Indians great Rocky Colavito has found contentment in Reading, far away from Cleveland All-Star Game festivities

Like the mushrooms he nurtured in dark houses behind his father-in-law’s Berks County home, Rocky Colavito has spent most of his post-baseball existence in the dark.

A Bronx native who in the 1950s and 1960s became one of the sport’s brightest stars and perhaps the most popular Cleveland Indian ever, Colavito has lived for decades in virtual anonymity near Reading.

“After we got married, my wife, who’s from here, wanted to live in New York, penthouse apartments and all that stuff,” Colavito said during a recent telephone interview. “Then I took her up there and let her see the real thing. We decided the Reading area would be better for us.”

He is 85 now, retired and missing a portion of his right leg that circulation problems claimed. But for more than 40 years, this player who swung for the stars dug in the dirt, growing fungi in manure-scented buildings on the outskirts of a weary city.

“It was hard work, real labor,” Colavito said of the business in which he partnered with his father-in-law. “You did what you had to do and you got your hands dirty.”

Tuesday night, baseball’s 2019 All-Stars, most of them multi-millionaires with few retirement worries, will meet in Cleveland. Colavito may or may not warrant a mention on the national telecast. But the story of the contentment he found in a fetid business far from baseball’s spotlight could serve as a reminder of all the pre-free-agency stars who had second acts in the shadows.

It’s been 51 years since the power-hitting, cannon-armed outfielder played his final major-league game. But his memorably mellifluous name plus exploits that included a four-homer game and home run and RBI titles still resonate in Cleveland.

In Colavito’s prime, big Municipal Stadium crowds cheered him wildly. Cleveland youngsters formed fan clubs and swarmed him for autographs. “Don’t Knock the Rock” was a local mantra.

Then came the stunning 1960 trade that sent him to Detroit and earned him a degree of immortality. Many believe his unpopular departure hexed an Indians franchise – “The Curse of Rocky Colavito” was the phrase author Terry Pluto coined – that hasn’t won a World Series since 1948.

So when Colavito’s biographer, Mark Sommer, saw that baseball’s All-Star Game was returning to the Ohio city in 2019, he reached out to Indians co-owner Paul Dolan.

Sommer’s suggestion envisioned a scene reminiscent of the 1999 classic at Fenway Park, when Ted Williams’ pregame introduction triggered a tremendous response from fans and assembled All-Stars.

“The people of Cleveland still have so much affection for Rocky that I figured this was made to order for an All-Star Game,” Sommer said. “He’s 85. He’s missing a part of one leg. There wouldn’t have been a dry eye in the place.”

The Indians never responded and Colavito will be absent from all the MLB-sanctioned activities surrounding the event in a town that once adored him.

If it’s a missed opportunity for the organization, it’s not one that vexes the former Indians star, who was the center of attention Friday in Cleveland, where “The Return of Rocky Colavito,” a program promoting Sommer’s recently published biography, Rocky Colavito: Cleveland’s Iconic Slugger, drew hundreds of fans to a downtown theater.

“I love you,” Colavito told the audience during the 5½-hour event. “I always sincerely, deeply appreciate you being here for me. I love Cleveland.”

He’d been back before -- for his induction into the Indians Hall of Fame, for his 80th birthday in 2013. Each time, Progressive Field fans stood and wildly cheered his introduction. That birthday visit, in particular, was the trip that erased any lingering hard feelings.

The son of an ice-truck driver, Colavito dropped out after his second year of high school. A Cleveland scout discovered him at a 1950 semipro game. It was the 17-year-old outfielder’s right arm that most interested the Indians, and when, after signing for a $3,000 bonus, he showed up in Daytona Beach, he found himself listed as a pitcher.

“They had this big chart we were supposed to check every day,” he recalled. “When I couldn’t find my name, I thought I’d been released before I even got there. But Mike McNally, the farm director, told me to check the pitchers.”

Despite that initial classification, Colavito was strictly an outfielder during his first professional season. The wiry 6-foot-3, 190-pounder showed plenty of power as he climbed through the minors – 28 homers at single-A Reading, 38 at triple-A Indianapolis.

At Reading, he met his future wife, Carmen Perrotti. They married, and by 1956 he was a full-time Indians outfielder and fan favorite. Colavito collected 21 homers and 65 RBIs in that abbreviated season, 25 and 84 in 1957, 41 and 113 in 1958, a league-best 42 and 111 in 1959.

“I saw the ball good in Cleveland,” he said. “It was 320 down each line, 385 to each alley, 410 to center. Very fair. I loved hitting there.”

And those who flocked to the 75,000-seat stadium on Lake Erie loved watching him do it. In Cleveland sports, Colavito quickly ascended to a plateau occupied only by the Browns’ Jim Brown. Handsome, talented, and approachable, he was adored by youngsters. Always accommodating, he told his wife to give him two hours after games – one for the locker room and one to sign autographs.

“It was hard for me,” Colavito said. “Everywhere I’d go, the kids would crowd around and I get poked in the face or they’d get ink on my suit. So I started to line them up orderly. And after a while, they lined themselves up. I got letters from parents thanking me for teaching their kids discipline.”

In 1959, the Sporting News named Colavito the player most likely to break Babe Ruth’s 60-home run mark. That same season he hit four consecutive homers in a game against Baltimore and was named an All-Star starter.

Then, just two days before the 1960 season, came the unimaginable. After reaching first in the fourth inning of the final exhibition game, the AL’s reigning home-run king was visited by manager Joe Gordon, who told him general manager Frank Lane had traded him to Detroit for batting champ Harvey Kuenn. Fans were devastated and so was he.

“I had hard feelings toward Frank Lane,” he said. “To me, he was the ultimate [jerk], just not a good human being. It was all about him. He had a secretary whose job each day was to go through 35 newspapers and clip out every mention of Frank Lane. Is that an egomaniac or what?”

Though he had several productive Detroit seasons, Colavito never reached a World Series. And beginning in 1964, he started to bounce around -- from Kansas City to a second stint in Cleveland to the White Sox, Dodgers, and finally the Yankees.

While with the Yankees in 1968, Colavito finally got to pitch, throwing 2⅔ innings of shutout relief against Detroit and earning a win, the last position player to do so in the AL until 2000. That same year, at 35, he retired.

His return to Cleveland had inadvertently added a new chapter to the “Curse” saga. In the three-way deal, the Indians gave up some future stars -- pitcher Tommy John, outfielder Tommy Agee, and catcher John Romano.

“That’s three pretty damn good ballplayers,” he said. “But I didn’t put any curse on Cleveland. I didn’t want them to lose.”

Colavito tried broadcasting and scouted for the Yankees, but when his father-in-law grew ill in the late ‘60s, he headed for the mushroom buildings on the Temple farm.

“I thought I should try to help him out as much as I could because he was a gem,” said Colavito. “We were partners for the purpose of growing mushrooms and I learned to buy manure, spawn, top soil, how to spray for red mites, how to work the dirt.”

Occasionally, when he traveled into Reading for supplies, he’d meet another strong-armed local hero who’d also been forced to begin a new career, former Brooklyn Dodgers right fielder Carl Furillo.

“Carl was working for a meat-packing outfit,” Colavito said. “I’d drive by and see him. I’d stop and we’d talk. I always felt bad that he didn’t get a job in baseball. He had a lot to offer.”

Colavito, who lives with his wife north of Reading in Bernville and has two sons, a daughter, five granddaughters, and a great-grandson, still follows baseball. But while he lives only 10 minutes from the old ballpark where his career blossomed with the Reading Indians, he seldom goes.

“With my leg,” he said, “it’s just an extra effort. I watch the Phillies on TV.

“And besides, I had my day.”

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