The Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump [Paperback]

Terry Pluto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2007

Any team can have an off-decade. But three in a row? Only in Cleveland.
The Indians tempted fate when they traded away Rocky Colavito in 1960. Young, strong, popular, and coming off back-to-back 40 home run/100 RBI seasons, he was the type of player you just don't trade.
Then, for the next thirty-three years, the Indians slumped miserably, finishing above .500 just six times, never higher than third in their division.
Only pride and masochism brought fans back to drafty old Cleveland Stadium during those awful seasons, when even the most optimistic knew their hopes would be dashed by June.
Veteran sportswriter Terry Pluto takes a witty look at the endless parade of strange events that afflicted the Tribe. Other teams lose players to injuries; the Indians lost them to alcoholism (Sam McDowell), a nervous breakdown (Tony Horton), and the pro golf tour (Ken Harrelson). They even had to trade young Dennis Eckersley (a future Hall-of-Famer) because his wife fell in love with his best friend and teammate.
Pluto profiles the men who made the Indians what they were, for better or worse, including Gabe Paul, the underfunded and overmatched general manager; Herb Score, the much-loved master of malaprops in the broadcast booth; Andre Thornton, who weathered personal tragedies and stood as one of the few hitting stalwarts on some terrible teams; Super Joe Charboneau, who blazed across the American League as a rookie but flamed out the following season; and Hank Peters, John Hart, and Mike Hargrove, who eventually pointed the team in the right direction.
Long-suffering Indians fans survived the curse and finally got an exciting, star-studded, winning team in the second half of the 1990s. But The Curse of Rocky Colavito still stands as a classic look back at those years of futility and frustration that made the rare taste of success so much sweeter.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Boston Red Sox fans speak of the Curse of the Bambino to explain why their team has failed to win a world championship since Babe Ruth was traded away in 1919. Pluto ( Tall Tales ) draws an analogy with the Cleveland Indians, who won two pennants and finished in second place six times between 1948 and 1959, then in 1960 traded away their beloved home-run hitter Rocky Colavito and have never again been a top team. The author flags eccentric general manager Frank Lane, who arranged the unpopular trade, plus managers who have been hated by most of the players; talented athletes who were traded away before their full potential was realized and became stars with other teams; athletes who soured on playing for a perennial loser; and, after the advent of free agency, stars with salary demands that the team could not meet. It's a story of gloom and depression that Cleveland fans will probably enjoy. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Is there anyone in sports fandom who has suffered more than a fortysomething Cleveland Indians baseball fan? Pluto, who fits the profile, is also a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal and the author of 11 sports books. He says no, no one has suffered more, and makes his case in this 30-year history of a woebegone franchise. Once, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Indians were very good: they won a couple of pennants and would have won more except for the damn Yankees. Then came, in no particular order: Trader Frank Lane, who traded away the team's nucleus; a tragic injury to young pitching phenom Herb Score; the trade of local hero and slugger Rocky Colavito (by Lane); a series of inept managers; and Lane's successor, Gabe Paul, who didn't make as many trades as Lane but specialized in bad ones. Pluto also profiles key players for the Indians during their 30-year slump, such as Sudden Sam McDowell, a great talent with a taste for booze; Tony Horton, a promising young hitter whose career ended with a severe case of clinical depression; and, of course, Colavito, who was to Indian fans what Michael Jordan was to Chicago hoop fans. As always, Pluto entertains with his eye for the absurd and an ear for the strange quote. This will have wide appeal beyond Cleveland as fans in other cities learn that times aren't as tough as they thought. Wes Lukowsky --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 303 pages
• Publisher: Gray & Co., Publishers (April 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598510355
• ISBN-13: 978-1598510355
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Witty, Funny, and Painful for Cleveland Indians Fans, May 31, 2004

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump (Paperback)

The Cleveland Indians are as much a hard luck team as the storied Boston Red Sox or the Chicago Cubs; they just don't get as much media attention. They were one of the best teams in the American League during the latter 1940s and 1950s, winning a World Series in 1948 and a pennant in 1954, but the last pennant race that they really participated in was in 1959. That is, until the 1990s when the team took several division titles and two pennants, 1995 and 1997, but lost in the World Series.

Author Terry Pluto contends that the demise of the Indians on the field can be traced to the April 1960 trade of slugger Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. It wasn't a particularly good trade; Colavito was a ball-crushing slugger and a fan favorite but Kuenn was a batting champion who specialized in flares to the gap. For more than thirty years thereafter the Indians were pretty awful. The team did poorly on the field, which prompted fans to stay away from the games, which put the team into the red, which prompted the team's ownership to sell or trade its best players and to forego investment in its farm system, which led to even poorer performance on the field, and the continuation of a downward spiral.

There are an enormous number of bumbling incidents in the history of this baseball team, all detailed in excruciating detail by Pluto. Take the example of Rick Manning's contract. Before the beginning of the 1978 season the team sent him a contract offer 25 percent less than he was paid in 1977, despite the restriction in the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement against cutting a player's salary more than 20 percent. It was a mistake, pure and simple, but emblematic of the team's slipshod management. Rather than allow him to become a free agent, the Indians resigned Manning to a five year, $2.5 million contract instead of $75,000 for a one year contract. It was stupid. So was letting Jim Bibby get away in 1978 by failing to pay him a $10,000 merit bonus he had earned during the 1977 season for making 30 starts. This incident became legendary and some of the players even wrote a little ditty about it:
"Pack up all my gear and dough
Here I go
Ho, ho, ho
Bye, bye, Bibby.
No one here understands me,
Look at the late check they tried to hand me...
Bye, bye, Bibby" (p. 196).

Then there was the June 1974 ten-cent beer night in which drunken fans rioted, went after members of both teams playing that night, and forced a forfeit. That was a disaster, but at least no one was seriously injured. What a screwy attempt at a promotion! What did the team's leadership think would happen? It ranks as one of the all time worst episodes in the history of Major League Baseball. Then there was the team's one foray into the free agent market. The Indians signed Wayne Garland to a ten year, $2.3 million contract in 1977 and Garland injured his arm in his first spring raining game. He never recovered. Then there were ridiculous trades: notably a 1965 trade to reacquire Rocky Colavito, but they had to give up both Tommie Agee (who went on to star with the New York Mets during their championship season in 1969) and Tommy John (who won 286 games after departing Cleveland).

The real curse of the Indians has nothing to do with Rocky Colavito. It has everything to do with incompetent management. Terry Pluto indicts Gabe Paul for most of the mismanagement. He served as general manager and/or owner of the Indians for more than 20 of the 30+ years that the Indians were horrendous. His supporting casts of buffoons includes general managers Frank Lane-known to all by his nickname of Trader because he loved to make deals to move players and almost all of them were Indian losses-and Phil Seghi. Perhaps the epitome of ineptitude was when the dignitary scheduled to throw out the first pitch at an Indians game couldn't make it and was replaced by Bozo the clown. The irony is striking.

Terry Pluto ends his book with a review of movement of the Indians from doormats to dominators of the American League. That really began when Dave and Dick Jacobs bought the team and infused it both with new leadership, who knew what they were doing, and the cash necessary to succeed.

"The Curse of Rocky Colavito" is an interesting and informative book. It does not seek any universal truths, but it does entertain and offer some insight. For Indians fans it will be painful, but perhaps cathartic.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Through Thick And Thin (Mostly Thin) With The Indians, October 11, 2003

By 

W. C HALL (Newport, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump (Paperback)

Failure on the baseball field may not be enjoyable for a team's fans. But it can often produce some funny, poignant literature. Terry Pluto's "The Curse of Rocky Colavito" is a great example of the genre. Pluto is well-qualified to offer this tale of the Tribe from the mid-50s to the mid-90s. He grew up as a fan, then covered the team as a professional sportswriter. (Cliff Johnson once told him, "I've been ripped by better writers than you.") Anyone who watched as Herb Score was injured, Rocky Colavito was traded, and the team settle into a long era of mediocrity, will no doubt find a special resonance in these pages. Who can forget the immortal Jack Kralick, Joe Azcue or Chico Salmon? Or in more recent times, Super Joe Charboneau? Pluto has a wonderful gift for finding the humor or pathos in the story of the Tribe in this era. It's a worthwhile read for anyone who enjoys good baseball yarns.--William C. Hall

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Indians fans should read this book!, May 18, 1999

By 

S. Kovatch (Pleasanton, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump (Paperback)

Cleveland Indians fans of today don't know how good they have it (or maybe they do, and that's why they're such big fans!) Regardless of how long you've been an Indian fan (25 years, myself) you'll love this book. It was the first time I'd ever heard of many of the stories in the book -- the section on Rick Manning and Dennis Eckersley was particularly eye-opening.