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| Vic Power slides under the tag of New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra in the eighth inning at the front end of a double steal for the Cleveland Indians on May 19, 1961. It was the final run in the Indians' 9-7 victory. Power stole home in the bottom of the 10th inning Aug. 14, 1958, to give the Indians a 10-9 win over Detroit. Power had also stolen home earlier in the game to give Cleveland a 9-7 lead. |
By Phil Ellenbecker
Chico Ruiz claimed one of the most famous, most notorious, most improbable steals of home in baseball history with his swipe late in the 1964 season for Cincinnati that gave the Reds a 1-0 victory over Philadelphia, widely credited with triggering the Phillies' collapse that cost them a National League pennant. It came with Frank Robinson, the 10th-leading homer hitter of all time with 586, at the plate with two out in the sixth inning Sept. 24.
Another famous steal of home, this one pretty improbable in its own right but without pennant race implications, was executed by Vic Power on Aug. 14, 1958. It gave the Cleveland Indians a wild-and-woolly, 10-9 win in 10 innings over the Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Stadium. It came with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning, with Rocky Colavito, the 79th leading homer hitter of all time with 379, at the plate.
Adding to the incongruity was the fact it was Power's second steal of home on the night. Two thefts of home in a game had been accomplished 10 times before, between 1901 and 1927, back when people used to steal home more often. It hasn't been done since.
Power had stolen home his previous time on base, capping a five-run eighth inning that gave Cleveland a 9-7 lead.
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| Vic Power remains the last player to steal home twice in the same game. (Graphic from baseballroundtable. |
So that means the Indians scored their final two runs on Power's 90-foot sprints down the third-base line on a night where much of their offense was generated with 270-foot trots around the bases via three homers.
In fact, two of the homers had come in that eighth inning, one of them from Colavito, his second of the night and 26th of the season.
But Rocco didn't get a chance for his 27th when he came to the plate in the 10th, because Power took off for home on the fourth pitch to Colavito and successfully slid under the tag attempt by Charlie Lau.
"Vic beat Tiger pitcher Frank Lary easily after terrorizing him with several false dashes," Al Silverman wrote in the 1959 issue of Baseball Heroes magazine.
To Power, it was a matter of seizing the opportunity.
"Gee whiz, a man is hungry, he see food and he runs for it," he said in the Baseball Heroes article. "Home plate is like food to me. I no can stop. No sir."
It was the third and last steal, period, of the year for Power, who never stole more than nine in a season.
But that was Vic. He was somewhat unpredictable and
idiosyncratic, but certainly exciting, a seven-time Gold Glove winner at first base who also drove his infielders nuts by presenting a moving target around the bag as he gathered in their throws.
Power's 10th-inning dare capped a topsy-turvy evening, witnessed by 4,424. They saw the Indians take a 3-0 lead after one inning, only to see the Tigers move in front 7-4 after six, the Indians go back up 9-7 and Detroit tie it up again at 9-9 in the ninth.
Power, finishing a 3-for-6 game with three runs scored, singled to right field with one out in the 10th off Lary, the fifth and last Detroit pitcher in a game where 10 hurlers took the mound. Russ Nixon beat out a single to first, then was replaced on the bases when Minnie Minoso grounded into a fielder's choice to short, with Power going to third.
Larry Doby was then intentionally walked, loading the bases for Colavito's big bat. Or not.
The fact that Nixon came up three batters before Colavito lent another peculiar twist to this game. Cleveland manager Joe Gordon had Nixon in the cleanup slot in the batting order, where he batted for the most part between July 27 and Aug. 20, but not before or after. Nixon hit .301 with nine homers and 46 RBIs this year, all career highs.
But Colavito belted 41 homers with 113 RBIs and a .303 average. He led the American League in slugging average at .620 and was second in homers and RBIs. He was third in MVP voting. Yet he was batting seventh this night.
Go figure. (Colavito did hit cleanup for about half of Cleveland's games this year).
But back to the game. Another bit of wackiness helped the Tigers extend it into extra innings with two runs in the ninth. Gus Zernial had just pulled Detroit within 9-8 on an RBI pinch single when Frank Bolling came up with runners at first and third and one out.
Bolling flied out to Colavito in right off Gary Bell. Colavito, who two times led the league's right fielders or left fielders in assists and 10 times was in the top 10, appeared to have gunned down Al Kaline at the plate. But the ball got away from Nixon after his tag, and Kaline was called safe. Tie game, 9-9.
Gordon was ejected for arguing with home plate umpire Frank Tabacchi that Gibson held the ball long enough.
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Rocky Colavito had slugged two homers in the game when he came up to bat with the bases loaded in the 10th inning for Cleveland against Detroit on Aug. 14, 1958. But Colavito didn't get a chance to win the game with his bat because Vic Power stole home to give the Indians a 10-9 victory.
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In the first of two big comebacks, with Cleveland trailing 7-4, Colavito homered off Tom Morgan leading off the eighth. Two batters later Morgan was rocked again, Vic Wertz slamming a two-run pinch-hit homer to tie it.
A homer roller coaster began when Harvey Kuenn's three-run shot off Cal McLish gave Detroit a 7-3 lead in the top of the sixth. The previous batter, Morgan, had snapped a 3-3 tie with an RBI single.
It was the seventh of eight homers in 1958 for Kuenn, who hit .319 on the year and next year won a batting title with a mark of .353.
While Colavito and Kuenn both homered in this game, they would be much more connected when they were traded for each other in a notorious swap right before the 1960 season started. More on that deal later.
Colavito made it 7-4 in Cleveland's half of the sixth with his first homer of the night, the first of three bombs surrendered by Morgan.
Back-to-back RBI singles with one out by Nixon and Minoso gave Cleveland a 2-0 lead in the first against George Susce. Susce got the hook after walking Doby to bring in another run.
Orville "Coot" Veal began to get Detroit back in the game by singling in a run in the second. That began a 3-for-5 night for Veal that tied his high for hits in a game in his six-year career.
Al Cicotte, great-nephew of Chicago Black Sock Eddie Cicotte, had come on for Susce and was the Tigers' most effective pitcher of the night, throwing 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief.
Gail Harris singled in two runs to tie it for Detroit in the fourth. Harris, the Tigers' cleanup hitter, was removed from the game and replaced by Tito Francona after committing an error following Wertz's homer in the eighth. More peculiarity.
Bell was the winning pitcher, improving his record to 7-6. He retired all six batters he faced although allowing the runner he inherited from Don Ferrarese to score the tying run in the eighth on Bolling's fly.
Lary took the loss and dropped to 11-11.
McLish, who'd finish the year 16-8 with a 2.99 ERA and next year was 19-8 and 3.73, had his worst outing of the season. He gave up seven runs, all earned, and 11 hits in six innings.
Good teach, no hit
Lau, who in retirement became known as a great hitting coach and author of the book "The Art of Hitting .300," hit .000 on this night as he went 0-for-4. He finished the year .147 in 30 games in his second season in the major leagues. He did improve, finishing his 11-year career with a .255 average.
The Trade
The reason Colavito led both right fielders and left fielders in assists was because he was shifted to left field two years later. And that was because he'd been traded, straight up, for Kuenn in one of the most infamous trades in history, sparking outrage in Cleveland with general manager Frank "Trader" Lane because he'd had the nerve to deal one of the Indians' most beloved players ever, a matinee idol with the young girls besides being quite the productive ballplayer.
Despite owning one of the strongest arms in baseball -- strong enough that he pitched in two games in his career -- Colavito was shifted to left because right field in Detroit was owned by Kaline, who was very bit as popular in the Motor City as Colavito was in Cleveland, and also happened to win 10 Gold Gloves in his career.
While Colavito had demonstrated his power prowess with 83 homers in his past two seasons, the AL homer crown in 1959 and an average of 37 over the past four, Kuenn was quite the batsman in his own right, with six .300 seasons and coming off winning the AL batting title.
Of the deal, Lane remarked, "I'm trading hamburger for a steak."
Which is kind of a peculiar thing to say, because you would think Kuenn the singles hitter (never more than 12 homers in a season) would be known more as hamburger, and Colavito the basher as the steak.
Regardless, there was no doubt who won the trade once they started playing in 1960. Kuenn hit .308 that year, then was traded to San Francisco for Willie Kirkland and Johnny Antonolli, neither of whom was ever mistaken for Rocky Colavito. Kuenn's 1960 average was his highest for the rest of his post-'59 career.
Meanwhile, the Rock kept supplying the sock in Motown, averaging 35 homers and 108 RBIs in his four seasons with the Tigers. And then he was back in Cleveland in 1965, hitting 26 homers with a league-high 108 RBIs in his first year back with the Tribe.
And Frank Lane? By 1965 he was employed as a superscout by the Baltimore Orioles. Trying to find some singles-hitting steak, we presume.
Tamed 'Hurricane'
Bob Hazel put in an appearance for Detroit as a defensive replacement in left field the final two innings but didn't come to bat. He'd play only eight more major league league games.
Hazel had been a late-season sensation the year before. He'd drawn the nickname "Hurricane" as he helped the Milwaukee Braves an NL pennant and World Series by hitting .403 with seven homers and 27 RBIs in 41 games after being called up from the minor leagues.
But he fizzled in '58, hindered by an ankle injury and a pair of beanings, and hit only .179 before being sold to the Tigers in May. He finished the year with a .211 mark after hitting .241 in 43 games for Detroit.
He was banished back to the minor leagues the next two years before retiring in April 1961.
With the boost of his 1957 splash, he had a lifetime batting average of .310.
Sources:
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.
More on the game: http://www.baseballroundtable.
Additional background came from various sources on the Retrosheet and Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project and Games Project websites, as well as baseballreference.com
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