Editing Cleveland Guardians (section)

====Curse of Rocky Colavito====
{{see also|Curse of Rocky Colavito}}

In 1960, Lane made the trade that would define his tenure in Cleveland when he dealt slugging right fielder and fan favorite<ref name="Colavito">{{cite book | last =Borsvold | first =David | title =The Cleveland Indians: Cleveland Press Years, 1920–1982 | publisher =Arcadia Publishing | year =1960 | page =81 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=v0hgrNuScVMC&q=%2B%22colavito%22+%2Bfan+%2Bfavorite&pg=PA81 | isbn =0-7385-2325-9 | access-date =October 16, 2020 | archive-date =December 14, 2020 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20201214154318/https://books.google.com/books?id=v0hgrNuScVMC&q=%2B%22colavito%22+%2Bfan+%2Bfavorite&pg=PA81 | url-status =live }}</ref> [[Rocky Colavito]] to the [[Detroit Tigers]] for [[Harvey Kuenn]] just before Opening Day in {{MLBy|1960}}.

It was a blockbuster trade that swapped the {{MLBy|1959}} AL home run co-champion (Colavito) for the AL batting champion (Kuenn). After the trade, however, Colavito hit over 30 home runs four times and made three All-Star teams for Detroit and Kansas City before returning to Cleveland in {{MLBy|1965}}. Kuenn, on the other hand, played only one season for the Indians before departing for [[San Francisco Giants|San Francisco]] in a trade for an aging [[Johnny Antonelli]] and [[Willie Kirkland]]. ''[[Akron Beacon Journal]]'' columnist [[Terry Pluto]] documented the decades of woe that followed the trade in his book ''The Curse of Rocky Colavito''.<ref>{{cite news |first= Steve|last= Gietschier |title= The Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump.&nbsp;– book reviews |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n17_v217/ai_15355261 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713173059/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n17_v217/ai_15355261 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 13, 2012 |work= The Sporting News|date=September 25, 1994 |access-date=June 10, 2008 }}</ref> Despite being attached to the curse, Colavito said that he never placed a curse on the Indians but that the trade was prompted by a salary dispute with Lane.<ref name="Curse">{{cite news |first=Stan |last=Grossfeld |title=Colavito Always Straight Shooter |url=http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/10/12/colavito_always_straight_shooter/ |work=The Boston Globe |date=October 12, 2007 |access-date=June 29, 2008 |archive-date=November 19, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119021633/http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/10/12/colavito_always_straight_shooter |url-status=live }}</ref>

Lane also engineered a unique trade of managers in mid-season 1960, sending [[Joe Gordon]] to the Tigers in exchange for [[Jimmy Dykes]]. Lane left the team in 1961, but ill-advised trades continued. In 1965, the Indians traded pitcher [[Tommy John]], who would go on to win 288 games in his career, and 1966 Rookie of the Year [[Tommy Agee]] to the White Sox to get Colavito back.<ref name = Curse/>

However, Indians' pitchers set numerous strikeout records. They led the league in K's every year from 1963 to 1968, and narrowly missed in 1969. The 1964 staff was the first to amass 1,100 strikeouts, and in 1968, they were the first to collect more strikeouts than hits allowed.