Quick Hits - Rocky Colavito

OK, so a major post is going to have to wait for a few more days.  I’m about half way done.  It will be worth it though, I promise.  Also, I came up with an idea this morning that I’m going to do for the next several weeks.  Every Tuesday, in recognition of the 20 years that have passed since the strike in 1994, I’m going to look at the careers of every player who had a vote in the Rookie of the Year award that year.  It gave me a good laugh this morning looking at that list.

Today’s quick post is going to briefly look at Rocky Colavito.  He’s a little older than this blog will typically focus on, but I wanted to showcase something that happened in the waning days of his career.

 

Colavito was one of the premier sluggers of the mid 1950’s to the mid 1960’s.  He had 11 seasons of 20 or more home runs from 1956 to 1966, including three with more than 40 home runs.  His 374 home runs would rank 15^th all time when he retired (currently 72^nd).  He finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1956 to Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio.  He was a six time all star, mainly as a right fielder.  But that’s not why we’re here today.

Colavito had a couple of pitching appearances in his career.  The first came in 1958, when he came in to relieve Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm in the second game of a double header on August 13^th.  Facing a 2-3 deficit, Colavito held down the fort, pitching three innings, walking three and striking out one.  He didn’t give up any runs, but the Indians offense couldn’t overcome the complete game three hitter by the Tigers Herb Moford.

His last pitching appearance came on August 25^th, 1968.  Again, pitching in a double header, this time the first game, Colavito came in to relieve the starter. 

Those sleeves are impressive.

This time, it was Yankees non-legend Steve Barber.  Barber gave up seven hits, five runs, and three walks vs. one strikeout in 3 1/3 innings pitched.  The top of the fourth started out like this for Barber – groundout, walk, wild pitch, single run scores, single.  The score now stood at 5-0 Tigers.

With future Hall of Famer Al Kaline coming to bat, it was time to make a change.  The obvious choice to Yankees manager Ralph Houk was to bring in a POSITION PLAYER to face Kaline, who at that point in his career had 312 home runs.  Sure enough, the strategy worked.  Kaline grounded out to second, and Willie Horton would fly out to left field.

Hey, Rocky Colavito
just struck me out!

In the bottom of the fourth, the Yankees would put a run on the board making the score 5-1.  Colavito would return to the mound for the top of the fifth, walking two, but getting a pop out to catch, a fly out to first base, and a groundout to second.

In the bottom of the fifth, Colavito couldn’t help his own cause, and the Yankees went three up, three down.  The top of the sixth would see Colavito face the top of the Tigers lineup.  Colavito would get a fly out to right and a strike out looking to Tigers’ shortstop Dick Tracewski.  Next up was Kaline, who would (sort of) have his revenge, doubling to center field.  But he once again got Willie Horton, who lined out to third base, so the Tigers once again failed to get to Colavito.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees exploded for five runs.  This time, Colavito did help himself, scoring a run on a single by Yankees’ catcher Jake Gibbs after walking two batters earlier.

The REAL Yankees pitchers would take it from there, shutting out the Tigers the rest of the way.  Colavito would pick up the win, giving him a career record of 1-0 in 5 2/3 innings pitched.

When Colavito faced Al Kaline, this was the most combined home runs by a pitcher and a batter since Babe Ruth faced Marty McManus on October 1^st, 1933.  McManus was the last batter Ruth ever faced as a pitcher, as he pitched a complete game victory on the final day of that season at the age of 38.

Colavito would only play in 15 more games the rest of his career.  He would hit his final home run on September 24^th, 1968.  Despite great power numbers and decent defense, he was only on the Hall of Fame ballot a couple of years and then dropped off.  Some of this was likely due to only hitting .266 for his career.  Another factor was probably due to having never been on very successful teams.  He never made any post season appearances.

 

Colavito may not be in the Hall of Fame, but he has more career pitching wins than Al Kaline, and no one can take that away from him.