Remembering Ed Kranepool


Next to Tom Seaver, there was arguably no player more synonymous with the New York Mets than Ed Kranepool.  His franchise-most 18-season run began in 1962 under Casey Stengel at the Polo Grounds; slowly but surely, the club then assembled a strong core of young talent.  Playing alongside Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee and Tug McGraw, Kranepool was a key player on the 1969 World Champs (he homered against the Orioles in game three) and '73 NL pennant winners.  Never the biggest bat in the lineup, he was a steady contributor who hit a lifetime .261.  As his career wound down, Ed found (and excelled in) a new role, becoming one of the game's most effective pinch hitters.  Kranepool was a fixture at Mets-themed events in the New York area.  The top photo is from the 2014 BAT Dinner, where he enjoying reminiscing with Solly Hemus, a coach on the 1962 and '63 Mets.

Signed out of James Monroe High School in the Bronx -- where he broke home run records set by Hank Greenberg -- Kranepool received a big (for its time) $80,000 bonus.  Unfairly cast as the face of the franchise before his 18th birthday, he bounced between the Mets and their farm clubs for a couple of years before becoming a regular in 1965 -- the year he was named to his only All Star game.  The image below was his profile from a 1963 series in the New York World Telegram & Sun.

Kranepool passed away Sunday in Florida at age 79.  Sadly, he's the fourth member of the 1969 Miracle Mets to die this year, along with Jerry Grote, Bud Harrelson and Jim McAndrew.



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