Lost in the tributes to baseball “legend” James Earl Jones was the passing of Ed Kranepool, one of the original New York Mets, who died Sunday at the age of 79 after struggling with heath issues for many years. Here’s his obituary by Richard Sandomir from The New York Times, which noted that “[Kranepool] is the fourth member of the Mets’ 1969 World Series championship team — the “Miracle Mets,” as they were called — to die this year, following Jerry Grote, Bud Harrelson and Jim McAndrew.”
This was a bit tough for me. For reasons I can’t explain, Kranepool was my hero as a kid.
I took a lot of teasing for that. After all, Kranepool — who made his debut at the age of 17 and spent his entire 18-year career with the Mets — hit just .261. For a big guy (6’3″, 205), he hit just 116 home runs. He wasn’t fast nor was he particularly graceful at first base. But I liked him anyway; he was my Joe Shlabotnik.
Later on, he became one of the better pinch-hitters in the game. According to Centerfieldmaz.com, “From 1974- 1979 Kranepool would come off the bench to chants of “Ed-die, Ed-die” and usually answered with a base hit. In his career Eddie went 63 – 181 in pinch hit at bats, good for a .358 average.” He was out of the game at the young age of 34.
Kranepool was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1990.
Like many of his former mates who played before the age of big money, he spent the last several years making public appearances. He published his memoirs — The Last Miracle: My 18-Year Journey with the Amazin’ New York Mets — with Gary Kaschak in 2023. Sadly, it was kind of a bitter retelling. Here’s my review.
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