R.I.P., Rocky Colavito

Former major league baseball great Rocky Colavito died yesterday at the age of 91.

Along with Norm Cash, he was my dad's favorite baseball player as a kid. The Rock was a little before my time (he played from 1955-1968), but I grew up hearing about him and his exploits, and I poured over my dad's 1961 Detroit Tigers yearbook which featured a two-page spread dedicated to Colavito and his famous pre-batting ritual of dramatic stretching and calisthenics with the bat, followed by him entering the batter's box and menacingly pointing the bat directly at the pitcher. He seemed liked a total badass then (before that term was in my vocabulary). It didn't hurt that he had matinee idol good looks and that his wife--also pictured in the yearbook--was quite stunning. He seemed like just about the coolest baseball player ever and I wished that I could go back in time to see him play.

Needless to say, as a young baseball/softball player, I attempted to emulate Colavito's warm-up rituals. (I also copied my other favorites, such as Rod Carew and his slouching batting stance and Tito Fuentes and his trademark bat flip. Unfortunately, my results as a player did not quite match Colavito (or Carew or even Fuentes).

Colavito is rightfully associated with the (then) Cleveland Indians (now known as the Cleveland Guardians), but he was also loved by fans in his four-year tenure with the Tigers from 1960-1963. Along with players such as Al Kaline, Norm Cash, Jim Bunning, Frank Lary (and others), he led Detroit to one of their greatest seasons in 1961. The '61 Tigers are probably the greatest team to NOT with the league pennant. They were 101-61, battled the New York Yankees the entire season, but ran out of gas in September and finished eight games out of first. Colavito had--if not his greatest season--one of his greatest seasons, with 45 home runs, 140 runs batted in, and a .290 batting average. (For all of the advanced metrics baseball fans, he finished seventh is all of major league baseball that year with a 7.6 WAR (wins above replacement, for those who aren't baseball fans, stat nerd, or simply have a life).

Colavito is one of those on the cusp (almost) Hall of Famers. He is definitely a "Hall of the Very Good" member. That said, he was an absolutely beloved and charismatic baseball player who, by all accounts, was a great teammate and wonderful human being on and off the field. I have never heard anyone say a bad thing about Rocky Colavito. I hope he's blasting tape measure home runs on the great baseball diamond in the sky.