Bill Dow

Special to Detroit Free Press

Sixty years ago, on April 17, which was also Easter Sunday, one of the biggest trades in baseball history took place just two days before the Detroit Tigers opened the 1960 season in Cleveland.

Detroit sent the 1959 American League batting champion Harvey Kuenn, then 29, to the Indians for the reigning home run champion Rocky Colavito, then 26.

Both teams, and the fans in both cities, were shocked by the trade. In the end, the Tigers fared better in the deal. Kuenn lasted one year in Cleveland before being dealt to the Giants.

[ Tigers in a new division? Whenever MLB returns, it won't be normal ]

Colavito, however, remained a prodigious slugger for four more seasons. A six-time All Star during this 14-year career, he slugged 139 homers with 430 RBIs from 1960-63 with the Tigers. With the Tigers battling the Yankees for the pennant in 1961, he smashed 45 homers, drove in 140 runs.

[ Robert Fick and the final game at Tiger Stadium: 'It was unreal' ]

Free Press special writer Bill Dow recently caught up with Colavito to discuss the death of Al Kaline, the big trade, his career and his thoughts on baseball today.

After leaving the Tigers: Colavito was dealt to Kansas City after the 1963 season with Bob Anderson for Jerry Lumpe, Dave Wickersham, and Ed Rakow. He played for the Athletics one season before rejoining the Indians. In 1965, he led the league with 108 RBIs and while playing in all 162 games without an error, he became the first outfielder in league history to complete a season with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. He then played the second half of the ’67 campaign with the White Sox and finished his career in 1968 with the Dodgers and Yankees.

He later served as a Indians TV analyst, coached for the Indians and Royals, briefly operated a mushroom farm, and was a sales representative for a temporary staffing agency.

Today: Colavito, 86, has been married to his wife, Carmen, for 65 years and they reside in eastern Pennsylvania. They have three children, four granddaughters and a great grandson.

On the passing of Al Kaline: “It was a very sad day for me when I heard the news. Al was a super athlete, really a super star. He could to everything. He could run, field, throw, hit, and hit with power. He was just a really good guy and a great teammate. To go straight from high school at 18 and then win the batting title at 20 was amazing. Al was a gentleman and a good family man and his childhood sweetheart Louise always stood by him.”

[ Al Kaline's words from 1968 World Series will live forever: 'I'll never forget it' ]

On how he heard about the trade for Harvey Kuenn: “We were playing in Memphis for our last exhibition game and I was standing on first base when Joe Gordon (manager) walked out of the dugout and told me, ‘Rocky, that is the last time you’ll bat for Cleveland. You’ve been traded to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn.’ He said ‘good luck’ and I said ‘same to you’ and that’s all I ever said to him. I was taken out of the game, and I told my teammates who were shocked and disappointed like me. I had to fly that night with my now ex-teammates to Cleveland for the opener with my new team which was a little awkward. To this day I don’t understand it nor do the Cleveland fans who still send me letters about it. ”

On the first game playing for the Tigers: “Harvey and I literally wore each other’s jersey; I had his No. 7 and he had my No. 6. It was very cold that day but it was unbelievable to see so many banners brought by Indian fans into the ballpark that said things like ‘Welcome home Rock,’ and ‘We will miss you Rocky.' It really affected me and I had the worst game ever in my minor and major league career because I went 0-for-6 and struck out four times, which I never did before or after. I rarely struck out three times in a game. At least we won the game after Kaline hit a two run single in the top of the 15th. But the next day, I walked into the dugout from the locker room and Norm Cash says to me, ‘Hey Rocky, how about playing for us today!’ I laughed so hard that it loosened me up. In that second game, I went 1-for-3, hit a three-run homer, and scored twice and we won again.”

On playing for the Tigers in the home opener in Detroit: “The first year in Detroit was rough for me because I had left a place and a team that I loved and the fans in Cleveland loved me. I am sure it was the same for Harvey, who was a really good man. Even my neighbor at the home I rented in Detroit said to me: ‘I don’t care who you are, I was a Harvey Kuenn fan.’ That was the last time we ever spoke. In the home opener in Detroit, I remember it was a very warm day and that I hit a two-run homer and we won. 1961 was a fantastic year and it was a great pennant race with the Yankees, who that year became one of the best teams in major league history. I was really coming into my own as a player at age 27 and I was fortunate to be batting after Kaline and with Cash behind me, who won the batting title. We also had a very good pitching staff with Jim Bunning, Frank Lary, Don Mossi, Paul Foytack and Hank Aguirre.”

On his famous on deck stretching ritual and batter’s box mannerisms: “I was not even aware of my habit of putting the bat with both hands over my head and behind my back. It was just a stretching exercise for my muscles. When I was in the batter’s box, I pulled up my flannel sleeves to help free my shoulders and I often did a short sign of the cross. The pointing of the bat at the pitcher was really a timing device. I was kind of saying ‘put the ball right here’ because as a power hitter you are looking to drive the ball. I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to me and said how when they were kids, they used to imitate me doing all of that.”

On hitting four home runs in one game in 1959: “Without a doubt that was my biggest thrill in baseball. I nearly did it again for the Tigers in Cleveland in 1962. I hit three homers in the game and nearly had a fourth. In my last at bat I hit a ball into the upper deck that was hit as well as the others but at the last second it just hooked about 15 feet in front of the foul pole. Then I grounded out. I wanted that second one as much or more than the first because no one has ever done it twice.”

On pitching 2⅔ innings in scoreless relief for the Yankees against the Tigers and getting the win: “When I was signed by Cleveland, they originally saw me as a pitcher and I wish I could have played outfield and pitched. The only other time I pitched in the majors was 10 years earlier against the Tigers and I threw three scoreless innings. In ’68, the Yankee bullpen was short for the double header and Ralph Houk (Yankee manager) brought me in when we were behind, 5-0. I threw mainly fastballs but also a change-up and slider. The first batter I faced was Kaline, who grounded out but he later got the only hit against me in both my pitching appearances. He hit a short fly ball to left center that I think Joe Pepitone should have caught. I really would have liked never giving up a hit. I got the victory when we ended up beating Detroit, 6-5. I remember that in the second game I hit a homer against Mickey Lolich.”

On the game today: “Baseball is baseball. But what I don’t like is the business of always going to the set-up man and then the closer. The managers all follow the same routine. It adds a lot of additional time to the game. It’s very rare to see a starting pitcher complete a game, yet we still see a fair amount of arm injuries. When I played there were pitchers who had more complete games in one season then the whole league does now. There are also a lot more home runs today. It’s unfair to compare eras because the ball is livelier and is traveling 30 or more feet farther. I took one of the new baseballs apart. The small red ball in the center may have some cork but there is a jell around it. I bounced it off a table at a card show and it hit the ceiling. I also think it is wound tighter. The ball we played with wouldn’t do that.”