NEW YORK -- Ed Charles, the third baseman known as "The Glider" who helped lead the Miracle Mets to the 1969 World Series title with his veteran guidance and poetry, has died. He was 84.
Charles died Thursday in New York, the J. Foster Phillips Funeral Home said.
Born Edwin Charles on April 29, 1933, in Daytona Beach, Florida, he was inspired to become a professional baseball player when he saw Jackie Robinson, then a minor leaguer in the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system, on a train at spring training in 1946. A year later, Robinson broken the big league color barrier.