Rocky Colavito! His real name was "Rocco." I once had an early baseball card of the guy when his name appeared as Rocco. Aside from being an interesting and captivating player, his name alone seems like an invitation to write a song. I have accomplished that! I invite you to listen to my song simply called "Rocky Colavito." It was recorded at Angello Sound Studio in Nashville TN where Robert Angello is in charge. He's a master of music and also of fishing. In the latter he goes after "stripers."
My song covers the various chapters of Rocky Colavito's career. It's interesting because he had impact with more than one team, although he's closest to the hearts of Cleveland Indians fans.
Here's the YouTube link for my song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpYR0OjBe7s
Rocky was in his prime with Detroit too, really hitting with power in the '61 season. He seemed such a nice complement to Al Kaline. In Detroit he got into a little tiff with a sportswriter, Joe Falls. It appears Mr. Falls thought maybe Colavito wasn't enough of a clutch hitter. Anyway, Colavito moved on and had a productive year for the Kansas City Athletics who had a doormat reputation through nearly all of their existence.
Then "the stage was set for his return," as I write in the song, to Cleveland, the city by Lake Erie which I also invoke in the song.
I invoke something else which might call for special discussion or argument. I refer to the "smiling Indian" that has adorned Cleveland's uniforms and caps. The character has the name "Chief Wahoo."
I use the past tense because, as of the current season, Chief Wahoo is gone at least as part of the team's on-field presence. I read that souvenir items will continue to flash the smile of the Indian dude. Many fans by Lake Erie are emotionally invested.
I shouldn't have to tell you what the issues are here, should I? Same as for the Washington Redskins of the NFL. The college teams of University of North Dakota have had their old nickname retired to the dustbin. So, I refer to the "smiling Indian" and is that a point of contention? I hope not.
You'll notice that the main photo of Rocky that accompanies my song has the "C" on the cap. I chose this photo because it's from Wikipedia so there are no IP issues. I worry less about IP than I used to. I'm pretty protected, I feel, because I have no commercial motives with what I do. I can always argue "fair use." In other words, I'm only using the image to help listeners understand the content of my song. When it comes to sharing online, it seems as though the mob has busted through the palace gates anyway.
I found out shortly after my song was posted that a fresh biography of Rocky Colavito is coming out this summer. It's by Mark Sommer of the Buffalo News. Nice timing, Mark. Or nice timing, me. I sent him an email, sharing on the Chief Wahoo thing, and he responded. He informed me that Rocky has spoken out against the use of Chief Wahoo. Sommer said the logo has a long and interesting history and that it promotes sales even now on a souvenir basis, not surprising. Sure, it's a more interesting symbol than the plain letter "C."
Logos and nicknames have of course become a highly sensitive matter over the last few years. When a new team is created today, it seems that the default choice for nickname is big cat, e.g. Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. We in Morris have the UMM Cougars.
My feelings about Chief Wahoo? I might find it more objectionable if the character was in some sort of combative stance like with a tomahawk. Chief Wahoo is simply a smiling human face, totally disarming. So I think it's a little endearing in fact, although one can understand the objections. Mr. Sommer asserted too that he sees "both sides" on the matter.
I hope you enjoy my song. Thanks as always to Gulsvig Productions of Starbuck, Brent Gulsvig, for getting the song on YouTube for me. If you have any media transfer work needing to be done, contact then! They're on the mill dam road. They have a very friendly orange cat.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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