THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407100253
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Ed Charles gave one concession to the heat. Saturday morning, he bailed out of the 1969 Miracle Mets golf outing after 12 holes. He knew he had seven innings to play that night. And at 61, golf in the morning and baseball in 96-degree heat at night isn't the easiest of doubleheaders.
``I'm just happy I survived,'' said Charles, third baseman for the team that stunned the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series 25 years ago, and third baseman for the partially reunited squad that beat a collection of former major league players - the Brooks Robinson All-Stars - 6-3 at Harbor Park.
Charles, a corrections officer in New York City, made a half-dozen fielding plays and doubled in a run in the Mets' six-run fifth inning. In an exhibition thick with nostalgia, humidity and good will, Charles actually had an edge in age when he batted in the fifth. The pitcher was Dick Hall, 63.
The sexagenarians graced a rare appearance by the '69 Mets on a baseball field, actually playing baseball, during their 25th anniversary tour. They've played a little softball, and they'll go three innings
of baseball next Sunday at Shea Stadium.
But the stop at Harbor Park, the finale to a weekend of activity, was special enough to lure a paid crowd of 4,575, reporters from USA Today and Robinson, who makes only token oldtimer's appearances, into patrolling third base again. Despite an infected left elbow swollen to twice its size, Robinson lashed a two-run single - surpassing the one-run single he managed in '69, his lone hit of the Series.
``It's nice to see everybody, but I don't make these a habit,'' said Robinson, Major League Baseball's spokesman during its 125th anniversary season. ``The key thing here is not to get hurt. I hurt my shoulder eight or nine years ago diving for a ball in one of these games. It was one of the stupidest things I've ever done.''
Everybody got out of Saturday's exhibition alive, though Mets leftfielder Cleon Jones pulled a hamstring that forced him from the game. It could have been worse, though. Jones, 51, lunged for Fred Valentine's triple in the first inning and wound up sprawled on his chest, then crawled to the ball on the warning track.
For the crowd, performance obviously took a back seat to the mere spectacle of 15 Miracle Mets suited up again, along with the chance at autographs. Not that anybody on either side embarrassed themselves, least of all Mets pitchers Jerry Koosman and Tug McGraw, who fired away impressively.
``Did the (radar) gun flicker a little bit?,'' said McGraw, 49, who struck out Virginia Beach's D.J. Dozier, 28, to end the game, then jumped and pumped his fist. Thumping his right thigh with his glove, McGraw's trademark, got the crowd going an inning earlier, too.
The father of country music singer Tim McGraw, Tug was a Miracle Met who never got into the '69 Series. He went on to pitch in the Series for the '73 Mets and '80 Phillies, but said he doesn't regret sitting out the first one.
``It turns out we beat Baltimore without using our best pitcher,'' McGraw said with a smile before the game. ``I was just glad to be there. When you win the World Series your first time, it changes your life. Your expectations for yourself and your teammates rise, and you expect more other people, too. You expect everybody to be a champion.
``One of the things I'm proudest of with this team, though, is collectively I don't think we've gained 200 pounds since then. Well, maybe 300.''
To McGraw, that's just another alluring characteristic of the mystical '69 Mets, who unburdened a losing franchise with unlikely success, and who can still make a pretty dollar off of it a quarter of a century after the fact.
``We had the best team in the major leagues that year,'' former Orioles' pitcher Mike Cuellar said. ``But everything that year went for the Mets.''
Said Charles: ``I'm amazed that fans still buy into it. It makes you realize that our feat was special.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI
Despite an infected elbow, Brooks Robinson hit a two-run single in
the Mets-Orioles reunion.
Photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTOLOWSKI
Outfielder Cleon Jones, left, explains to infielder Buddy Harrelson
why he missed a fly-ball.
by CNB