Many former major leaguers died in 2024 but the one that impacted me the most was Rocky Colavito.
He was tremendously popular with fans, and generous with his time, always happy to chat and sign autographs.
Rocco Colavito grew up in the Bronx and knew his way around Yankee Stadium after World War ll. He avidly followed his favorite players Joe DiMaggio of the nearby Yankees and Hank Greenberg of the Tigers. Many Jews lived in his neighborhood and he picked up many Yiddish words and phrases that stayed with him. His “vus machst du?” was perfect and while he was a very religious Catholic, he knew more about Judaism than many Jews.
Signed out of high school by the Cleveland Indians, Colavito made the majors in 1955 at 21 years old under the watchful eye of Hank Greenberg, then in charge of Cleveland’s minor league system. In 1956 he hit 21 homers, upped it to 25 the following year and blasted 41 in 1958 and showed that was no fluke in 1959 by hitting 42 home runs, four of those in one game.
Greenberg worked his way up to General Manager and had a great relationship with his young star but left Cleveland to team up with Bill Veeck to buy the Chicago White Sox. Frank “Trader” Lane became GM of the Indians and earned his nickname by making more trades than anyone in both leagues.
Just before the 1960 season, Lane traded movie star handsome Colavito, who was the most popular player in Cleveland, to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. The trade was a left fielder who led the league in home runs for an infielder-outfielder who led the league in batting (.353). Colavito fans bombarded the newspapers and Lane with their disgust over the loss of Rocky.
Colavito hit 35 home runs for Detroit in 1960 and 45 in 1961, 37 the next season and dropped to 22 in 1963. Traded to Kansas City after the season, he was swapped back to Cleveland in 1965. Colavito also wore the uniforms of the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees before calling it a career. His career stats over 14 seasons were a .266 batting average with 374 home runs.
While he witnessed other players rubbing bats with pine tar and other gooey stuff, Rocky revealed his own system before a game. “I never put anything on my bats,” he said proudly. “I just bounced them on the concrete and the ones that had the sharpest ring became my game bats. The ones that sounded duller were used for batting practice.”
Colavito went on to coach and broadcast for the Cleveland Indians and also coached for Kansas City. Colavito may have had the greatest arm of any outfielder in major league history. He could stand in the batter’s box and throw balls into the left field stands where he hit many home runs in. Hall of Fame sportswriter Joe Falls told me he witnessed Colavito throw a ball from the outfield over the press box on the roof of Tiger Stadium.
Colavito would have been a great major league pitcher according to several catchers. J.W. Porter who was a backup catcher for Cleveland in 1958 spent most of his time in the bullpen warming up pitchers and catching Colavito when time allowed. “He threw harder than any pitcher on the team,” Porter said. “He was faster than Bob Feller and Feller admitted it, too.”
Colavito was used as a relief pitcher in two major league games ten years apart. After dazzling teammates in spring training in 1958 by striking out six Cincinnati Reds in four innings, Colavito replaced one of the best relievers in history Hoyt Wilhelm on April 27, 1958. Colavito shut out the Tigers over three innings, walking three but allowing no hits.
With the Yankees ten years later, Colavito pitched against the Tigers and Al Kaline for the second time. He allowed no runs in two and two-thirds innings and got the win. Colavito was proud of his pitching record, zero ERA and no losses.
Rocky Colavito died at his home in Bernville, Pa, surrounded by his loving family. He was 91.
