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Who's the Newest Guy in Town

JOE

JOE

CHARBONEAU

1980 American League rookie of the year, Joe Charboneau, was on hand to sign autographs at the Rittman IGA this afternoon. The Foutty's brought Joe to Rittman today as part of the first anniversary celebration as a thank you to the good people of Rittman. I was also there with the WIXYcam.

One thing I can always appreciate, being one who has a name which is commonly misspelled, is when a celebrity's name is misspelled. But then again, only a fan would notice this one. That banner had been hanging for 2 weeks and Joe's last name is spelled "Charbenau." The correct spelling for those keeping score is Charboneau.

Cliff Note: 100 years from now, who will care?

Anyway, today when I went to see Joe, Donnie Foutty, one of the owners, took a WIXYcam photo of Joe with me. And I wasn't as prepared as I should have been, as the WIXYcam's batteries went dead right after that picture was taken.

Anyway, you may ask why Joe Charboneau is so special. Joe Came to the Cleveland Indians in the late 1970's from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for a pitcher named Cardell Camper(who?) But Joe was a legend of sorts. It was said that he opened up beer bottles with his eye socket. His nose was broken so much that he could drink beer through a straw through his nose. During spring training 1980 the Indians went into Mexico for an exhibition game. Joe was stabbed in the ribs with a pen.

After the stellar year of 1980, Joe's stats took a dive and he was sent back to the minors and by 1983 Joe was out of baseball. Joe did have a bit part in the movie "The Natural" with robert Redford. He was a member of the New York Knights.

This afternoon Joe was very cordial and treated everybody well.

Ricky would have loved going there today...





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Comments

Hale McKay said…
What a nice post about this man. I do vaguely remember this player - I think it was the name and the sound of it - it kind of rolls off your tongue.

Thanks for dropping my blog and leaving a comment. I see on your blogroll a few of the blogs that I visit.
June 06, 2008 10:19 PM
Michelle said…
Great post!

My dad's baseball team was actually named The Indians too. That was in Southern Rhodesia in the 1950s/60s.

All I remember of baseball was playing under the benches and eating ice creams. lol
June 07, 2008 6:12 AM
Pat Jenkins said…
that had to be special wixy.... i would have loved to of met him....good crowd on hand i hope.... did you ask him if any rumors of his exploits were true?
June 09, 2008 7:21 AM
Sindi said…
I think Ricky was there in spirit, with a big smile on his face.
June 15, 2008 12:45 AM
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