Rocky Colavito fans all over the country are uniting to appeal to the Veteran's Committee of the Hall of Fame to recognize Rocky for induction into the Hall in 2014. Please sign this petition to the Veterans Committee to help get Rocky in the Hall of Fame WE, the undersigned, believe that Rocky Colavito deserves to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. We believe his records are consistent with the criteria established by the Veterans Committee of the National Hall of Fame. In discussions of the greats of his era, the Colavito name is mentioned in the first breath of power hitters: Mantle, Mays, Killebrew, Aaron, Mathews, COLAVITO, Banks, McCovey, Frank Robinson, Snider, Ted Williams, Musial and Yastrzemski. All of these players are Hall of Famers -- EXCEPT Rocky Colavito! Probably the most telling statistic is his career OPS (on-base percentage + slugging average) compared to players already in the Hall of Fame whose careers overlapped with Colavito's and with the 2008 HOF nominees: Colavito ranks 17th when added to the list of 35 already Hall members of his era. He also ranks ahead of Reggie Jackson, Carl Yastrzemski and Roberto Clemente. Colavito ranks 2nd when applied to the list of 2008 Hall candidates. Some highlights of Colavito's amazing career: 1956: Rocky clouted 21 HRs, 65 RBIs, 55 runs scored, a Slugging Average of .531 and an OPS of .903 in just 322 At Bats! Rocky finished 2nd in the Rookie of the Year vote. 1957: Rocky collected 25 HRS (6th in AL), 84 RBIs (10th in AL), 51 Extra-Base Hits (7th in AL) and recorded a Slugging Average of .471 (9th in AL). He recorded 7 Sacrifice Flies (5th in AL) while his At Bats per HR mark was 18.4 (5th in AL). 1958: Hit .303 BA, 41 HR, 113 RBI to finish just 1 behind Mickey Mantle for HR lead and finished 3rd in MVP voting. His .620 Slugging Average led the AL and was the highest for an Indians hitter for 36 years until 1994. Rocky lead the AL in extra-base hits with 70. He produced a phenomenal OPS average of 1.025. 1959: Hit .257 BA, 42 HR, 111 RBI to finish 4th in MVP voting. His 42 HRs earned him the AL HR Title. He became the first Indian to amass back-to-back 40 HR seasons (41/42). He led the AL in Total Bases with 301 and in extra-base hits with 66. He became an AL All-Star for the first of six times. 1959: Rocky became only the 8th Major Leaguer to hit 4 HRs in one game on June 10, 1959 in Baltimore. This was only the 3rd time that a Major Leaguer hit them in four consecutive at bats. 1960: Rocky was one of only 17 Major League HR hitters to be chosen to appear on Home Run Derby. On April 17th, in the most controversial trades to this day. Rocky was traded to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn; the AL HR Champion for the AL Batting Champion. Rocky went on to hit 35 HRs and knock in 87 RBIs while batting .249 for the Tigers. 1961: 45 HR, 140 RBIs, 113 Walks, 338 Total Bases, and .982 OPS. Colavito, Kaline and Cash led the Tigers offense to finish second with a 101-61 W/L record. Rocky was chosen as an All-Star for the second time. 1962: 37 HRs and 112 RBIs and a .514 Slugging Average. He lead the AL for the second time in Total Bases with 309 and was chosen for the AL All-Star team for the third time. 1963: Rocky hit 22 HRs and 87 RBIs while hitting .271 BA. Rocky was dealt to the KC Athletics in the off-season. 1964: Rocky hit .274 and collected 31 doubles, 34 HRs and 102 RBIs with a .507 Slugging Average. Selected for the AL All-Star team for the fourth time. 1965: On January 20th, Cleveland made a 3-team trade to get Rocky Colavito back in an Indians uniform. He hit for a solid .287 BA with 26 HRs and was the AL RBI Champion knocking in 108 and became the first AL outfielder in history to complete a perfect 1.000 fielding average season. He finished 5th in MVP voting and was chosen for the AL All-Stars for the fifth time. 1966: His BA fell to .238 but still he produced 30 HRs and 72 RBIs. He ranked in the AL top ten for HRs (6th) and Walks (7th), and was selected to the American League All-Star team for the sixth time. 1967: Rocky started the year with the Indians but was traded to the Chicago White Sox on July 29th. Colavito's numbers dropped in a limited role with Chicago. 1968: Rocky was acquired in the off-season by the Los Angeles Dodgers and served in a limited role. On July 11th, the Dodgers released him. On July 15th, he was signed as a free agent by his boyhood favorite team, the New York Yankees. Rocky possessed arguably the strongest arm of any right fielder of his time. Few runners dared to attempt to stretch hits or advance to 3rd on him. His popularity with fans continues as evidenced by the strong reception he receives whenever he appears in public. Colavito memorabilia remains in demand often outselling many Hall of Fame members' items and his accomplishments are still cited by the press. In 1976, Rocky was voted the most memorable personality in Cleveland Indians' history. He was elected to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and inducted into the Cleveland Indians' Hall of Fame in 2006. For these and many more reasons, we encourage you to select and enshrine Rocky Colavito, an exceptional, gifted, and deserving man, into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

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