I am not a basketball fan. Never have been one, and have not paid much attention to college or professional sports as an adult. I live in Dallas, Texas and am an insatiable consumer of news and current events in print and electronic media (radio, television, Internet) and often in the company of colleagues and friends who are sport fans. Consequentially, like everyone else in North Texas and in particular Dallas (other than those who live in caves), I knew about the accomplishments of Luka Doncic, the star of the Dallas Mavericks. His being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers (during the season) was unexpected and extremely disappointing to many fans. The this past week there were protests at least one game where the heckling became so intense that one particularly enthusiastic fan was evicted. Demonstrations against Luka’s trade outside the arena almost matched the intensity of recent political ones. No torches and pitchforks, however.
All this brought back some memories when I was a serious baseball fan, which was quite a long time ago. In the summer of 1959 before I started high school, I became interested in baseball and gained quite a bit knowledge of the historical and current players of major league teams as well as our then local minor-league team in Dallas. Major league games were broadcast on network radio regularly during the season. Networks carried some televised games, one of which was NBC’s “Game of the Week.” At that time the major league teams were concentrated in the Northeast, although there have been some expansion to the West Coast notably the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants in 1958 had located to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively. Otherwise, the westernmost team in the majors was the Kansas City Athletics, who had moved to that city from Philadelphia earlier in the 1950s.
As a result, in order to be a major-league fan I had to pick a team from another city to root for. My family had migrated to Texas from the Cleveland Ohio area in 1951, so I picked the Cleveland Indians, an American League Team. Pretty good pick for 1959. The star of team was Rocky Colavito. Rocky had the ardor of the Indians’ fans equivalent if not in excess of that of current Maverick fans. He was the American League’s home-run champion, hitting 42 during the 1959 season; in that year he hit four consecutive homers in a game against Baltimore in the Orioles home stadium. Nevertheless, in April 1960, the Indians’ general manager Frank Lane inexplicably traded Colavito to the Detroit Tigers.
This trade brought out the torches and pitchforks, figuratively if not literally, against Lane, who had traded away every player from what had been fairly successful team he had inherited when he became GM in 1957. Lane lasted another year with Cleveland before moving on, possibly because he feared for his bodily integrity. The Indians, however, during the subsequent 34 years never finished a season within 11 games of first place. Rocky Colavito did return to Cleveland for the 1965 – 1967 season and was welcomed back, but the magic was not quite the same. The Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter Terry Pluto chronicled the story in The Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump (1994).
Perhaps Luka will come back to the Mavericks some day. Whether this trade results in the Curse of Luka Doncic remains to be seen.
2 replies on “Curses”
Bob–I was 18 in 1959 and I think you were 14. These were ages when many boys in the Cleveland area were serious followers of the Indians. Trading away a star player from your local team was like having a death in family. Frank Lane was about as unlikeable as Rocky Colovito was likeable. This trade did not help Frank with his image. Perhaps such an experience helps to prepare a young boy to be better able to cope with future sorrows in his life.–Cousin Joe
In a day of spin, when the responsible parties choose words that will have the least adverse effect, we’ll never know the truth. We only have questions. Was Luka overweight? Why has no one said that in a press conference? Why has Luka not admitted it in press interviews? Did Luka refuse to participate in trainings that would have reduced his weight? Why was his weight a factor? If Luka and the managers won’t come out on the same stage and tell the truth, we’re left with speculation. If it is true that Luka broke team rules, he deserved to be fired and the fans need to stop fuming. The problem is, if he doesn’t come out and admit it, anyone who says it risks a defamation suit. If it is none of our business, then Luka should not have sought the spotlight by becoming a public figure. Today, people are afraid of defamation lawsuits, even from public figures. We’re left with spin and speculation. I choose not to idolize wealthy people who are so fragile, they file suits for defamation at the drop of a hat.