Lost Ballparks

Best of Lost Ballparks: Rocky Colavito (Indians HOF)

• Mike Koser • Season 7 • Episode 3

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(This episode was recorded in 2024). 

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Rocky Colavito finished his career with 374 HR's and he played in 9 All-Star Games. Now 90 years young,  Rocky joins me on this episode to talk about his 1st game at the Polo Grounds, his tryout at Yankee Stadium, his love for Cleveland & the wedding gift the team gave him & his wife that he'll never forget!

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Mike Koser:

If you're a kid growing up in the 1950s, and let's say you were a fan of the Yankees, Mickey Mano was probably your guy. New York Giants fans had Willie Mays, Milwaukee Braves fans, Hank Aaron, Cardinals fans, Stan Musial. But if you were a Cleveland Indians fan, you had Rocky Colavito. Rock began his major league career in 1955 with the Cleveland Indians, which was well before my time. But growing up in North Central Ohio, stories of Rock were routinely told by my Uncle Larry, a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan, who remembers watching Colavito play vividly. Talking with my Uncle Larry this week, he reminded me that Rocky was one of the most popular players in franchise history. And the city, or actually the entire state, was absolutely crushed when Indians general manager Frank Lane decided to trade him.

Larry Goff Sr.:

The fans were so upset and I've never seen anyting like this before. They did a funeral march and had a casket, supposed to be Frank Lane in it, and they were going to bury him down in one of the main streets of Cleveland.

Mike Koser:

Years later, Rocky would be traded back to Cleveland and welcomed by all of Ohio with open arms. Rocky Calavito, who is 90 years young, is my guest on this episode of the Lost Ballparks Podcast.

Mike Koser:

Rocky Calavito finished his career with 374 home runs played in nine All-Star games, including a memorable one in 1962 at Wrigley Field.

Announcer:

Game Audio

Speaker 9:

Rocky Calavito, thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Tell me about the first baseball game you ever went to.

Rocky Colavito:

Okay. At the Polo grounds, my brother Vito took me to the game, and we had no tickets, but we went down there and we stayed around to see if we could uh get some tickets from somebody. And then there was a priest there, and my brother was so smart, you know. He said, Rocky, go ask that priest if he has two tickets for us? So I ran over there to the priest and I said, Father, do you have a ticket for me and my brother? two tickets? And he said, Oh, sure, son. And he gave me two tickets. And that was my first experience with a big league game, and I was thrilled to death.

Mike Koser:

That would have been the New York Giants at the polo grounds.

Rocky Colavito:

Playing the Dodgers.

Mike Koser:

Oh, the Brooklyn Dodgers. Where did you sit?

Rocky Colavito:

Well, we sat in the upper deck, and that didn't make any difference, you know. We just were tickled to death to be in the park.

Mike Koser:

You also attended games back then at Yankee Stadium, and wouldn't they give kids a button for 10 cents, which gave you a seat in the upper deck in the left field grandstand?

Rocky Colavito:

Exactly right.

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

Not always in the left field. It could be in right field, but it was always upper deck. And the name of the club that you were in was PAL, Police Athletic League.

Mike Koser:

Oh, the Police Athletic League, right.

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah. Both of us were thrilled with that to be in there.

Mike Koser:

Now when you get up there in those upper deck seats at at Yankee Stadium, there was a marker on the back of one seat where Jimmy Foxx had hit a home run ball, right?

Rocky Colavito:

I just said that to somebody. It was unbelievable that any man could hit a ball that far. Upper deck in left field, right at the edge of the bullpen, okay, the bullpen on one side was four hundred and two feet. And on the other side of the bullpen, it was four hundred and fifteen feet. Okay? So you know, the bullpen had a few feet where they warmed up, and it said, Jimmy Foxx hit one here. And it had a I don't know if it was brass or what, I couldn't believe you needed freaking binoculars to to see the home plate.

Mike Koser:

In high school Rocky, you had several teams show interest in you the Boston Braves, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Yankees, the Philadelphia Athletics, the Phillies, the Athletics. The Athletics even had you throw from the mound at Schibe Park in Philadelphia. Do you remember that day? What was that like walking into Schibe Park and throwing from the mound?

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah, that was I was out of sight and I was by myself. So but I I just couldn't believe that little Rocky Colavito in a big league ballpark. It just I can't explain in words what a thrill that was.

Mike Koser:

Did they give you a jersey or anything to wear?

Rocky Colavito:

No. I wore my uniform for my team.

Mike Koser:

Your high school team?

Rocky Colavito:

Not high school. We were like semi pro. We beat the hell out of the high school team. I mean they they were no match for us. We had a we had a good team.

Mike Koser:

You went to Yankee Stadium and had a tryout with Paul Critchell, who had signed Lou Gehrig. You're on the field trying out for the team of your youth.

Rocky Colavito:

I never really talked to Paul Critchell. He had a a lackey, his name was Harry Hess. That was his gopher guy, you know? Gopher this, go for that, you know, one of them guys. They like the way I threw, the uh velocity and and that kind of thing. So I ended up uh pitching batting practice to the team.

Mike Koser:

Were you nervous?

Rocky Colavito:

Oh, not really. I never felt nervous on the mound. That was really uh a spot for me that I thought I handled fairly well.

Mike Koser:

In the end, Rocky, you end up signing with the Cleveland Indians, and after your first season in the minor leagues, you used $275 of your bonus money to buy your first car. Do you remember that first car? It was a two-door Pontiac, right?

Rocky Colavito:

Yep, a fastback two-door Pontiac.

1941 Pontiac Commercial:

The new 1941 Pontiac.

Rocky Colavito:

You know, it's a funny thing about that. I traded that for a 41 Chevy. This Chevy was pristine, and I tried like hell not to go too fast.

Mike Koser:

Guys didn't make a lot of money in those days, especially in the minor leagues. When you hit a home run back then, a bucket was passed around the stands to put money in, is that right?

Rocky Colavito:

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. A bucket, they would pass it around the stands, and everybody not I won't say everybody, but uh most people put some change in there or whatever they had that they could spare, you know. And so I I got some help there, and I was able to make a little money. What we had to do was this was a club rule. Well, just let's say they collected 50 bucks, okay? Yeah. You you got 25, and 25 went into the kitty. And the kitty was divided at the end of the season, and every player on the team got a piece. Everybody benefited.

Mike Koser:

When you were playing with the Indians, Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg was the general manager, and when you married your wife Carmen in 1954, as a wedding gift, and by the way, what a wedding present, he gave you tickets to the first two games of the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds.

Announcer:

Here's where baseball's post-season classic will start. The Polo Grounds, rich in baseball history.

Mike Koser:

Do you remember that experience at the 1954 World Series?

Rocky Colavito:

Like it was yesterday.

Mike Koser:

What a wedding gift.

Rocky Colavito:

Oh, I wouldn't take it any other way if I had my choice. Greenberg gave me three tickets for me, my wife, and my mother-in-law. You know, it always pays to get in good with your mother-in-law.

Mike Koser:

Right.

Rocky Colavito:

And Hank, there is no better person in this world than Hank Greenberg. No better person. He was a gem. You were in the stands when Willie Mays makes that historic over-the-shoulder catch off the bat of Vic Wertz. Absolutely. I saw it.

Announcer:

What must have been an optical illusion to a lot of people?

Mike Koser:

Where were you guys sitting?

Rocky Colavito:

We were sitting in the upper deck between third and home, somewhere in that area.

Mike Koser:

And what do you remember about that catch in particular?

Rocky Colavito:

I just thought it was a great catch. But I seen Willie make better catches than that.

Mike Koser:

Really?

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah, he Willie was the greatest player that I ever saw and played against. Willie was an outstanding player.

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

He was terrific. He could do everything, everything. And he had a good arm, a better arm than I ever ever gave him credit for. He could throw well. And he had power to all fields. And he had good speed. He didn't have Mickey speed, but he was close.

Mike Koser:

By the way, did your wife, who whose life is probably consumed with baseball, did she uh what did she think about getting tickets to the World Series as uh as a wedding gift?

Rocky Colavito:

She loved it. She she's a better fan than I am.

Mike Koser:

Really?

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Koser:

Rocky, you made your debut for the Cleveland Indians in September of 1955. I think it was September 10th at Fenway Park. Another historic another historic ballpark. I mean, here's where Ted Williams played ball. And you walk out onto the field at Fenway Park for the first time.

Rocky Colavito:

I thought I was pinch running, pinch running for Bob Lemon. And I thought, Rocky Colavito is pinch running for Bob Lemon? Bob Lemon could probably outrun me. So I don't know how comes I'm pinch running for him. I guess they want to get him off the field, yeah, because he was pitching, you know. Right. And maybe he wasn't pitching that day, but maybe the next day. I I don't know. But Lopez (Manager) said go to first base run for Lemon.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, Al Lopez, who was the uh the manager of the Indians at the time.

Rocky Colavito:

He was a hell of a manager.

Mike Koser:

Your second game you played in was at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, later known as as Tiger Stadium. Of course, that would be uh your home ballpark after you got traded from the Indians. What did you think of Briggs Stadium when you were there?

Rocky Colavito:

I like it. I should have had two more home runs instead of two doubles. I had four for five. I say this in modesty, I hate a braggard. They had a little mesh screen on top of the fence. In other words a fence on top of the fend. And that was about I'd say two feet long, tops, three, and it was on top of that regular fence. I hit two balls that hit that fence. I don't know what the hell you want to call it.

Mike Koser:

Like the fence on top of the fence, that mesh, yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah, it's exactly right. The fence on top of the fence. And I hit two off the top of that, you know. And later the next year, they would have been both home runs because they took that off. Right. Took it away. And and I kind of begrudged it, you know.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, of course, I'm sure. Anyway. Speaking of home runs, Rock, you hit your first big league home run at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium off Bobby Shantz.

Rocky Colavito:

Oh, absolutely right. Very good. You did your homework.

Mike Koser:

If you get a chance to talk to Rocky Calavito, you better do your homework.

Rocky Colavito:

Well, you certainly proved that.

Mike Koser:

Tell me about that home run. Tell me about that day at at uh Kansas City's Municipal Stadium. Because that was a that was a crazy ballpark. I mean, you got a petting zoo with beyond the outfield fence and uh everything with uh Charlie Finley tried to create to make it interesting for fans to come watch this new team in Kansas City.

Rocky Colavito:

Well, Charlie Finley was a nutcase. He was a genuine screw ball, and he didn't know a doodly about baseball. But he tried to put people around him that did. Now, let's go back on the home run. Uh Shantz was pitching. I hit a shot off a - it was a butternut clock in left field, left center. Almost directly in left center. And the the clock was attached to the light tower, you know, and that's where they posted it.

Mike Koser:

Like they had at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, yeah, uh uh over the right field pavilion. Similar thing where they had the clock on the on the light tower, yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah, well this one, right. This was on the left side, and I hit that clock for a home run off of Bobby Shantz. I was proud as hell of that.

Mike Koser:

Well heck yeah. I mean, think about how far that ball traveled.

Rocky Colavito:

I don't know, but I know this, I hit it good.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, it felt good off the bat, right?

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah, right. Oh, I knew it was going right off the bat, is correct.

Mike Koser:

I want to take you to Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., home of the senators.

Rocky Colavito:

Uh my favorite.

Mike Koser:

People Rock they know you for I mean you were a great hitter, but you also had this tremendous arm. And is it true that you once stood behind the third baseline and threw a ball over the Natty Bohs beer sign atop the right center field wall at Griffith Stadium? But I encourage people to go look at pictures and just kind of get an idea how far that was. It was if that's true, that's an insane throw.

Rocky Colavito:

It's true.

Mike Koser:

Did someone egg you on to do that? Did someone say, Hey, I want to see you try.

Rocky Colavito:

Well, let me tell you how though those things occurred. Yeah. A guy by the name of Joe Montalvo, M-O-N-T-A-L-V-O, Montalvo, and he bet me I couldn't do it. Five bucks. And five bucks in those days was five bucks. Right. If you know what I mean. It wasn't pigeon feed, and especially for somebody making five thousand dollars a year. And he said, You can't throw it over that wall. I said, Okay. How about five bucks? He said, You're on. So I take the ball, and I was allowed whatever steps I wanted, without going over the line. You know, the lines that go down first baseline, third baseline.

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

You couldn't course that, okay? Which didn't bother me at all. So I fired one and it went over the wall and I couldn't find Montalvo. He he didn't pay me the money.

Mike Koser:

What?

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah, he still owes me.

Mike Koser:

Yeah. By the way, that wall, it's not like it was a short porch, uh, a short little wall, three-foot wall. No, that was a tower. I don't know. I want to say it was like 50 or 60 feet high.

Rocky Colavito:

It was in that area.

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah. Uh I'll say 50.

Mike Koser:

And you also threw balls over, at least one, over the Yankee Stadium right field roof, too, right?

Rocky Colavito:

Exactly.

Mike Koser:

Where were you standing for that?

Rocky Colavito:

Probably, I mean, we don't want to get out of hand here. Probably somewhere around the pitcher's mound. That to me was a piece of cake. I I just God God blessed me with an arm that is I don't know, Bob Feller signed a picture to me "to my dear friend Rocky Colavito" and it says "with my best wishes, Bob Feller" and then it has on the bottom "P.S. The greatest arm ever. Ever." Can you imagine Bob Feller saying to me I had the greatest arm ever? I was flabbergasted because he was in the big leagues, I think, at 15 or 16 years old. I mean, talk about great arms. I don't think anybody had a greater arm than him.

Mike Koser:

Municipal Stadium in Cleveland was the ballpark of my youth.

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah, I loved it.

Mike Koser:

Just speaking for my uncle Larry and my grandparents, they still have a sore spot for when you got traded from Cleveland to Detroit. I mean, it crushed, they talk about how crushing that day was in Cleveland. But can you tell me can you tell me what it was like to play at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland um back in the 50s when you were there?

Rocky Colavito:

The ballpark I loved. A lot of people didn't like the ballpark, but it was 320 down the lines. Okay, there was a place where they had a fence that went from the the fence to the wall, and in that little pocket, so to speak, it was 345, 345, okay?

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

And then out to 385 and then 410. Do you follow that?

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

Now I threw many balls over that fence. I I never found that... please don't think I'm bragging . because I hate a braggard.. If you came back it up with fact, and I think it's not too bad. But I still don't like it. Anyway, I threw a ball from 410 out of the park dead centerfield over the bleachers. It just it it came to me very very easily.

Mike Koser:

Playing for the Cleveland fans, what was it like playing for that community?

Rocky Colavito:

Are you kidding? The Cleveland fans are the best in the country. Let nobody dispute that because they were terrific people. And thank God they they loved me. And I as I said in the in the statue unveilment in Cleveland, I'm so happy that God chose me to play in Cleveland.

Mike Koser:

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that you are the most beloved Cleveland Indian of all time. You played your first All-Star game in 1959.

Bob Prince :

Game Audio.

Mike Koser:

Yogi Berra, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle. You walk into the clubhouse at Forbes Field and you see all these guys. What do you think?

Rocky Colavito:

One word. Awe.

Mike Koser:

And then you come to bat in the fourth inning.

Announcer:

Game audio.

Rocky Colavito:

Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Koser:

(Lew Burdette) Who a couple years earlier won the 1957 World Series MVP. Great big league career, won over 200 games. It's one thing to get a hit in a big league game, but it's it's another to uh get a hit in an all-star game and at historic Forbes Field.

Announcer:

Game audio.

Mike Koser:

 You finished your career with 374 home runs. Where was the last one? The last one you ever hit?

Rocky Colavito:

It was in Yankee Stadium, and it was in it went into the bullpen, 400 and some feet. Pitcher was uh Mike Paul.

Mike Koser:

That was September 24th, 1968, now coming up on 56 years ago. The final home run in an incredible career. Rocky Calavito, thanks so much for the time.

Rocky Colavito:

You take care. I enjoyed the interview. Are you from Cleveland?

Mike Koser:

I grew up in Mansfield.

Rocky Colavito:

Oh, Mansfield?

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Rocky Colavito:

Terrific. You take care, okay?

Mike Koser:

All right, Rocky, you too, all the best of you.

Rocky Colavito:

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

Mike Koser:

I loved Cleveland all my life, and so I know I'm not impartial when it comes to this, but I do think that a case can be made for Rocky Colavito to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Though his career was cut short by injury, you look at 1956 to 1966, he was one of the best players in baseball. And during that stretch, he hit 358 home runs. He averaged 33 home runs per year in his first 11 big league seasons, and was the first outfielder in AL history to finish a season with no errors. In 1959 at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, he hit four home runs in one game. And he is widely considered to have one of the strongest outfield arms in the history of the game. The Rocky Colavito statue was unveiled in 2021. Beautiful statue by David Deming that stands in Tony Brush Park, which you'll find in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland. The inscription reads, Beloved Cleveland icon, mighty home run hitter, arm like a cannon. Just how popular was Rocky Calavito in Cleveland? Well, I found out from my Uncle Larry this week that my cousin Barry was almost not Barry.

Larry Goff Sr.:

He was so popular in Cleveland that I wanted to name Barry Rocky, but Lee would not be.

Mike Koser:

My Aunt Lee was having none of that. I want to thank Ida Pochi and Steve Pierce for their help in making this interview happen. People often ask, how did you get that person to come on the podcast? The truth is, contacts usually come from folks who listen to the podcast, who maybe know a player or a broadcaster, and then reach out via email to me with a recommendation and uh an introduction to that player. And that's how this particular interview happened. And by the way, that's why I'm so thankful for this community. This really is a collaborative effort, so thank you all.

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Mike Koser

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