Today’s Lineup…
👶 Card of the Day - Baby-faced Chuck
🛍️ Supermarket artwork
1970 Topps Charlie Manuel (#194) - Card of the Day
There was no Major League Baseball draft back in 1963, but the Minnesota Twins were still in on a high school outfielder from Buena Vista, Virginia.
So they inked young Charlie Manuel to a free agent deal before the season began.
Of course, it’s a long climb from high school to the majors for most prospects, and so it would be for Manuel. The challenge was made all the tougher by the fact that the Twins had turned into winners in just their second summer in Minnesota after transforming themselves from the old Washington Senators before the 1961 season.
And, of course, by the presence of incumbent outfielders Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, Lenny Green, and Jimmie Hall.
So Manuel began his climb with the Rookie-level Wytheville Twins, then spent the next two summers between Rookie ball and Class A, then two more at Class A.
That batting average bottomed out in the middle of those years, but 23-year-old Manuel showed some promise with a .313 batting average, 15 home runs, and 70 RBI with the Wisconsin Rapids Twins in 1967.
On the strength of that performance, Manuel landed with the Double-A Charlotte Hornets in 1968, hitting .283 with 13 home runs, 79 RBI, and a pretty amazing 11 triples.
That, and some extra seasoning in rookie winter ball, was enough for the Twins to keep Manuel on the big league roster when Spring Training broke in 1969, and he made his MLB debut at age 25 on April 8.
Manuel would go on to appear in 83 games as a rookie, batting .207 with 2 homers and 24 RBI (and zero triples). More than half of his appearances came as a pinch hitter (44 games) or pinch runner (2 games), though he did log a total of 46 appearances in the field, all in the outfield.
That 1969 Twins team won the first-ever American League West division title, led by A.L. MVP Harmon Killebrew and ace Jim Perry, who would go on to win the Cy Young Award in 1970.
The Twinkies won the division again that next year, and though the Orioles swept them in both ALCS, Manuel managed a plate appearance in each of those series.
More importantly for our purposes, Manuel stuck with Minnesota hard enough for Topps to give him a solo rookie card in their 1970 set — that’s it above, #194.
“Chuck” found playing time tough to come by and bounced between the bigs and the bushes a few times, spending all of 1973 at Triple-A Tacoma.
After that season ended, the Twins traded Manuel and minor leaguer Glenn Ezell to the Dodgers in exchange for fellow outfielder/pinch hitter Jim Fairey and minor leaguer Mike Floyd.
Manuel made 19 pinch-hitting appearances for Los Angeles in 1974 and 1975 before spending six seasons in Japan. There, Manuel developed into a legitimate power threat, crushing more than 40 homers in a season twice and hitting 37 and 39 on other occasions.
Of course, Manuel is best known these days as a Major League manager, where his 1000-826 record helped the Indians and Phillies to a total of six division titles, two pennants, and a World Series championship.
That gave rise to another type of Manuel rookie card, such as his 2000 Topps issue (#329):
Charlie Manuel turns 80 years old today.
1970 SuperValu Twins - Shades of Manuel
At the same time collectors across the nation were gobbling up Manuel rookie cards (right?), collectors in Minnesota had the chance to grab onto something a bit more focused.
The 12-card SuperValu Twins set was issued by the Minnesota-based grocery chain of the same name. As you can see from the Rod Carew above, the artwork is pretty nifty.
And, though, you won’t find any “Chuck” cards here, the checklist is pretty darn solid:
Rod Carew
Harmon Killebrew
Jim Perry
You can usually find the SuperValu cards pretty cheap on eBay, but be aware that there are some reprints running around out there.
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That’s it for today’s SuperValu edition of the newsletter. Don’t forget to lick your Green Stamps and put them in your Saver Book!
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
More cardboard fun: