Curse of Rocky Colavito

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The Curse of Rocky Colavito (curse supposedly began in 1960) is a phenomenon that supposedly prevented the Cleveland Indians baseball team from winning a World Series, or an American League pennant, or reaching postseason play, or even getting into a pennant race, following the 1960 trade of right fielder Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn.

The idea of this curse was first presented in print by Terry Pluto, sports columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal, who had previously covered the Indians for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In his 1994 book The Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a 33-Year Slump, Pluto suggested that the trade, made by Indians general manager Frank Lane to blunt Colavito's popularity and salary demands, led to a stretch where the Indians did not even come within 11 games of first place from 1960 to 1993. At that point, the team had not won a pennant since 1954, and had not won a World Series since 1948.

In The Curse of Rocky Colavito, and his 1999 book Our Tribe, Pluto writes of many of the misfortunes that struck the Indians following the Colavito trade:

• Getting Colavito back in 1965, from the Chicago White Sox, but having to give up pitcher Tommy John and outfielder Tommie Agee. John, winner of two games in the major leagues to that point, would win another 286, mostly for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, and play on four teams that reached the World Series. Agee, still a prospect in 1965, would win the American League's Rookie of the Year award in 1966, and would be traded to the New York Mets, where his hitting and fielding would be a major factor in their 1969 World Championship season.
• Trading pitcher Jim "Mudcat" Grant to the Minnesota Twins in 1964, for Lee Stange and George Banks. Grant was 28 years old, hardly old for a pitcher, and had already won 67 games in his career. After the trade, he would win 78 more, including 21 in 1965, when he helped the Twins win their first pennant. He would later return to the Indians as a broadcaster.
• The alcoholism of pitcher Sam McDowell, who went from being one of the game's top pitchers in the 1960s to an unreliable pitcher who left the game at age 32. He would eventually stop drinking and become a counselor to athletes with drinking problems.
• The mental illness of left fielder Tony Horton, a power hitter who couldn't handle the stress of playing in the major leagues, and left the game in the middle of the 1970 season at age 25. Like McDowell, he would receive treatment and recover, but he never returned to baseball.
• The rushing of pitcher Steve Dunning to the major leagues. The second overall pick in the 1970 baseball draft, he was brought straight to the major leagues from Stanford University without ever pitching in the minors. Called up too soon, he quit baseball in 1977, at the age of 28, with a career record of 23 wins and 41 losses.
• The signing and injury of Wayne Garland. In 1976, Garland, a 25-year-old righthanded pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, won 20 games and lost only 7. A free agent after that season, the Indians offered him a contract worth $2.3 million over 10 years. But he hurt his shoulder in his first spring training with the Indians, chose to pitch through the pain rather than have immediate surgery, and went 13-19 in 1977. He retired in 1980, at age 30, with a career record of 55-66.
• The 1984 trade of pitcher Rick Sutcliffe to the Chicago Cubs, along with two other players, for outfielders Joe Carter and Mel Hall and two others. Sutcliffe would help the Cubs win the National League Eastern Division title that year -- winning the NL's Cy Young Award -- and again in 1989. He won 35 games in just over two seasons with the Indians, and won 114 more after they traded him. Hall was a good hitter but a disappointment, and though Carter became one of baseball's top sluggers with the Indians, they never had a pitcher as good as Sutcliffe at the same time. Carter would be traded to the San Diego Padres in 1989 for catcher Sandy Alomar and second baseman Carlos Baerga, possibly the best trade in the Indians' recent history, as Alomar and Baerga would be major cogs in their 1990s success. The Padres would trade Carter to the Toronto Blue Jays, where he would lead them to back-to-back World Series wins, including 1993, when his home run won the Series.
• The 1987 baseball preview issue of Sports Illustrated magazine. Following a surprising 86-win season for the Indians in 1986, the cover showed Indians sluggers Carter and Cory Snyder, and carried the words "INDIAN UPRISING" and the sub-headline, "Believe it! Cleveland is the best team in the American League!" The Indians lost 101 games that year, though some believe that the curse that led to this collapse was "The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx."
• The 1993 spring training boating accident that killed relief pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews and nearly killed starting pitcher Bob Ojeda. Reliever Kevin Wickander was so grief-stricken at the loss of Olin that he was traded in mid-season and never regained his effectiveness, so the Indians essentially lost four pitchers due to one accident.

Prior to the publication of Pluto's book The Curse of Rocky Colavito, there had been another explanation for the Indians' difficulties, one that came after the 1954 World Series but preceded the 1960 Colavito trade. The Indians fired manager Bobby Bragan in 1958. According to the story, Bragan walked out to the pitcher's mound at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and placed a curse on the Indians, saying they would never win another pennant. Bragan, however, always denied that such a thing happened.

In 1994, the year Pluto's book was published, the Indians moved out of aging, crumbling Municipal Stadium and into the brand-new Jacobs Field. They were just one game behind the White Sox in the newly-created American League Central Division when a strike put an end to the season. Despite the abrupt end, this was the first time the Indians had genuinely been in a pennant race since 1959, Colavito's last season before being traded away.

The Indians won the pennant in 1995, and Pluto wrote a sequel, Burying the Curse. The Indians also won the pennant in 1997, but lost the World Series both times. They lost the 1995 Series to the Atlanta Braves despite being favored. In 1997, they led the Florida Marlins 2-1 with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7. But reliever Jose Mesa was unable to get the last two outs, as the Marlins tied the game, and then won it in the bottom of the eleventh.

The Indians also won the Central Division, but not the pennant, in 1996 (losing the Division Series to the Orioles), 1998 (losing the American League Championship Series to the Yankees, despite being up two games to one with Games 4 and 5 at home), 1999 (losing the Division Series to the Boston Red Sox, dropping the last three games after winning the first two) and 2001 (losing the Division Series to the Seattle Mariners).

Pluto wrote Our Tribe, a history of the team, published in 1999, insisting that the curse was still on. Through the 2005 season, the Indians have not won another pennant since their 1997 World Series collapse, and have still not won the World Series since 1948. This suggests that a Curse of Rocky Colavito, if it existed, still stands. Colavito, like Bragan, has denied putting a curse on the team, but that doesn't mean that some unseen, supernatural force, did not do so.