This picture of Charlie Manuel managing the Charlotte Hornets baseball team popped up in Twitter feeds today with the claim that it was from 1968. My immediate reaction was “Holy Shit Charlie has been old forever,” but it’s a lot more likely that the picture is from 1993. Way back in 1968, Cholly played for the Charlotte Hornets (hitting .283 with 13 home runs and 79 RBIs), who later became the Knights, which he managed in 1993. This picture is likely from a throwback jersey day in 1993, and those are some really, really great jerseys (paging Ebbets Field Flannels). I figure now is as good a time as any for a good ol’ Charlie Manuel picture appreciation post. Like this picture of Cholly playing for the Hornets actually from 1968:

cholly 68

Or this picture of Charlie receiving a painting of himself, painted by baseball fan Elva Willshaw, while managing the Knights in ’93:

charlie knights

A beautiful full-color photo of Cholly playing with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in another great looking uniform:

cholly japan

A very unphotogenic Cholly and Jim Thome with that ’93 Knights team:

thome cholly

Cholly wearing an extremely rudimentary and uncomfortable looking facemask on his helmet after he got plunked on the jaw in Japan:


cholly facemask

And finally, my favorite picture of the bunch, Cholly unenthusiastically eating bacon on a stick:

cholly bacon

And before you get all “slow news day?” on me, two things: 1. Shut up. And 2. No day is ever too jam-packed with news to appreciate and acknowledge how much I love Charlie Manuel. Also yes, it’s a slow day.