Return To The Indians
He was traded to the Athletics (by that time in Kansas City) after the 1963 season, but spent only one year with the team, becoming one of the youngest players to reach the 300-home-run mark. In 1965, with Gabe Paul running the Indians, Colavito was brought back; but to obtain the slugger in a three-team deal, Paul had to send the White Sox pitcher Tommy John, who would play until 1986 and win 286 games after the trade, as well as Tommie Agee, who won the Rookie of the Year award in 1966, then became the New York Mets' top hitter in 1969 as they won their first pennant.
Colavito made his last years in Cleveland worthwhile, making the All-Star team in 1965 and 1966 and placing fifth in the 1965 MVP vote after leading the league with 108 RBI and 93 walks while finishing among the AL's top five in home runs, hits and runs, as well as playing without an error in the outfield. In July 1967 he was traded to the Chicago White Sox after hitting only .241; he hit .221 with the Sox, who finished three games out of first, and was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers before the next season, batting .204 with 3 home runs in his National League debut. Later in that final season of 1968, with his last team, his boyhood idol Yankees, he became the last position player until Brent Mayne in 2000 to be credited as the winning pitcher in a game, earned in a scoreless two and two-thirds inning relief appearance in the first game of a doubleheader - against his former team, the league-leading Detroit Tigers. Not only did he face down Al Kaline and Willie Horton, he further vexed the Tigers by scoring the winning run for the Yanks in the eighth inning. He also homered in the second game. Colavito's pitching feat was not seen again in the AL until May 6, 2012, when Baltimore Oriole Chris Davis earned a win.
Read more about this topic: Rocky Colavito
Famous quotes containing the words return to, return and/or indians:
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924)
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—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“John Eliot came to preach to the Podunks in 1657, translated the Bible into their language, but made little progress in aboriginal soul-saving. The Indians answered his pleas with: ‘No, you have taken away our lands, and now you wish to make us a race of slaves.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program. Connecticut: A Guide to Its Roads, Lore, and People (The WPA Guide to Connecticut)