Joe Shlabotnik
Joe Shlabotnik is an unseen fictional character in the world of Charles M. Schulz's long-running comic strip, Peanuts.
Joe Shlabotnik Fan Club
Charlie Brown considers Joe his favorite baseball player, and spends much of his free time trying to hunt down Joe memorabilia – baseball cards, autographs, personal meetings, etc. Charlie Brown even organized a Joe Shlabotnik Fan Club, complete with a newsletter that folded after one issue.
Charlie Brown Testimonial Dinner
Linus once invited Shlabotnik to a testimonial dinner for Charlie Brown; unfortunately, the ballplayer got lost en route from his day job at a car wash. Another time he was scheduled to appear at a sports banquet where fans could dine with their favorite athletes (the guest list included Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Jack Nicklaus, and Peggy Fleming), and Charlie Brown, Linus, and Snoopy bought tickets to sit at Joe's table. He was the only athlete who didn't show up, explaining later that he had marked the wrong event, city, and date on his calendar.
Baseball career
Shlabotnik was demoted to the minor leagues after hitting .004 over an entire season; his one hit was a bloop single with his team comfortably ahead. One time he promised to hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth; he popped out instead, but circled the bases anyway. His greatest achievements included making spectacular plays on routine fly balls and throwing out a runner who had fallen down between first and second.
After being sent down to Stumptown of the Green Grass League, Shlabotnik eventually retired as a player and agreed to manage the Waffletown Syrups. Sadly, Joe was fired after only one game, after calling for a squeeze play — with no one on base.
The Card
One memorable Sunday Peanuts comic strip (which to this day a blown up copy is still on display at the Topps Company, manufacturer of gum packs with trading cards) from April 12, 1964 shows Charlie Brown buying five dollars worth of baseball cards (in 500 one-card penny packs) to get a card of Shlabotnik. Charlie Brown frantically rips open all the packs and does not get one. Lucy then buys one penny pack and much to Charlie Brown's dismay, finds Shlabotnik in her one and only pack.
In an earlier Sunday strip (8/18/63), Charlie Brown offers her every card he owns in trade for the one Joe Shlabotnik card she has, but Lucy, knowing nothing about baseball, refuses to trade and maintains, "He's kind of cute." After Charlie Brown leaves in obvious misery, Lucy throws the card into a dumpster, claiming, "He wasn't as cute as I thought."
Similar named Character
The name "Joseph Schlabotnik" (note spelling) had earlier been used in Peanuts in the strip of 22 February, 1957, when Schroeder mentions a pianist, "the incomparable Joseph Schlabotnik", whom he later admits to having made up.
References
- Sandlot Peanuts Schultz, Charles ISBN 978-0030226212
- The Complete Peanuts 1963-1964 Schultz, Charles ISBN 978-1560977230
External links
- [http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/dickiethon/peanuts.html| Review of Sandlot Peanuts]
bg:Джо Шлаботник