Super Joe Squirts to the Fore

Even flashes-in-the-pan shine on for fans and collectors

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1981 Squirt Joe Charboneau (#32) - Card of the Day

As far as diehard fans and card collectors are concerned, the fame and impact of flash-in-the-pan players aren’t really all that ephemeral.

That’s especially true if we have some sort of personal connection to a player, like one we saw in person, or one whose rookie cards we chased with the fervor of Willie Mays tracking down a flyball in the 1954 World Series.

And sometimes, if the flash is bright enough or prolonged enough, we might even get some cardboard help in keeping those memories alive.

Consider Joe Charboneau, for example.

Charboneau was the Phillies’ second-round choice out of West Valley College in 1976 — but second round of the secondary phase of the June draft.

After a couple seasons in the Philadelphia’s pharm system, he got phrustrated (or something) and quit baseball, returning home to California. But in 1978, he was back in organized ball, playing for the Visalia Oaks in the Twins organization, though apparently still controlled by the Phils.

I’m not quite sure how that all worked, but after winning the California League batting title with a .350 mark, Charboneau was on the move that winter. The Phillies traded the young outfielder to the Cleveland Indians for Cardell Camper.

After hitting .352 with 21 home runs and 78 RBI in 109 games at Double-A in 1979, Charboneau had done enough in the Indians’ eyes. He jumped straight to the majors and kept right on clubbing home runs.

In a magical summer by the lake, Charboneau hit .289 with 23 dingers and 87 RBI in 131 games. He was a baseball phenomenon, drawing fans across the nation eager to catch a glimpse of Super Joe.

That fall, he was named American League Rookie of the Year, beating out the likes of Dave Stapleton, Doug Corbett, Damaso Garcia, and Britt Burns.

From a baseball card perspective, Charboneau’s breakout couldn’t have come at a better time, as 1980 was the last year of the Topps monopoly. With Fleer and Donruss joining the fray, collectors were in line for not just one but three Charboneau rookie cards in 1981.

And we got them!

But that wasn’t all.

When you have a “kid” lighting up the baseball stratosphere like Charboneau did in 1980 and the wherewithal to crank up the cardboard printing presses, you don’t stop with a simple base card.

And so 1981 saw a relative avalanche (for the time) of Super Joe RCs: Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Drake’s, Topps Scratch-offs, O-Pee-Chee.

Then there was that little number you see above, Charboneau’s Squirt card.

Squirt was a 33-card set issued by Topps and sold with Squirt two-liter bottles. In particular, these were issued as two-card panels attached vertically to a third hunk of cardboard — with a hole in it — and hung from the neck of Squirt bottles.

Store aisles were a kid paradise in those days.

Charboneau made the cut, along with superstars like Pete Rose, George Brett, Mike Schmidt, and Johnny Bench, along with other up-and-comers, including Rickey Henderson, John Castino, and Steve Kemp.

Of course, not all those in that second group actually up and came. And, as it turned out, Charboneau had come about as far as he ever was going to, from a baseball perspective.

He played only parts of two more seasons in the big leagues, hitting just six more long balls, and then wrapped up his pro career with two years in the minors.

Looking back, it’s easy to say that Charboneau was “old” for a prospect in 1980, his age-25 season. Maybe we should have known then that it wouldn’t last.

But it’s also easy to see that we — you, me, the kid next door, the Charboneau followers in Kansas City, Portland, Tucson — weren’t alone in our fervor.

That 1981 Squirt card is a reminder of a golden summer, a hysteria that scorched a continent like only a baseball phenom can. Once lit, it’s a fire that never really dies.

Today, Joe Charboneau turns 69 years old.

Birds of a Rookie-Card Feather Trade Together?

Charboneau was doing his thing just before I opened my first packs of baseball cards, and a few years before I took up the hobby in earnest. By then, his rookie cards were still hanging around showcases, hope swirling around them like smoke from a newly-extinguished cigarette.

A little less prevalent, but still present, in my early hobby days — think 1983 — were whispers about Mark Fidrych and just how hot his rookie card had been several years before.

I didn’t get it at the time, and I probably will never understand the full impact of The Bird since I didn’t live it. Still, his rookie card is a classic, and his short time in the game is legendary — so, yeah, I wrote about it all once upon a time, right here.

I also took on a slightly less iconic Fidrych card right here.

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Who are some of your favorite now-forgotten-but-not-really phenoms of the past? I’d love to hear your picks and dredge up some memories in the process.

Anyway, happy Monday, and thanks for reading.

—Adam

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