Former Mets and Giants pitcher Charlie Williams died Tuesday:

Even as he lay in the hospital in the last few weeks, Williams continued to receive copies of his baseball cards from fans seeking autographs, Eggermann said. “It was a regular thing for a long time,” he said. “People would want to complete their collections.”

Williams’s cards were keepers not because of what he accomplished in his eight years in the major leagues, but for how he wound up as a San Francisco Giant.

He was traded for Willie Mays. The Giants got the better of the deal as Williams posted three good seasons for the Giants, while Mays had one good year as a part-time player, and got to return to the World Series in his last season. Williams did a good job keeping the ball in the park, but he walked too many and struck out too few, with a higher walk rate than a strikeout rate. During his peak, however, he walked less than three batters per nine innings.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.