Whatever Happened to 'Super Joe'?
Russell Schneider
Gray & Company, Publishers

Have you been living in Cleveland for more than –oh, 15 years? If so, you’ll certainly recognize some of the faces on the cover of this entertaining book. All of these pictured gentlemen played baseball for our Cleveland Indians at some point between the two World Series competitions in which our tribe was not successful: 1954 and 1997. The names roll trippingly off the tongue, and stir up dozing memories of times past. Some of them should probably not be disturbed, but still – it’s fun to encounter some of these players once again, and imagine – what might have been.

With 43 years of frustration and futility elapsed between those two World Series, and this book tells us about 45 of the men who mostly passed through here on their way to fame or obscurity. Possibly the most successful of the bunch was Jim Bibby (75-77), a pitcher who arrived just in time to take advantage of the beginnings of free agency. He went to Pittsburgh and a World Series. Others, such as Gomer Hodge, had just one season (1971) of the ‘bigs’ before being sent down to the minors. He became a coach, but that didn’t last too long, either.

Ray Narleski and Don Mossi (54-58)were the first two specific relievers; one a righty, the other a lefty, they helped get the 1954 team to the World Series, but to no avail. Tito Francona (59-64) saw his son Terry grow into a big-league manager. Duane Kuiper lasted here a good while (74-81) before being traded to San Francisco. After his playing days, he moved to the broadcast booth, from where he still calls the Giants’ games.

Some players were felled by injuries: ‘Super’ Joe Charbonneau (80-82), Ron Hassey (78-84) and Wayne Garland (77-81) were sadly missed when their playing days were over. Garland, especially, drew the wrath of Indians fans for having accepted a huge free agent contract. Hey, it was offered—he’d have been stupid to refuse it. In a way, though, it contributed to his early retirement, as he felt compelled to play even when he should have been resting his shoulder.

Maybe you remember ‘Mudcat’ Grant, Max Alvis, Joe Azcue, Larry Brown or Duke Sims from the teams of the 60s, or Chris Chambliss, Charlie Spikes, Steve Dunning or Frank Duffy from the 70s. If so, you’ll be able to catch up with them now. Also, there’s Pat Tabler, Brook Jacoby and Doug Jones from the 80s. Some of them displayed more promise than others, but it made little difference to the cash-strapped teams of those years. There was always another team that had money and needed a player or two or three, so off they went to another place. Some of them came back, others didn’t.

Russell Schneider wrote about baseball for Cleveland newspapers during many of these years, which gives him a unique vantage point from which to write about these sometime warriors. Without sentimentality, he plays the game of ‘whatever happened to...’ as well as anyone. This is a very readable book, whether a chapter at a time, or just to go straight through it, wallowing in our ‘what might have been’.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATadelphia.net
(:divend:)