Rocky Colavito, Cleveland All-Star and curse namesake, dies at 91

Rocky Colavito, a Cleveland Indians All-Star popular enough that his craft led to an uproar and speculation of a curse, died Tuesday, the club announced. He was 91 years old.

No cause of death was announced, but Tim Graham of AthleticsColavito had recently battled pneumonia, in addition to several other health problems.

Colavito made his MLB debut a month after turning 22 in 1955. It wasn’t long before he was a fan favorite for the Indians, who were enjoying a stretch of prominence that included the last World Series title. of the franchise in 1948 and another appearance in the Fall Classic in 1954.

The next few years would be less successful, through no fault of the kid from the Bronx. Colavito became one of the league’s best power bats, leading the AL in slugging (.620) in 1958 and in home runs (42) in 1959. On June 10, 1959, Colavito became one of the only 18 players in the history of history hit four home runs in one game.

The move that ended up defining Colavito’s career, and much of the franchise’s history, came in 1960. Two days before opening day, Indians general manager Frank Lane shocked baseball and the city by trade Colavito to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for reigning batting champion Harvey Kuenn.

The trade was unpopular in Cleveland, and it grew even less when Kuenn was traded after one season. Colavito initially struggled with his new team, but regained his All-Star form with 45 home runs in 1961 and 37 in 1962.

After four years in Detroit and one with Kansas City athletics, Colavito was sent back to Cleveland via another trade in 1965. The return was triumphant, leading the AL in walks and RBI that year. Colavito finished his career with abbreviated stints with the Chicago White Dodgers, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, but his name became Cleveland Infamy, for flattering reasons.

Between Colavito’s first trade in 1959 and 1995, the Indians did not make the playoffs a single time. They remain the team with the longest World Series drought in MLB, falling short in the Fall Classic in 1995, 1997 and 2016. Those struggles made a lot of fuel behind the curse of Rocky Colavito, which was formalized through a book by Terry Pluto in 1994.

The curse even includes Colavito, as the trade that brought him back to Cleveland sent a young pitcher named Tommy John and a young outfielder named Tommie Agee, both of whom would go on to have notable careers.

After retirement, Colavito worked as a television color commentator and coach with Cleveland and the Kansas City Royals. He is one of the best players not to make the Hall of Fame, but he was enshrined with a statue in Cleveland’s Little Italy in 2021.