All-Time Indians: Johnny Romano

Johnny Romano only played five years for the Indians, but he did something no catcher did before or after for Cleveland from 1901 through 1991. He hit home runs. Among all catchers from the beginning of the Tribe until Sandy Alomar, Romano is first in slugging percentage and he is still third all time among Indians catchers in home runs, behind just Alomar and Victor Martinez.

Romano originally joined the Tribe after being traded from the White Sox along with Bubba Phillips and Norm Cash for Dick Brown, Don Ferrarese, Minnie Minoso and Jake Striker. Of these, only Minoso went on to have much of a career, going to four All-Star games and leading the league in triples and steals twice before rejoining the Indians in 1958. Romano initially signed as a free agent with the Sox in 1954, but played just parts of two seasons in Chicago and hit just five home runs before the trade.

While the Indians were in the midst of a forty year play-off drought that wouldn’t end until 1995, Romano was still a bright spot on a disappointing team. Romano immediately took over as the starting catcher in 1960, replacing Russ Nixon who had been the mediocre back stop to fill in after Jim Hegan was traded at the end of the 1957 season. Romano was an immediate offensive upgrade and came in fourth on the team in home runs in his first season with 16 behind just Woodie Held, Jim Piersall and Tito Francona. In 1961, he improved upon that, pushing his total to 21 with career highs in doubles, hits, runs and average. This was his best year, and he made the All-Star game for it, but he produced at this level one more time in 1962, becoming the best offensive performer on the team. That year, he made another All-Star team and lead the team in RBI, home runs and walks.

From 1963 through 1964, Romano added another 29 home runs and 81 RBI as the Indians took advantage of all his prime years. In addition to his offensive prowess, Romano was also one of the best Indians catchers of all time defensively. His .990 fielding percent in 537 games as an Indians catcher is better than all but three other qualifying Indians catchers and his 18 pick offs are second to Hegan, who played in more than 900 more games. In 1963, Joe Azcue came up and appeared to be the next big thing for the Indians at catcher. In 1963, Romano broke his finger on a defensive play at the plate and missed a large part of the season, allowing Azcue to play more games than he did that year. This showed the Indians what he could do and after two seasons playing the back-up to Romano, the Indians moved Romano, and promoted Azcue to full time. Romano was sent back to the White Sox along with Tommy John in exchange for Cam Carreon and Rocky Colavito, who was returning to Cleveland where he began his career.

Romano played just two more years in Chicago, adding another 33 home runs before being traded to St. Louis in 1967. He didn’t stick around long there, playing just 24 games for the Cardinals before being released at the end of the year. While he didn’t play in the postseason that year, the Cardinals did, finally making him part of a World Series winning team.