Skip to main content

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...





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.
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
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?
Sindi said…
I think Ricky was there in spirit, with a big smile on his face.

Popular posts from this blog

Post 800: Time to chat

Hi Guys, It's hard to believe that this is post number 800 for this blog. I started this blog out of my desire to communicate. Since radio and television is becoming more and more automated and less and less personal, I'm glad I made the decision to go in this direction as it has given me many blessings. When I first decided to write my musings, a friend from the radio and television boards who goes by the name of newsnomore, told me not to be discouraged if I didn't get any readers. The fact that I did in the early going made me surprised and grateful that anyone was enjoying what I wrote. I've had people tell me that maybe it wasn't meant for me to ever be in radio, that maybe my calling was blogging. Nowadays I think blogging makes for better two way conversation than terrestrial radio, especially the way I do it, non confrontational. The closest I come from any confrontation is the innocent digs that Pat and I shoot at each other. On an average day I get betwee

Lawson's Chip Dip

On a couple of occasions I have written posts dedicated to Lawson's, a convenience store chain that was located in Ohio for close to 50 years. In the late 1980's the chain was bought out by Dairy Mart, of Engfield Ct. Dairy Mart was then purchased by Alimentation Couche-Tard, and most stored were rebranded Circle K. Something that has survived the years since Lawson's has left the landscape is Lawson's Chip Dip. I get many hits on this blog from people out of Ohio, I'm thinking former Buckeyes, looking for availability of this chip dip. I had gotten an email from a former resident of Cleveland looking for it. I emailed Circle K about this sometime ago asking if it was possible to send the dip out to those out of state, they said because of quality issues that it was not possible. My only suggestion would be to get in touch with Circle K in your home area and ask them to start stocking this very popular item that seems to make every get-together complete. Now we wil

Sometimes Sports are Just Sports

 This may or may not make the final cut of my book. I was writing about some events this weekend and what had started as a joyous Friday night at my home school district became a weekend of heartbreak in the area after what happened at another school. Sometimes We Need to Realize That Sports are Just Games   Friday nights in late summer and early fall are sometimes a big deal for high school students and their families. As the long-time band announcer for my local high school, it is a time of year I always look forward to. This past Friday night was originally supposed to be the homecoming game for the local high school. The schedule had to be changed a bit because of the uncertainty of the opponents being able to field a team. There was talk around the league that they may have had to forfeit this game, so homecoming for the local school was rescheduled. The opponents, which are rivals of my local school district, were able to field a team and the game was played. The game was