Tuesday Trivia: After the miracle
The Miracle Mets of 1969
The first installment of “Trivia Tuesday” features a player from one of the unlikeliest of stories in baseball history.
That would be the story of the 1969 New York Mets, who in just eight seasons go from fielding a bad – OK, really historically bad – expansion team in 1962 to stunning the overwhelming favorites that are the Baltimore Orioles in the ’69 World Series.
The Miracle Mets of ’69 are loaded with budding stars in future Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, fellow starter Jerry Koosman and left fielder Cleon Jones; defense-first players in catcher Jerry Grote, shortstop Bud Harrelson and center fielder Tommie Agee; a rejuvenated, power-hitting first baseman in Donn Clendenon; 20 or so role players comprising the rest of the roster; and a no-nonsense manager in Gil Hodges, who seems to know exactly how and when to use those interchangeable role players.
Hodges, the old Brooklyn first baseman from the Dodgers’ glory years in the 1950s, also instills a winning attitude into a team that has none before his arrival in 1968.
Hodges needs only two seasons to turn the Mets into World Series winners.
Not everyone, though, gets to stay for the encore.
The smell from the celebratory champagne still lingers when the Mets release one of their clubhouse leaders only 12 days after dispatching Baltimore in the fifth and final game of the ’ 69 Series.
And that player is …
C’mon, you know the answer is not coming this quick.
So, we will wait.
And wait.
And, wait some more … as you remember the name of the late, sometimes great but mostly solid Ed Charles, the part-time third baseman the Mets release just 12 days after the 1969 World Series.
Charles is 36 at the time and likely in his final season after batting only .207 in 61 games for the Mets during ’69 season.
The batting average is Charles’ lowest in his eight seasons in the majors and lowest overall since turning pro as a 19-year-old shortstop in 1952 with the Boston Braves’ Class C affiliate in Quebec.
Ed Charles (No. 5) celebrates clinching the 1969 World Series with pitcher Jerry Koosman and catcher Jerry Grote.