Product Description

Curse or Coincidence?

April 1960:
Cleveland trades Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuenn.

September 1961:
Fireballer Sam McDowell, in his first major league start, breaks two ribs throwing a fastball.

June 1964:
Third baseman Max Alvis has an attack of spinal meningitis on a team flight.

January 1965:
The Indians reacquire Rocky Colavito, giving up Tommie Agee, who will win the Rookie of the Year Award, and Tommy John, who will win 286 games after leaving Cleveland.

July 1970:
Catcher Ray Fosse is steamrollered by Pete Rose in the All-Star Game; his promising career is derailed.

June 1974:
Drunken fans pour themselves onto the field during Ten-Cent Beer Night game, forcing a forfeit.

March 1977:
In his first spring-training game after signing a ten-year contract with Cleveland, Wayne Garland injures his arm and never recovers his twenty-win form.

March 1978:
Personal complications force the Indians to trade twenty-three-year-old fireballer Dennis Eckersley to Boston.

July 1981:
Cleveland Stadium is to host the All-Star Game. The game is delayed until August by a two-month players' strike.

August 1981:
Indians send 1980 Rookie of the Year Joe Charboneau to the minors; he hits just .217 for Class AAA Charleston.

April 1987:
Sports Illustrated predicts the Indians will win the pennant; the team finished last, losing 101 games.

March 1993:
Two pitchers die and a third is seriously injured in a boating accident; another Indians pitcher dies in an auto accident in November.

July 1994:
With the Indians poised to reach the postseason for the first time since 1954, the players go out on strike, an action that will lead to the cancellation of the World Series for the first time since 1904.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1277947 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .70" h x 5.02" w x 8.12" l, .65 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 303 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Boston Red Sox fans speak of the Curse of the Bambino to explain why their team has failed to win a world championship since Babe Ruth was traded away in 1919. Pluto ( Tall Tales ) draws an analogy with the Cleveland Indians, who won two pennants and finished in second place six times between 1948 and 1959, then in 1960 traded away their beloved home-run hitter Rocky Colavito and have never again been a top team. The author flags eccentric general manager Frank Lane, who arranged the unpopular trade, plus managers who have been hated by most of the players; talented athletes who were traded away before their full potential was realized and became stars with other teams; athletes who soured on playing for a perennial loser; and, after the advent of free agency, stars with salary demands that the team could not meet. It's a story of gloom and depression that Cleveland fans will probably enjoy. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Is there anyone in sports fandom who has suffered more than a fortysomething Cleveland Indians baseball fan? Pluto, who fits the profile, is also a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal and the author of 11 sports books. He says no, no one has suffered more, and makes his case in this 30-year history of a woebegone franchise. Once, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Indians were very good: they won a couple of pennants and would have won more except for the damn Yankees. Then came, in no particular order: Trader Frank Lane, who traded away the team's nucleus; a tragic injury to young pitching phenom Herb Score; the trade of local hero and slugger Rocky Colavito (by Lane); a series of inept managers; and Lane's successor, Gabe Paul, who didn't make as many trades as Lane but specialized in bad ones. Pluto also profiles key players for the Indians during their 30-year slump, such as Sudden Sam McDowell, a great talent with a taste for booze; Tony Horton, a promising young hitter whose career ended with a severe case of clinical depression; and, of course, Colavito, who was to Indian fans what Michael Jordan was to Chicago hoop fans. As always, Pluto entertains with his eye for the absurd and an ear for the strange quote. This will have wide appeal beyond Cleveland as fans in other cities learn that times aren't as tough as they thought. Wes Lukowsky

From Kirkus Reviews
The Cleveland Indians have been so bad for the past three decades that even hapless Chicago Cubs fans can take heart. ``At least,'' says Pluto (Loose Balls, 1990; Tall Tales, 1992), the Cubs ``have some almosts and September swoons'' to cherish; the Tribe hasn't been close to a title since 1959. The once-vaunted Indians (think of Bob Feller, Larry Doby, Lou Boudreau, Bob Lemon) began the plunge to sub-mediocrity, Pluto writes, either in 1960 with Frank ``Trader'' Lane's infamous trade of popular slugger Rocky Colavito or back in 1957, when Gil McDougald's line drive caught pitching phenom Herb Score smack in the face. Using contemporary sports pages and the recollections of players such as Score (who's been an Indians' broadcaster since the 1960's), Colavito, ``Sudden'' Sam McDowell, Jim ``Mudcat'' Grant, and Ray Fosse; radio-TV personalities such as Pete Franklin and Nev Chandler; and former front office officials like Bob Quinn, Gabe Paul, and Ted Bonds, Pluto captures three decades of astounding futility. It was a cast of characters and a series of bizarre happenings that annually reaffirmed Cleveland Stadium as ``the mistake on the Lake.'' There was the enormously talented McDowell, the overpowering pitcher with the ``million-dollar arm and a ten- cent head''; left-hander Jack Kralick (the youthful Pluto's favorite Indian), perhaps best remembered for a fight with roommate Gary ``Ding Dong'' Bell over what TV show they'd watch; the late 1970's Rick Manning-Dennis-and-Denise Eckersley love triangle; ``Super'' Joe Charbonneau, a kid who opened beer bottles with his eye socket and removed a tooth with a razor blade and a pair of pliers, Rookie of the Year in 1980, but back in the minors just months later. Then, of course, there was 1973's Ten-Cent Beer Night, when the Indians had to forfeit a game as thousands of drunken fans poured onto the field. Irresistible. Like a nostalgic shuffle through your old baseball cards. (16 pp b&w photos--not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.