Baseball Songs: Go Joe Charboneau

Super Joe Rocks Cleveland

Nobody loves an underdog like Cleveland loves an underdog.

Especially if that underdog is a bit of a whack-a-doodle. 

I was recently reminded of Joe Charboneau’s existence via Rob Neyer’s Substack. Neyer was talking about players with one great rookie season, like Mark “The Bird” Fidrych’s 1976, when he wrote, “four years later, a song about Indians outfielder ‘Super Joe’ Charboneau rocketed to No. 3 on the Cleveland record charts.”

I barely finished that sentence before opening discogs and purchasing the “Go Joe Charboneau” 7-inch single. I could not be happier with my purchase. Here’s a QT of my copy (which came with a hype sticker and hand-written note from one of the musicians). It’s 3 minutes and 52 seconds of stadium chanting put to music, a glorious artifact of its time, and rightfully enshrined the Baseball Hall of Fame!

That’s one snappy, unpretentious pounder. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if this was a b-side from The Buzzcocks or The Gun Club. The New York Times described it as a “rock opus - its sound is somewhere between a tribal chant and the groan of someone with a stubbed toe…”

Sports Illustrated said the song, “is a pitchy rather than catchy little tune that recalls Alley Oop, both in beat and in the way it sets music back to the Stone Age.”

Those are what I call GREAT reviews!

As always, this is where the questions start. WHAT? HOW? WHY? And WHO? Who was Joe Charboneau? This is also where the internet opens its monstrous maw and swallows me whole. 

I’ll try to be brief, but the sheer volume of Joe Charboneau love by Clevelanders is prodigious. There’s an extended interview with him every few years in one of the city’s newspapers or on local news. He’s an absolute hero in northern Ohio and an obscurity everywhere else.

Charboneau tore up the minors in 1978 and 1979, setting league records in batting average with the Visalia Oaks (.350 in A-ball) and the Chattanooga Lookouts (.352 in AA). Cleveland was mired decades of ho-hum baseball (the team had finished above 4th place ONCE in the last 20 years), so when Charboneau started 1980 Spring Training 7-for-7, with a 400-foot home run, Cleveland reporters quickly dubbed him a phenom. Soon the lore of “Super Joe” Charboneau spread. 

He is a direct descendant of Toussaint Charbonneau (Lewis & Clark guide & Mr. Sacagawea). He was a bare-knuckle boxer in high school. He dyed his hair funky colors. He would eat lit cigarettes and drink beer through his three-time broken nose. He could open beer bottles with his eye socket. He removed a tattoo with a razor and a bad tooth with pliers.

"I don't do that crazy stuff anymore," Charboneau told Sports Illustrated during his rookie year. "Not since I got married and we had Tyson [his son]. I'm just like everybody else."

Here is that SI article, back when SI and its photo department were spectacular.

Mmmmmaybe. During that breakout 1980 spring training, Cleveland played an exhibition series in Mexico City. Charboneau was signing autographs when a man stabbed him with a pen (or a pen knife, depending on which account you believe). Charboneau joked that he should become a Bic spokesperson. He refused to go home and played in the series. 

More SI photo magnificence.

Normal, non-stabbing injuries to teammates opened the door for Charboneau to make the opening day roster. From a Joe Posnanski remembrance:

In those days, the only way a Cleveland Indians player would really get noticed was to do something on Opening Day. Joe Charboneau did something. He got three hits including a double and a homer and, well, yeah, there was something of an overreaction. When you have a terrible team, you don’t have the time or perspective or inclination to see if someone will actually turn out to be a good player. Why wait? Go crazy now!

At Cleveland’s home opener, Don Kriss and Stan Bloch (Kriss, a songwriter; Block, the guitarist for Cleveland punk band The Baloney Heads) were sitting in Section 36 of Municipal Stadium. Said Kriss in an AP article from the time, “We had a couple beers and made up a joke song at Stan’s house afterward, but on the way home, I began to feel the song was kinda of catchy.“

I agree, Don. Fucking catchy.

Who’s the newest guy in town? Go Joe Charboneau.

Turns the ballpark upside down. Go Joe Charboneau. 

Who do we appreciate? Go Joe Charboneau. 

Fits right in with the other eight? Go Joe Charboneau. 

Who’s the one to keep our hopes alive? Go Joe Charboneau. 

Straight from the 7th to the pennant drive? Go Joe Charboneau. 

Raise your glass, let out a cheer. Go Joe Charboneau. 

For Cleveland’s Rookie of the Year. Go Joe Charboneau

Super Joe Charboneau did indeed win the 1980 AL Rookie of the Year Award. His 23 home runs and 87 RBI, in just 131 games, led Cleveland. Never mind that his 2.4 WAR paled in comparison to Chicago pitcher Britt Burns’s 7 WAR or Minnesota pitcher Doug Corbett’s 5.7 WAR, Super Joe had the narrative going for him. WAR didn’t even exist then, and, like that guy on the internet says, “WAR is just a made-up statistic to make Super Joe look bad.”

That would turn out to be Super Joe’s only super year. Back injuries limited him to just two more partial seasons before retiring. He remains the only Rookie of the Year Award winner to play no more than 200 career games. 

But our story doesn’t end there. It never does.

Charboneau was cast as an outfielder in The Natural (1984), but he was so much bigger than Robert Redford that he was switched to coaching the local-hire extras in baseball fundamentals. He does appear in two scenes, including this one, autographed by the man himself. 

Charboneau went on to have a long post-playing career, coaching ballplayers of all levels and signing autographs for Cleveland fans who remember.

Let’s wrap up by giving some love to those baseball fans. As of this 2024 writing, it’s been SEVENTY-FIVE years since Cleveland’s last World Series Championship. The longest such streak in baseball. That’s almost 4 generations. No one from that 1948 team is even alive.

Clevelanders have had their close calls. 1995 vs. Braves. 1997 vs. Marlins. 2016 vs. Cubs. Those last two were game-seven, extra-inning, gut-wrenching, heart-breakers. Like A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote, “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.”

So like Cleveland fans, we at TTSS, encourage everyone to take your joy— your Super Joe, your Dale Murphy, your Ernie Banks, Your Mason Miller, your Mike Trout— wherever you can find it and celebrate it.