1969 Topps #245 Ed Charles
About Ed Charles
Card #245, a third-series issue with the Mets, is Charles's last card of the decade. It reports a strong 1968: a .276 average, 15 home runs and 53 RBI in 117 games, enough to lead the club in homers while Cleon Jones led it in batting at .297. It was his last full season before the pennant that made his name.
Ed Charles signed with the Boston Braves in 1952 and opened his career with Quebec City. With Eddie Mathews at third base in Milwaukee, Charles spent eight seasons in the Braves' farm system, much of it in the segregated South, where he wrote poetry about baseball and racism; 1954 and part of 1955 went to military service. A December 1961 trade sent him to Kansas City with Joe Azcue and Manny Jimenez, and he reached the majors a decade after signing. He never made an All-Star team, yet he left as the Kansas City Athletics' career leader in games played and total bases. Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman called him 'The Glider' for his economy of motion at third. In Game Two of the 1969 World Series he scored the go-ahead run, then slid over to stop Brooks Robinson's ninth-inning grounder down the line and threw to first for that game's final out. He batted .263 with 86 home runs and 421 RBI, later spent decades supervising young offenders for New York City, and is in the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · SABR Games Project · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 279 | 3 | 25 | 143 | 60 | 27 | 8 | 13 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #245 card?
It is card #245 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Charles of the New York Mets.
How many cards are in the 1969 Topps Baseball set?
664 cards, tracked as 696 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 664 with none skipped and no printed number shared by two cards; 32 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately, 23 of them the yellow- and white-letter name pairs of #440-511.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-12.