The Curse of Rocky Colavito (1960-present) is a phenomenon that supposedly prevents the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB) from winning, be it the World Series, the American League (AL) pennant, reaching postseason play, or even getting into a pennant race. Its origin is traced back to the unpopular trade of right fielder Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn in 1960. It was not claimed that Colavito placed the curse, and he has denied doing so. It is one of several curses believed to have stricken the city of Cleveland's major sports franchises for decades. The Guardians, then known as the Cleveland Indians, played in the World Series in 1995, 1997, and 2016, but lost all three to the Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins, and Chicago Cubs, respectively. Cleveland has not won a World Series since 1948. Origins On April 17, 1960, the then-Cleveland Indians, traded Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. This trade was unique because Colavito was 1959's American League home run champion, with 42, while Kuenn hit .353 as the A.L. batting champion. Fans in Cleveland were outraged by what they saw as the betrayal by the Indians' general manager, Frank Lane. In only two years with the Indians, Lane had taken a mostly successful 40-man roster and had traded away every player he had inherited. Detroit fans were mostly happy about the trade. The idea of the curse was first presented in print by Terry Pluto, who had previously covered the Indians for The Plain Dealer. In his 1994 book, The Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump, Pluto suggested that the trade, made by Indians general manager Frank Lane to blunt Colavito's popularity and end his salary demands, led to a 34-season stretch where the Indians did not finish the season within 11 games of first place, from 1960 to . By 1994, the team had not won a pennant since , or a World Series since 1948. In The Curse of Rocky Colavito, Pluto writes of many of the misfortunes that struck the Guardians following the Colavito trade: Getting Colavito back in , from the Kansas City Athletics, but sending pitcher Tommy John and outfielder Tommie Agee to the Chicago White Sox in a three-team trade. John, who had won only two games in the major leagues, would go on to win another 286,