Rocky Colavito

Perhaps the most significant news event of my seven years at Osborn was the trading of Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers just before the start of the 1960 baseball season;  I was in 4th grade. 

Colavito is nearly as well-known for being traded in the prime of his career as for his home runs.  On April 17, 1960, former Tribe General Manager Frank Lane shipped Colavito to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn.  The trade was a ridiculous action by an ego-centric general manager who was in a contract dispute over $5,000 with Colavito. Lane was despised not only by many players, but also by baseball executives.

The trade was made too late for Topps to change the print run,  so Rocky is pictured as an Indian in their 1960 set.  It was a cruel joke to us when we opened a pack of baseball card and found this;  each time reminding us that what should have been a moment of joy had been stolen from us by Frank Lane.

“I hated that man," said Colavito. “He traded me out of spite. I never wanted leave Cleveland. Never!”

In the spring of 1960, Colavito was 26 years old. He was coming off the 1959 season where he led the American League with 42 home runs. He also drove in 111 runs, batting .257 (.849 OPS).

Kuenn was 29, coming off a season where he batted .353 (.903 OPS) with nine homers and 71 RBI.

Colavito was extremely popular in Cleveland, as Kuenn was in Detroit. Both players loved their respective teams.  In order to pry a popular player like Kuenn from the Tigers who were not motivated to trade him,  Lane had to overpay.  This was obvious to us at the time and even more today.  

Kuenn only played one year in Cleveland,  hitting .308 with nine homers and 54 RBI.  He was traded to the Giants on December 3rd for Willie Kirkland and Johnny Antonelli.  Kirkland would play three seasons for Cleveland,  hitting .232 and averaging 21 homers and 68 RBI,  he played three more seasons with other teams as a part-time outfielder.  Antonelli was 0-4 with a 6.56 ERA with Cleveland in 1961 (his last year in MLB).

http://didthetribewinlastnight.com/blog/2019/04/17/today-in-tribe-history-april-17-1960-7/

Frank Lane Impact

Cleveland Indians, 1958-1960

Before: 76-77, 6th in 1957.

Best: 89-65, 2nd in 1959.

After: 78-83, 5th in 1961. Next won pennant in 1995.

Best trade: March 21, 1959, OF Larry Doby, 35, to Detroit for OF Tito Francona, 25. Doby played only 39 more games. Francona hit .363 for the Indians in 1959 and had four good years.

Worst: April 17, 1960, OF Rocky Colavito to Detroit for OF Harvey Kuenn. “The Curse of Rocky Colavito”: the home run champion for the batting champion. Colavito was a more valuable player for longer, and the trade outraged many Cleveland fans.

April 12, 1960, 1B Norm Cash to Detroit for 3B Steve Demeter in a swap of prospects. Cash, originally signed by Lane with the White Sox, hit 377 homers. Demeter had two big league hits.

December 4, 1957, P Early Wynn and OF Al Smith to the White Sox for OF Minnie Minoso and 3B Fred Hatfield. Minoso outlasted Wynn as a productive player, but Wynn won the 1959 Cy Young Award as he and Smith helped Chicago beat out Cleveland for the pennant. Indians historian Russell Schneider ranks these three trades as the worst in franchise history.

https://www.ashlandsource.com/history/herb-scores-story-was-a-tale-of-adversity.html

Click above for some material on Herb Score one of Rocky's teammates from the late 50's.