Flipping Colavito

The best part of this week’s baseball meetings in Orlando was having App Girl home; she kept me up-to-date on all the latest rumors.  Other than that, not much happened on my side of town, unless getting Adam Eaton really is the second coming of Lenny Dykstra, pre-felon.  It was different in the days of the reserve clause.

Then, the offseason was trades-only, and what trades they were.  I was seven when the Sox traded away Earl Battey, Norm Cash, Johnny Callison, Don Mincher and John Romano, all of whom combined for over 900 career homeruns; nine when Billy Pierce was shipped off; ten when it was Luis Aparicio’s turn to go; and eleven when Nellie Fox got dumped.  Two years after that came the Rocky Colavito trade.  First off, understand that the 1960s White Sox truly were the Hitless Wonders, part II (see above, Battey et al for reasons why).  They could pitch, field and run but hitting was a skill beyond most all of them.  The team batting average in 1967 was a “robust” .225 with 89 homeruns.

The 1964 Sox lost the pennant to the Yankees by all of one game; New York hit 56 more homers and scored 88 more runs than we did.  So, trading Jim Landis and Mike Hershberger to the A’s for Rocky Colavito seemed like a good idea, especially given that Colavito would lead the American League in RBI’s the next season.  Only Colavito did it with Cleveland because we turned around and traded him to the Indians for two prospects, Tommy John and Tommie Agee.  Those two were definitely worth Colavito, if only we had hung onto them.

            The Sox reacquired Colavito in 1967, when he was well past his prime; that .221 batting average fit right in.  So, when I hear Adam Eaton, I tend to think of trades long ago and shudder.    Can you blame me?