RIP Ed Charles, 1933-2018

[G-Fafif]

These are always sad. This one is really sad.

Ed Charles, the heart and soul of the Miracle Mets of 1969, died on Thursday at his home in East Elmhurst, Queens. He was 84. His daughter-in-law, Tomika Charles, confirmed the death, saying he had been ill for several years. Charles was a vital member of the Mets team that suddenly jelled during the 1969 season, winning the World Series in one of the most surprising surges in baseball history and endearing themselves forever to fans who had suffered through the team’s wretched play since its beginning, just seven years earlier. The Mets’ players relied on the smile and the wisdom of Charles, who was then 36. “Ed Charles was this guy, you wanted to sit on his knee and hear how he made it,” Ron Swoboda, the right fielder on the 1969 team, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. He added: “He had a physical and emotional grace that most of us didn’t seem to feel. He would say, ‘Don’t wrestle with what looks like complexity.’ ” Edwin Douglas Charles was born in Daytona Beach, Fla., on April 29, 1933, a time of racial segregation in Florida. But he took heart as a teenager when he spotted Jackie Robinson in town as a Montreal Royal farmhand during spring training in 1946. Robinson was expected to become the 20th century’s first black player in the major leagues.

[Guest d'Kong76]

‘Don’t wrestle with what looks like complexity.’

Wise words. RIP

[MFS62]

RIP, Glider.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Always came across as a very dignified man.
Be nice if we had leaders of the country like that.

[Zvon]

I'll forever hold this image of Mr. Charles in my memory. R.I.P

[Frayed Knot]

Zvon wrote: I'll forever hold this image of Mr. Charles in my memory. R.I.P [fimg=180]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wI8EXH59x0QUFok08_67cphHpVT0JCr-Kv1ne9keBLWP82YHe8O_kQtxKs0RkFr5KsfqFgUsOrgkSpMmo0-qL-vYA7p7G693RdJ-PA25ZP-yC6IIWgXMxAzVAbHOegm09eTML1CXvEzCpstuDStiQuqY1gZvwr27OnCMn1A3vNm5Rvf9oE4ZEyqk_Fm8Xg7ixrujolGTCnLdRWNKUWQYKc11Vitb2FNySfK6AiHKKoy5uOibh13qNDHNdcwnEDpbHRigo_DFDNay2DSrgA2WVctW7TNM9WWxd_jnlHL13WtawgkLTENXSvskSLImaWK6883Z4lvgUHYoZOo9NAXZa8UAu3RWRr7BLRxi0_pbtxBe1DKzR3LSDDGoZlWW0vLz4_57Im-0biEc9KnQD0QAAwCtpl6kEn0udJ2ZWosY4BxfI400IC7s_8k9Tx--I1ZMzsZCHvHV-ZQZNY7tFXFiIIvvNXHP_H3YeXoDXFGOcJXNKeCXvuOkRdaLaDzB7mwW-kr5Y0bimppAW70kE49Tkttw-Zksvf_uBzW52loKE_m21pPQZGKDGNsGxH81sVRKFVJ21ySnL4MhKGvfnC0YLnuuD2Zluv6qOEylxU0Q=w320-h452-no[/fimg]

Especially when you consider that that was his final act on a field as an active player.

[Zvon]

Frayed Knot wrote: I'll forever hold this image of Mr. Charles in my memory. R.I.P [fimg=180]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wI8EXH59x0QUFok08_67cphHpVT0JCr-Kv1ne9keBLWP82YHe8O_kQtxKs0RkFr5KsfqFgUsOrgkSpMmo0-qL-vYA7p7G693RdJ-PA25ZP-yC6IIWgXMxAzVAbHOegm09eTML1CXvEzCpstuDStiQuqY1gZvwr27OnCMn1A3vNm5Rvf9oE4ZEyqk_Fm8Xg7ixrujolGTCnLdRWNKUWQYKc11Vitb2FNySfK6AiHKKoy5uOibh13qNDHNdcwnEDpbHRigo_DFDNay2DSrgA2WVctW7TNM9WWxd_jnlHL13WtawgkLTENXSvskSLImaWK6883Z4lvgUHYoZOo9NAXZa8UAu3RWRr7BLRxi0_pbtxBe1DKzR3LSDDGoZlWW0vLz4_57Im-0biEc9KnQD0QAAwCtpl6kEn0udJ2ZWosY4BxfI400IC7s_8k9Tx--I1ZMzsZCHvHV-ZQZNY7tFXFiIIvvNXHP_H3YeXoDXFGOcJXNKeCXvuOkRdaLaDzB7mwW-kr5Y0bimppAW70kE49Tkttw-Zksvf_uBzW52loKE_m21pPQZGKDGNsGxH81sVRKFVJ21ySnL4MhKGvfnC0YLnuuD2Zluv6qOEylxU0Q=w320-h452-no[/fimg] Especially when you consider that that was his final act on a field as an active player.

Yeaaaaa. Man, look at that smile. A character of the game.

[Edgy MD]

Ed was what it was all about. I think about him all the time.

He spent the bulk of a decade in the minors waiting for a break, summing up his four years at AAA without a callup, saying, “Baby, that was a hurtin’ thing.”

That phrase comes back to me whenever I think about injustices that are just there, completely obvious, but not anything anybody's going to do anything about (which abound, these days). Understated but plain and undeniable: “Baby, that was a hurtin’ thing.”

I also tend to think of him as most accomplished player in the history of the Kansas City A's, and was delighted to see native Kansan Bill James once make the same assessment.

Glide on, Ed.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Nobody ever wrote a better bio than Ed on Ed. It'll make you cry. http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/8fb2e85c

[Benjamin Grimm]

Sad news! He was also the poet laureate of the Mets, wasn't he?

(I remember our former resident salamander giving an eviscerating critique of Ed's poetry skills.)

At the time of his death, Ed Charles was the 14th oldest living Met. 22 days younger than Joe Hicks, six months older than Pumpsie Green.

[Guest 41Forever]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Nobody ever wrote a better bio than Ed on Ed. It'll make you cry. http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/8fb2e85c

Beautiful. Such a good writer.

There’s a book in you, Edgy. Darn good one.

[G-Fafif]

I was lucky enough to learn first-hand what a class act Ed Charles was and wrote about it here.

[G-Fafif]

George Vecsey offers a personal remembrance of the friend he covered here.