Tag: rocky colavito

Memories Of All-Star Games And The Hometown Team

Tonight is the Mid-Summer Classic, Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, the highlight of many summers for us when we were younger, and unfortunately, the game has lost some of its luster due to a variety of things, mostly interleague play.

Another reason is you can see every team’s games now. That’s a good thing, but still, it affects the All-Star contest. Back when we became a fan of baseball, the All-Star Game and the World Series were the only time you got to see the great players in the National League.

And growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, the NL dominated play winning every game from 1963-1970 and 1972-1982. The Senior Circuit had Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Joe Morgan.

Still, as kids, the night of the game was sacred. If you were playing ball, you rushed home by 8 PM to watch all the great players. We remember a few nights where sleepovers were scheduled so you could watch the contest with your friends.

In 1965 (still a day game), the Cleveland Indians had two starters, CF Vic Davalillo and RF Rocky Colavito, Sam McDowell pitched in the game and took the loss in a 6-5 NL win. (The winning pitcher was Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson got the save!).

They were the last Cleveland players to start in an All-Star Game until Manny Trillo in 1983. Trillo was voted in because people knew him nationally because he played for the Phillies prior to being traded to the Tribe in the Von Hayes (five for one) deal.

So, as an Indian fan, our hope was that our player would get in the game. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t, and many times it was a pinch-hitting appearance.

Of course, once the 90’s came, the Indians were all over the starting lineups. Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Sandy Alomar Jr. were regulars in the AL batting order.

One painful memory was the 1970 game in which Ray Fosse’s career was ruined in a home plate collision with Rose on the last play. Fosse came into the game hitting .312 with 16 homers and 46 RBI (893 OPS) and was a great defensive catcher as well. He was the AL’s answer to Bench.

After the collision, which resulted in a shoulder injury (we believe Fosse said it was separated), his numbers in the second half fell off to .297 with only 2 home runs and 15 ribbies (713 OPS). Fosse played until 1979, won a couple of World Series rings with the A’s (’73 and ’74) and broadcasted games for Oakland for many years. But what could have been a great career was destroyed.

We have seen three games played in town. The ’81 game which was marred because it was the first game played after the work stoppage, the ’97 contest during the “Summer of Sandy” when Sandy Alomar came into the game hitting .375 and in the midst of a 30-game hitting streak and then hit the game winning homer to claim the MVP.

And of course, 2019, when Shane Bieber introduced himself to the country, striking out the side in a 4-3 AL win and winning the MVP for the game. Bieber was just 24 and in his second season in the bigs and won the Cy Young Award the next year in the COVID-shortened season.

It’s not the same today for many reasons, but it’s still an enjoyable evening for baseball fans. The only bad thing is we have to wait until Friday for another game. That can be painful.

Trading Good Players, Claiming Not To Have Money Is Nothing New In Cleveland Baseball

We have often said how long we have been a fan of the Cleveland Guardians, we go back to the mid 1960s and the days of Sam McDowell, Max Alvis, Rocky Colavito, and Leon Wagner. 

And much like today, those teams were built around pitching while scoring runs was definitely a struggle. 

It also dawned on us that for most of the 58 years we have been a fan of Cleveland baseball teams, they haven’t been free with a dollar bill. 

Early on in my fandom, it was a terrible park to watch baseball and mediocre teams that drove attendance down. The Indians didn’t draw one million fans from 1959, when they finished 2nd in the American League to 1974, when they were in contention into August. 

Their best record in that span was in ’65 when they went 87-75. 

Of course, the National Pastime as a sport wasn’t in the great position it is today. There was one national telecast of baseball each week, and as for local TV, maybe as many as 40 games were broadcast on a local station in a season. 

The financial situation led to trading many good, young players such as Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Buddy Bell, Dennis Eckersley, Len Barker and others, usually for prospects. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

This went on until the Jacobs Brothers, Richard and David, bought the team from the estate of Steve O’Neill in 1986. The new owners immediately saw the terrible lease situation the team was in with The Stadium Corporation, run by Browns’ owner Art Modell, and set out to get their own ballpark.

When then Jacobs Field opened in 1994, fans flocked toward the new building in record numbers. Of course, it helped when the Indians were good for the first time since the late 50’s, and the sellout streak and more network television cash allowed Cleveland to be a factor in free agency, signing players like Eddie Murray, Dennis Martinez, Orel Hershiser, Roberto Alomar, and Jack McDowell.

Most of them helped the team reach two World Series and qualify for the post-season in six out of seven seasons.

Cleveland baseball attendance figures reached the three million mark from 1995 to 2001 and hit 2.6 million in 2002 when the team dipped below the .500 plateau. 

Ironically (or not perhaps), the Jacobs family sold the team to the Dolan family at the end of the 1999 season. 

Outside of that stretch when Jacobs Field opened until the sale of the team to the current owners, the folks in charge of running the operation have told us they cannot compete financially.

However, Progressive Field is being renovated, updated if you will, but it is still a great place to watch a baseball game, certainly better than Municipal Stadium. And there isn’t a landlord siphoning concession revenue and the like from the Guardians like there was in the 70’s and 80’s.

And we understand the local television deals for the bigger markets have exploded giving teams in large metropolitan areas more cash to spend, but that shouldn’t affect how much the Guardians can spend.

Various remodeling projects at the ballpark don’t allow the Guardians to draw three million fans anymore. The most they can do if they sellout every game would be a little over 2.8 million. 

The conditions are very different from when we grew up with the baseball team in Cleveland, but still, all we seem to discuss is keeping the payroll low. The franchise still has to trade its best players when the time comes for free agency. Only Jose Ramirez stayed, but he left money on the table to do so.

Like it or not, that’s the reputation the Guardians have nationally. It’s why every very good player that plays here is involved in rumors by the national media. 

The more things change, the more it has stayed the same, we guess.