The Curse of Rocky Colavito

This is the tale of a curse that is little known outside of Cleveland. In fact, despite the books, many Indians fans have forgotten the legend. However, "The Statue" continues to hear whispers of this devastating tale.

In 1960, the Tribe traded one of the best players to ever grace Municipal Stadium, Rocky Colavito, to Detroit in exchange for Harvey Kuenn. Aside from the Babe Ruth trade, this goes down in history as one of the all time worst.

Our manager that year, Bobby Bragan, lost his job over the ordeal. Rumor has it that he placed a curse on the Indians, however, he and Colavito denied this. To make a long story short, since the trade (and we eventually got him back), the Indians have never won a World Series. We have endured a countless streak of bad luck, that continues to haunt "The Statue" to this day.

Some of these embarrassments include the Indians losing 101 games after being heralded by SI as the best team in baseball in 1987. Who can forget the time that we traded Joe Carter for Sandy Alomar and Carlos Baerga. Although these two players became an integral part of the team, Joe Carter went on to lead the Blue Jays to two World Series championships. Don't get me wrong, "The Statue" has a deep respect for Sandy and Carlos (and I fundamentally believe that players who spend long stints with teams leads to the best possible outcome for baseball as a whole-- more on this later).

I wasn't even going to bring up Jose Mesa blowing the 1997 World Series against the Florida Marlins-- but as long as I'm hitting some touchy subjects, why not bring that up? In the bottom of the ninth with 1 out, Jose Mesa managed to allow the Marlins to tie the game. Needless to say, they won. Baseball is teh sucko sometimes.

Apparently you don't want to piss off Josh Beckett or he will crush your team. He pitched a great game, but conversations overheard by "The Statue" send a clear message: Don't fuck with Kenny Lofton. We will crush you in game 6.

Enough of Joe Torre. There are more important stories. Baseball journalism is pathetic, isn't it?

Let's break this curse.