CLEVELAND — Rocky Colavito, a wildly popular outfielder who was involved in one of the most debated trades in Cleveland sports history, has died. He was 91.
A nine-time All-Star, Colavito died at his home Tuesday in Bernville, Pennsylvania. Team spokesman Bob DiBiasio said he was informed by the family and that family members were by Colavito’s side.
“Our collective hearts ache at the passing of Rocky,” said DiBiasio, the Guardians senior vice president of public affairs. ”Rocky was a generational hero, one of the most popular players in franchise history.
“His popularity was evident across Northeast Ohio as sandlot ballplayers everywhere imitated Rocky’s on-deck circle routine of kneeling, then as he stepped into the batter’s box the stretching the bat over the shoulders and pointing the bat at the pitcher.”
In eight seasons with Cleveland, Colavito hit 190 home runs and drove in 574 runs. He is 12th on the club’s career homers list. Colavito was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2006.
Born in the Bronx, New York, on Aug. 10, 1933, Colavito signed with Cleveland at just 17 years old after a tryout at Yankee Stadium in 1951.
He quickly rose through the team’s minor-league system before making his major-league debut in 1955, joining a Cleveland outfield that already had future Hall of Famers Ralph Kiner and Larry Doby.
In 1958, Colavito batted .303 with 41 homers and led the majors in slugging percentage. He finished third in American League MVP voting.
The next season he was named an All-Star for the first time and led the AL with 42 homers. Then in 1960, Cleveland traded him to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for pitcher Harvey Kuenn, a move that fans condemned.
Colavito spent four seasons with the Tigers before being traded to the Kansas City Athletics in 1964. Cleveland reacquired him before the 1965 season and he spent 2½ seasons with the franchise before being traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1967.
Colavito finished his career with brief stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers and his hometown Yankees before retiring at the end of the 1968 season.
In 14 seasons, he hit 374 career homers and finished in the top five in MVP voting on three occasions. Colavito is the only player in Cleveland history to hit four home runs in a game, and he shares the MLB record for highest fielding percentage by an outfielder in a season (1.000).
After retirement, Colavito did some TV work in Cleveland and was on the club’s coaching staff from 1976-78. He later coached in Kansas City.
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