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On this date forty years ago, Ed Charles (seen in the above photo, to the left of Jerry Koosman and Jerry Grote, celebrating the last out of the 1969 World Series) became the first player released by the newly crowned world champion New York Mets.

Charles, then 36, had played in 61 games for the Mets in 1969, hitting .207 with 3 home runs and 18 RBI. One of the home runs came in the division clinching game on September 24 off Steve Carlton, who’d started the All-Star Game for the National League in July.

Charles did not play in the NLCS against the Braves, but he played in four of five World Series games against the Orioles, hitting just .133.  His biggest contributions in the Series came in Game Two. He singled and scored the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth inning. Then, with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth, he gloved a hard grounder and threw to Donn Clendenon to preserve a 2-1 win.

“The Glider” played in eight Major League seasons after signing as an amateur with the Boston Braves in 1952. His best offensive season was his rookie year in 1962, when he hit .288 with 17 home runs and 74 RBI for the Kansas City Athletics.

Known as a smooth fielder, Charles came to the Mets in 1967 in a trade for Larry Elliott and cash. Charles had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in the ‘69 series.

After his release, Charles retired from baseball with a career average of .263 and 86 home runs. He scored 438 runs and knocked in 421 in 1005 games played.

Charles was on hand at CitiField when the Mets honored the 40th anniversary of the ‘69 team this summer.

Thursday, October 16, 1969

The New York Mets are World Series champions.

The Amazin’s overcame an early three-run deficit to beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-3 in Game Five and close out the series at home. Jerry Koosman pitched a complete game to earn his second series win, series MVP Donn Clendenon homered in his third straight appearance, and Al Weis hit a key game-tying home run, his first ever homer at Shea Stadium.

After hitting .215 in the regular season, Weis finished with a .455 series average.

The Mets fell behind in the third when Orioles pitcher Dave McNally smacked a two-run shot over the leftfield wall. Three batters later, Frank Robinson drove a towering home run over the centerfield fence for a 3-0 Orioles lead.

But it was the last time Baltimore would score in ‘69.

Koosman settled into a groove, and the Mets got on the board in the sixth when Cleon Jones was hit by a pitch and Clendenon followed with a drive that ricocheted off the upper deck in leftfield. At first, umpire Lou DiMuro ruled that McNally’s pitch had missed Jones’s feet before it hit the ground and bounced into the Mets dugout. But manager Gil Hodges emerged with a ball that bore the mark of shoe polish, and after inspecting it, DiMuro awarded Jones first. This enraged Baltimore manager Earl Weaver, as in the top of the inning, Frank Robinson had struck out after claiming to have been hit by a Koosman pitch.

With the Mets trailing by one, Al Weis sent the fans to their feet with his game-tying home run off McNally in the seventh. In the eighth against reliever Eddie Watt, Jones led off with a double high off the centerfield fence, and he scored the go-ahead run one batter latter on Ron Swoboda’s bloop single to left, which landed just in front of a lunging Don Buford to the delight of the enraptured Shea faithful. After Ed Charles flew out, Jerry Grote lined a hard grounder to Boog Powell at first, and when Watt mishandled Powell’s toss to first, Swoboda came around to score a key insurance run.

Protecting a two-run lead, Koosman made a mistake in walking Frank Robinson to begin the ninth. But Koosman got Powell to ground into a force play and retired Brooks Robinson on a fly to right.

Davey Johnson stepped to the plate next. I recount what happened next in 1969: The Year Everything Changed:

Second baseman Davey Johnson hit a deep fly ball to left that might have made many a fan hold their breath, but when Jones stopped moving backward and calmly settled under the ball just shy of the warning track, it was all over.

He collected the ball and brought his hands down as he practically knelt to the Shea grass in a solemn gesture. Veteran baseball writer George Vecsey wrote, “Shea Stadium was caught quivering as Jones sighted the ball, and the whole city erupted as he caught it, and the fans poured onto the field, and the New York Mets were the champions of baseball. There were a million exciting things happening and it was hard to focus on any one incident. But out in left field, if you had been looking there, you would have seen Cleon Jones, with fans racing over to pummel him, stop for a moment, drop quickly to one knee. Later, he explained his brief genuflection. ‘Someone was good to us.’ ”

The Mets, the laughingstock of baseball in their first seven years of existence, were now the best team in all of the land. All jubilant hell broke loose. Fans ran onto the field in celebration. Some collected dirt from the infield; others dug out home plate as a souvenir. It was just before 3:30 on that Thursday afternoon, October 16, and throughout the city, New Yorkers began their celebration. White-collar confetti danced downward upon spontaneous revelers. Strangers danced in the streets, young with old, black with white—one of the few moments of harmony during a year that had seen the nation divided by age and race.

Sunday, October 12, 1969

A Mets starting pitcher finally threw a good game in the playoffs, and the bottom of the order delivered when it counted most for New York in Game Two of the World Series.

After three rocky outings in the NLCS by its the team’s top three hurlers - Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Gary Gentry – and a loss by Seaver in Game One of the World Series, Koosman took the mound in Memorial Stadium and carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the potent Baltimore Orioles lineup.

Don Clendenon had given the team its first lead in a Series game with his home run off Dave McNally to begin the fourth inning. Koosman, owenr of a 17-9 record in the regular season, made that single stand up until Paul Blair lead off the seventh with a single to left, stole second, and scored on Brooks Robinson’s two-out single into center.

The score was knotted in the top of the ninth when Ed Charles singled with two outs and moved to third on a perfectly executed hit-and-run by Jerry Grote. Manager Gil Hodges left eighth-place hitter Al Weis, who hit just .215 in the regular season and had just one at-bat in the NLCS, in to face McNally. Weis had singled off the Orioles southpaw back in the third, and he rewarded Hodges’s confidence by rapping a single into left to score Charles with the go-ahead run.

Koosman took that lead into the bottom of the ninth and retired the first two men in the Orioles order, Paul Blair and Don Buford. But there the lefty faltered, issuing walks to both Frank Robinson and Boog Powell to put the tying and winning runs on base. Hodges called for closer Ron Taylor to put out the fire.

Up stepped the dangerous Brooks Robinson, who drove in 84 runs in the 1969 season and starred with a .500 average in the ALCS. Robinson swung at a Taylor offering and bounced a hard smash to Charles at third base. The man they call The Glider gloved it and took a step toward third for the force out. But realizing he might not beat Frank Robinson to the base, Charles stopped and fired across the diamond to first. Clendenon stretched and dug Charles’s throw out of the dirt to get the final out and preserve a 2-1 win in the Mets’ first World Series victory.

Both Charles and Weis were 2 for 4 in the game. McNally suffered his first postseason loss despite giving up just six hits while striking out seven batters.

The series now moves to New York, where the Mets and Orioles will square off in Game Three at Shea Stadium on Tuesday, October 14.

WORLD SERIES GAME TWO: Mets 2, Orioles 1.  W: Koosman (1-0)  L: McNally (0-1)

Wednesday, September 24, 1969

With Bill Hands pitching the Cubs to a win over the Expos at Wrigley today, the Mets had to take care of business themselves if they wanted to clinch the Eastern Division of the National League.

And take care of business they did, scoring five runs out of the gate off Steve Carlton, the starting pitcher for the National League in this past summer’s All-Star game.

Don Clendenon got the scoring started in a big way with his first inning home run, after Bud Harrelson had lead off with a single and Tommie Agee reached on a walk.  Two batters latter, Ed Charles went deep with a two-run shot to knock Carlton out of the box, and the Shea Stadium crowd could sense that this was the Mets’ night.

From there, rookie Gary Gentry kept the Cardinals at bay, allowing just four hits on the night. Clendenon homered again in the fifth inning, his fifteenth roundtripper of the season, to give the Mets another insurance run.

Gentry carried the shutout into the ninth. Lou Brock and Vic Davalillo both singled to open the inning. But Gentry struck out Vada Pinson for the first out, and the next batter, Joe Torre, bounced a tailor-made groundball to Harrelson. The Mets shortstop threw to Al Weis for the out at second, and Weis turned and fired to Clendenon for the final out of the game.

I recount what happened next in 1969: The Year Everything Changed:

Mets announcer Lindsey Nelson officially proclaimed: “At 9:07 on September 24th, the Mets have won the championship of the  Eastern Division of the National League!”

As the Mets players ran into the dugout and began spraying champagne inside the locker room, fans stormed the field to celebrate an event that had seemed unthinkable in the team’s first seven years. In what the Associated Press called “one of the most incredible souvenir-snatching safaaris in baseball history,” the Shea crowd tore up as much as 1,500 square feet of sod. The AP quoted a police report the next day that summarized the festive damage: “They celebrated by  breaking three wheels off the batting cage and stripping the netting off it. They celebrated by tearing up the all-weather matting in the coaches’ boxes behind first and third base. They celebrated by taking pieces of the scoreboard. They celebrated by stealing home plate.” Fans also sprayed graffiti across the wall in centerfield and stole the stadium’s American flag from atop its outfield post.

The Mets now await the winner of the National League West, which the Atlanta Braves currently lead by 1.5 games over the San Francisco Giants and 3 over the Cincinnati Reds.

Cubs 6, Expos 3.  W: Hands (19-14)  L: Renko (6-7)

Mets 6, Cardinals 0.  W: Gentry (12-12)  L: Carlton (17-11)

***

NL EAST                          W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
New York Mets*                  96   61    0  .611     -   615  531
Chicago Cubs                    90   67    1  .573   6.0   706  595
Pittsburgh Pirates              82   73    0  .529  13.0   691  632
St. Louis Cardinals             82   74    0  .526  13.5   567  527
Philadelphia Phillies           62   92    0  .403  32.5   624  711
Montreal Expos                  52  105    0  .331  44.0   574  762
* clinched division

NL WEST                          W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
Atlanta Braves                  89   68    0  .567     -   667  613
San Francisco Giants            87   69    0  .558   1.5   690  619
Cincinnati Reds                 85   70    1  .548   3.0   771  750
Los Angeles Dodgers             82   74    0  .526   6.5   628  538
Houston Astros                  78   76    0  .506   9.5   652  638
San Diego Padres                50  106    0  .321  38.5   447  716

Sunday, September 14, 1969

Steve Blass pitched his way around 11 hits and broke the Mets’ 10-game winning streak.

New York battled back to tie the game after trailing 3-0, but Blass himself singled in the go-ahead run for Pittsburgh and then made the lead hold up.  Starter Nolan Ryan took just his second loss of the season.

Bud Harrelson tallied three hits in the leadoff spot for the Mets, while Ed Charles and Jerry Grote had two hits apiece and all three men scored once.

Pirates 5, Mets 3.  W: Blass (15-9)  L: Ryan (6-2)

Chicago’s Ken Holtzman and St. Louis’s Bob Gibson both carried a pitcher’s duel into the 10th inning, when Lou Brock won it for the home team with a walk-off home run. Gibson held the Cubs to just seven hits, two by Holtzman and two by recently acquired centerfielder Jimmie Hall.

Despite pitching well, Holtzman fell to 0-3 in the month of September.

Cardinals 2, Cubs 1 (10 inn.).  W: Gibson (18-11)  L: Holtzman (16-11)

***

NL EAST                               W    L    T   PCT    GB 
New York Mets                   88   58    0  .603     -  
Chicago Cubs                     85   62    1  .578   3.5 

Sunday, June 29, 1969

Bob Gibson struck out 10 batters but Fergie Jenkins got the win Sunday afternoon at Wrigley.

Jenkins gave up just 3 hits and 1 run, while Willie Smith was the hitting star for Chicago, going 3 for 4 with a homerun and 2 RBI.

Game two was a blowout. The Cubs pounded out 12 runs while starter Dick Selma got a complete-game,10-strikeout win. Ernie Banks hit a 3-run homer in the 1st. Ron Santo was 3 for 4 with a homerun and 5 RBI.  And Billy Williams was 4 for 5 with a double, triple, 3 runs and 3 RBI. Williams appeared in his 895th and 896th straight game to break Stan Musial’s NL record.

Cubs 3, Cardinals 1 (1).  W: Jenkins (10-5)  L: Gibson (10-5)

Cubs 12, Cardinals 1 (2). W: Selma (8-3)  L: Grant (4-8)

***

With Tom Seaver on the mound, 7 Mets runs were plenty against Pittsburgh. Recent acquisition Don Clendenon, who came into the day hitting just .118 as a Met,  went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI, and Cleon Jones and Ed Charles both knocked in 2. Tommie Agee scored twice.

Mets 7, Pirates 3.  W: Seaver (12-3)  L: Veale (4-9)

Team Name                        G    W    L    T   PCT    GB   

Chicago Cubs                    76   49   26    1  .653     -  

New York Mets                   71   39   32    0  .549   8.0  

Saturday, June 28, 1969

Bill Hands gave up just 3 hits and 1 run to St. Louis at Wrigley. Willie Smith and Don Young both homered for the Cubs.

Cubs 3, Cardinals 1.  W: Hands (8-6)  L: Giusti (3-7)

***

A 5-run Pirates rally in the 8th inning broke open a Saturday night game at Shea. Cleon Jones went 3 for 4, scored twice, and drove in a run in a losing effort. Ed Kranepool had 2 hits and 2 RBI, and Al Weis added 2 hits and an RBI.

Pirates 7, Mets 4.  W: Bunning (7-5) L: Gentry (7-6)  SV: Gibbon (4)

Friday, June 27, 1969

The Cubs rapped out 10 hits but managed only 1 run against Steve Carlton and the Cardinals. The St. Louis lefty tossed a complete game and worked around trouble by striking out 12 Chicago batters. Ken Holtzman gave up jst 2 runs in 7 innings but took his second loss of the season. Ron Santo went 2 for 4 and knocked in Paul Popovich for the only Cubs run.

Cardinals 3, Cubs 1.  W: Carlton (8-5)  L: Holtzman (10-1)

***

Steve Blass outpitched Jerry Koosman in a pitcher’s duel at Shea Stadium. The Mets managed only 3 hits, with J.C. Martin driving in Art Shamsky for the sole New York tally.

Pirates 3, Mets 1.  W: Blass (8-4)  L: Koosman (5-5)  SV: Gibbon (3)

Saturday, June 14, 1969

Another wild one in Cincinnati.

This time, the Reds squandered an early 4-0 lead. All 4 runs were charged to Ken Holtzman, wo lasted just 2 2/3. Don Nottebart came on and yielded 3 more in just 2 1/3. But Ted Abernathy and Phil Regan settled things down over the next 4 innings and allowed the Cubs to claw back into the game.  Reds starter Tony Cloninger left after 5 1/3 and was charged with 6 runs (1 unearned).

With the score tied 7-7 after 9 innings, Chicago scored 2 runs in the tenth. Don Kessinger was again a hitting star, notching 3 hits for the second straight day and knocking in 2 more runs, including one on an RBI double in the tenth. Randy Hundley had 2 hits and an RBI, and both Ernie Banks and Don Young knocked in 2.

Lee May homered off Rich Nye with 2 outs in the bottom of the tenth to draw the Reds to within 1 again. Nye then walked Johnny Bench to put the tying run on base, but Fergie Jenkins came on to make a rare relief appearance and got the final out to preserve the win.

Four Reds batters - Bobby Tolin, Alex Johnson, May and Bench – each had 3 hits.

Cubs 9, Reds 8 (10 inn.)  W: Regan (7-2)  L: Granger (1-2)  SV: Jenkins (1)

***

Tom Seaver knocked in 2 runs but allowed just 1 to the Dodgers in a Mets win.

The Mets ace went 8 strong innings, his only earned run coming in the first when Willie Crawford tripled with one out and then scored on Wes Parker’s single.

Art Shamsky homered in the second off starter Don Sutton to tie the game, and he started a rally in the fourth with a single and a stolen base. Ed Charles followed with a two-out single, and after a walk to Jerry Grote loaded the bases, Seaver helped himself with a single into centerfield to score Shamsky and Charles.  Grote was tagged out in a rundown between second and third.

Seaver stayed in a groove through 8 innings, and Tug McGraw pitched a scoreless ninth to earn the save.

Mets 3, Dodgers 1  W: Seaver (10-3)  L: Sutton (9-5)  SV: McGraw (3)

Team Name                        W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
Chicago Cubs                    40   18    1  .690     -   310  202
New York Mets                   30   25    0  .545   8.5   209  202

Friday, June 13, 1969

On Friday the 13th, the Cubs emerged with the win in a wild, back-and-forth affair at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.

Don Kessinger had 3 hits and 3 RBI, while Paul Popovich, substituting for the injured Glenn Beckert, also had 3 hits for the Cubs. Ron Santo had 2 hits and 3 RBI, and both Ernie Banks and Billy Williams homered. Chicago scored 4 runs in the first 3 innings off Reds starter George Culver, but Fergie Jenkins all 4 runs back to Cincinnati in the third.

The Reds knocked Jenkins out with 2 more in the fifth to take the lead, but the Cubs tied it 2 in the top of the sixth. Chicago looked to win in regulation with 2 in the ninth off Wayne Granger, but Phil Regan blew the chance for the save and allowed the Reds to tie the game again. But the Cubs roared back in the top of the tenth, sending nine men to bat and plating 6 runs off Jose Pena.

Cubs 14, Reds 8 (1o inn.)  W: Regan (6-2)  L: Pena (1-1)  SV: Nye (1)

***

The Mets lost to the Dodgers 1-0 as neither team scored an earned run.

The only run of the game came in the second inning, when Manny Mota singled off Jerry Koosman and advanced to second on Art Shamsky’s error. Jim Lefebvre then singled Mota in. Both Dodgers went 2 for 3 in the game.

Koosman pitched well, allowing just the one marred run in seven innings, but LA’s Alan Foster was better. The 22-year-old went the full nine, allowing 7 hits and walking just one, to earn his first win of the season.   New York came that close to scoring in the fifth, when Ed Charles tried to score from second on Jerry Grote’s single but was thrown out by Mota at home.

Wayne Garrett went 2 for 3 for the Mets.

Dodgers 1, Mets 0  W: Foster (1-4)  L: Koosman (3-4)

***

Team Name                        W    L    T   PCT    GB 
Chicago Cubs                    39   18    1  .684     -  
New York Mets                  29   25    0  .537   8.5

Sunday, June 8, 1969

Tom Seaver ran his record to 9-3 as the Mets scored 3 late runs to win their 10th straight game.

Seaver had his good stuff working in San Diego, striking out 14 batters in 7 innings. The Padres, though, carried a 2-0 lead into the 7th inning, thanks to Seaver’s own error that allowed Chris Cannizzaro to score in the 3rd, and Ed Spezio’s solo shot in the 4th. 

But in the 7th, Cleon Jones singled and later scored on Ed Kranepool’s hit. Then in the 8th, an RBI double from Tommie Agee scored Ed Charles to tie the game. One batter later, Wayne Garrett’s single brought Bud Harrelson in for the go-ahead run. Ron Taylor pitched 2 hitless innings to preserve the win.

Mets 3, Padres 2  W: Seaver (9-3)  L: Santorini (3-3)  SV: Taylor (4)

                                                 W    L    T   PCT    GB   

Chicago Cubs                    36   16    1  .692     -  

New York Mets                  28   23    0  .549   7.5

Saturday, June 7, 1969

The Cubs couldn’t hold off the Reds and then couldn’t hold off the rain.

Bill Hands and Chicago led 5-1 after 6 innings at Wrigley. But Cincinnati rallied for 4 runs over the next 2 innings, 2 of them charged to relief man Ted Abernathy, who went threw just 1/3 inning. Then, with a man on and two out in the top of the ninth, rain came pouring down and the game was eventually called at 5-5 to result in a rare tie.

Ernie Banks had a 2-run homer for the Cubs in the first, Don Kessinger was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI, and Ron Santo was 2 for 4 with an RBI.

Reds 5, Cubs 5 (tie)

***

Jerry Koosman pitched his third straight dominant game and mastered the Padres for the second time in two weeks.

After tossing 10 scoreless innings and striking out 15 against San Diego on May 28, Koosman struck out 11 and carried a shutout into the 9th inning. Rod Gaspar went 3 for 3 and Cleon Jones, Ron Swoboda, Ed Charles and Al Weis had 2 hits apiece for New York as the Mets scored one in the 4th, two in the 7th, and one more in the 8th.

New York has now won 9 straight.

Mets 4, Padres 1  W: Koosman (3-3)  L: Podres (5-4)

NL EAST STANDINGS

Team Name                        W    L    T   PCT    GB   R +/-

Chicago Cubs                    36   16    1  .692     -   100
New York Mets                   27   23    0  .540   8.0     5
Pittsburgh Pirates              26   26    0  .500  10.0     2
St. Louis Cardinals             25   28    0  .472  11.5     0
Philadelphia Phillies           18   30    0  .375  16.0   -32
Montreal Expos                  11   37    0  .229  23.0   -92