The best player nicknames in Mets history

The New York Mets have had a few players over the years who have carried some pretty familiar monikers. Nicknames in baseball is rather common…almost a tradition.

In the early days of Mets baseball there was Marvelous Marv Throneberry, Choo Choo Coleman, Hot Rod Kanehl, The Duke of Flatbush…Duke Snider. And they were led by the Old Professor…Casey Stengel.

Dave Kingman arrived and after he sent some moon shots out of Shea Stadium, he was referred to as Sky King or Kong. The 1986 Mets had Mex, Kid, Straw, Doc, and Nails…Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, and Lenny Dykstra.

And eventually there were even some super heroes taking the mound at Citifield - The Dark Knight and Thor, before Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard apparently had their powers stripped from them.

Fans know and recognize all of them. But here are the five New York Mets with nicknames that fans immediately, and for good reason, associate specifically with them:

Ed Charles – The Glider

Charles is one of the most beloved players in New York Mets history. He didn’t spend a lot of time as a player – 1968 and 1969 – but he was a part of the organization long after his playing career concluded following the 1969 World Series celebration.

Charles was near the end of his career when he joined a young Mets team. He had gotten a late start in his career, not arriving in the Major Leagues until the age of 29. Which is unfortunate because he was a talented player with a combination of power and speed…regularly recording double digit totals in home runs and stolen bases. And although his stats with the Mets were not on par with what they had been earlier in his career, he was very clutch and very smooth.

Smooth. When Jerry Koosman watched how smooth he was in the field in 1968, he remarked how he looked like he was “gliding.” And that’s all it takes. From that point on he became known as “The Glider.” And because of his clutch hitting, and his ability to crush a slider that didn’t break, his teammates began saying, “Never hang a slider to The Glider.