Whatever Happened to Super Joe?: Catching Up With 45 Good Old Guys from the Bad Old Days of the Cleveland Indians

Sometimes nostalgic, sometimes tinged with disappointment, often humorous and insightful, these stories take Tribe fans back to an age before multi-million dollar superstars, when players were in it for the love of the game …From the mid-1950s through the mid-1990s, various owners of the Cleveland Indians (including, at one time, a dead man) fielded team after team that just couldn’t win. Those forty long years, before the opening of Jacobs Field and the “era of champions,” are remembered by many as the “bad old days.” Yet those lousy teams had their share of likeable and colorful young men who earned a spot in fans’ hearts, if not the Hall of Fame. Guys like . . .“Super Joe” Charboneau, whose Rookie of the Year season inspired a nickname, a book, and a theme song, but whose career flamed out fast.Gomer Hodge, the former farm boy who went 4-for-4 in his first plate appearances with the Tribe and proudly announced that he had a 4.000 batting average.Good-fielding shortstop Duane Kuiper, who was satisfied hitting just one home run in eight seasons because, he said, “Any more than that and people start expecting them.”Former knuckleballer Tom Candiotti, who never pitched a no-hitter but did throw a perfect game—as a pro bowler.The “Immortal” Joe Azcue, who tried hard to live up to his nickname but whose batting average proved him merely human.Fred “Wingy” Whitfield, who despite having what one coach called a “chicken wing for an arm” went on to play 579 games for the Tribe. (“They liked my bat, not my arm,” he says.)Catch up with 45 former Indians players who played in Cleveland during the “bad old days” yet still have fond memories of their time with the Tribe. Veteran sportswriter Russell Schneider covered them when they were young and filled with promise; here, he finds out what they think now about their playing days, looking back, and about their lives after baseball. Read more