Exactly 50 years ago today, June 10th, 1959, almost to the minute, I listened to radio station WERE in Cleveland as Jimmy Dudley, the great broadcaster, announced the Indians game against the Baltimore Orioles in the spacious Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Rocco Colavito, who we all knew as "Rocky," walked in his first at bat for the Indians that night. But in his 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th at bats that evening, Rocky hit home runs--one of the few players in baseball's long history to do that.
I was 10 years old, ready to turn 11, and I was a baseball fanatic. I read all the books on baseball in the Upson branch of the Euclid Public Library. I read the sports pages every day in the Plain Dealer and the Cleveland Press. I knew all the statistics, from the early years of baseball up to that day in 1959.
One player for the Indians that day, first baseman Vic Power, also accomplished an astonishing thing the previous summer--and I was there in Cleveland Municipal Stadium on August 14, 1958. Vic Power actually stole home twice in that game, ending the match with his second steal.
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