate in the television show Home Run Derby, appearing in two episodes against Washington's Harmon Killebrew and Boston's Jackie Jensen.

When you look at the Rock's career statistics, had his career not ended so quickly (Colavito was a thirty home run hitter in 1966 and was retired two seasons later) and had he reached four hundred homers and notched another three or four seasons close to his average years, Colavito might have been a Hall of Fame candidate rather than a Hall of Very Good member.

Sometimes in life, you can have influence beyond the norm, and while Rocky Colavito's career fell short of enshrinement in Cooperstown, The Rock created a generation of Cleveland baseball fans, who then sired another and so forth.

Rocky Colavito in Cleveland built a better legacy with the town's fans than many players in the Hall of Fame who played with the Indians.

There weren't very many Cleveland fans or Northern Ohio residents who saw him play who were going to "Knock The Rock".

Not a bad way to be remembered.