RIP Rocky Colavito

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

Member of the Hall of Very Very Good

Certainly the just recent HOF induction of Dave Parker and Dick Allen raises some comparisons.

 

Last surviving participant in "Home Run Derby."

 

I'd guess Dale Murphy might be a somewhat more recent comparison: on a solid course toward the HOF for a decade, but a sputtering run to the finish line dropped him out of the running.

 

RIP.

 

Gotta be honest. I’d have said he had been dead for 50 years.

 

Tigers GM Bill DeWitt got Rocky Colavito and Norm Cash in the same week. You'd think a team with Jim Bunning, Colavito, Cash and Al Kaline would have been a lock to make a World Series but those Damned Yankees were still pretty good.

After being excited at the prospect of a Colavito-Kaline outfield, Detroit fans turned against Colavito because he was making more money than Kaline, and Joe Falls made it worse by needling Rocky over his lack of RBI production.

He wound up traded to Kansas City -- had a tremendous year for a last-place team -- and then bounced around the big leagues until retiring.

He may be the last living player from my 1964 Cadeco All-Star Baseball disc set.

 

I saw Joe Falls only in The Sporting News way back then, and I guess maybe he was some kimd of big shot in Detroit, but, man, he was just an awful columnist in The Sporting News. To the point of unreadable.

 

My god, you're right. I didn't think it was possible, but I cross-checked.

That's a marking point in our existence ...

I remember him a bit more fondly from his Sporting News columns.

And I still think his white-space lede was one of the best ever. First graf, "This is what the Detroit Tigers accomplished yesterday." And then five lines of white space.

 

Gimmick writing. ... Hey, if that's all he can come up with ...

And hounding Colavito with his Run Not Batted In stat was bush league all the way.

 

One of my favorite Indians. He had a rocket for an arm and even pitched on occasion.