Rocky Colavito: Cleveland's Iconic Slugger

by Mark Sommer

Overview

 Iconic ballplayer Rocky Colavito captivated fans during the 1950s and 1960s with his movie-star looks, boyish enthusiasm, powerful bat and cannon-like arm. This biography of "the Rock"--the first in more than half a century--recounts his origins in an Italian immigrant family, his close friendships with Herb Score and Roger Maris, and his rise through the minors to become one of the Cleveland Indians' most beloved players--who retired with the third most home runs by a right-handed AL batter.

The author also examines the controversial trade that sent Colavito, the AL's 1959 home run champion, to the Detroit Tigers for batting champion Harvey Kuenn. Colavito's departure was a crushing blow to Indians fans and the team's subsequent 34-year slump was dubbed "the Curse of Colavito."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476637297
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	06/07/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	246
File size:	10 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Sommer is an award-winning journalist for The Buffalo News. His work has also appeared in the Associated Press, Albany Times Union, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Topeka Capital-Journal. He lives in Buffalo, New York.
Mark Sommer is an award-winning journalist for The Buffalo News. His work has also appeared in the Associated Press, Albany Times Union, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Topeka Capital-Journal. He lives in Buffalo, New York.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
 1. The Trade
 2. Signing with the Indians
 3. Indianville
 4. Roomie
 5. Hit or Miss
 6. “Those Guys Were the Future”
 7. Stardom
 8. Fantastic Four
 9. Going, Going, Gone
10. The Motor City
11. Motown Discord
12. Joining the Circus
13. The Return
14. Breakup
15. Back to the Bronx
16. Outside the White Lines
17. Reconciliation
Appendix: Reconsidering the Hall of Fame
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This impressive and extremely well-done story of an Italian-American kid from the Bronx who makes it big in the big leagues is a great read. Mark Sommer does an impressive job of conveying Rocky Colavito’s love of the game, and makes very real the whole drama of being traded, not only in his wonderful opening about ‘the trade,’ but in the more mundane but highly disruptive trades that plagued his career. Rocky Colavito: A Life in Baseball is about baseball, it’s about Cleveland, and in a very real sense, it’s about America.”—Mark Goldman, historian and author of City on the Edge: Buffalo, NY

From the Publisher