Top Tigers #22: Rocky Colavito
By Blake VandeBunte • Feb 23rd, 2009 • Category: Rocky Colavito, Top 100 Tigers- Rank: 22
- Name: Rocco Domenico Colavito, Jr.
- Position: Outfield
- Tigers Tenure: 1960-1963
- Awards: All Star (1961-1962), MVP Votes (1961-1962)
- Best Season: 1961. Rocky put up one of the best offensive seasons in Tigers history in 1961. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a power-hitter with better numbers than the ones Colavito had in 1961. Colavito hit 45 home runs which was the fifth highest total in the league. He also drove in 140 runs, good for third in the AL. To this date, Colavito and Hank Greenberg are the only Tigers in Franchise history to have at least 45 HR and 140 RBI in the same season. Colavito also had an on base percentage of .402, helped greatly by his 113 walks.
- Good Stuff: Colavito put up monster numbers in all four of his seasons in Detroit. When you think of the 1960-63 era, you think of all of the home runs hit by guys like Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. However, over that time period, only five players in pro baseball hit more home runs than Rocky Colavito and only four more players had more RBI and all of them (Frank Robinson, Orlando Cepeda, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays) are in the Hall of Fame. Colavito is one of the greatest home run hitters not be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- Bad Stuff: The Tigers traded fan favorite Harvey Kuenn for Colavito and things did not get much better for Colavito from there. He once held out during Spring Training for more money. He ended up getting more money than Al Kaline and you can imagine how the Tigers faithful took that fact. Colavito never hit for average, finishing his career with a .266 average. In 1961, Colavito went into the stand to attack a fan that was bothering his wife and child. Hmm.
- Place In Tigers History: The numbers that Colavito put up in 1961 have clearly not been paralleled since he accomplished them. The only season in Tigers history that compares was that season by Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. Colavito is probably most famously remembered for the trade that brought him to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn. The trade brought the HR champion to Detroit and sent the batting champ to Cleveland. You just don’t see that every day.
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When Harvey Kuenn was traded for Rocky I was a bit disappointed but Colavitos’ homerun power got me through. Kuenn was not a complainer, but Colavito was. When the Tigers traded for Billy Bruton from the braves, Kaline went back to rightfield, Bruton in center, and Colavito in leftfield. Colavito complained about the move from right to leftfield, despite Detroit having the best rightfielder defensively and also just as strong, but more important a much more accurate arm with Kaline in right. Rocky also wanted to be the highest paid Tiger and called Kaline a little tin god. Tigers’ G.M. Jim Campbell had enough of colavito’s chronic complaining and traded him away.
Some things just never change. Apparently there will always be guys who think they are more important than the team. Colavito sounds like the 1950s version of Manny Ramirez.
Hi Blake ~ Being a die-hard Rocky fan, I totally appreciated and enjoyed reading your entry on Rocky. A group of us have just begun campaiging to try to convince the HOF Veteran’s committee to slate Rocky for 2010. Hope you’ll support the cause. Thanks. Great info. gcg
[...] past winter, I ranked former outfielder Rocky Colavito as the 22nd greatest Tiger in history. While his stay in Detroit was relatively brief, he piled up so great numbers while [...]