Ed Kranepool, who played with the New York Mets for 17 seasons, starting as a 17-year-old just out of high school, and helping the Mets win an unlikely World Championship in 1969, has passed away. He was 79, and the cause was cardiac arrest.
Kranepool's story is an original one, as explained in the New York Times obit:
"He is the fourth member of the Metsâ 1969 World Series championship team â the 'Miracle Mets,' as they were called â to die this year, following Jerry Grote, Bud Harrelson and Jim McAndrew.
"The Mets were nearly halfway to a 40-120 record in 1962, their first season as a National League franchise, when they signed Kranepool for a bonus of $80,000. A tall, left-handed batter, he had just broken the Hall of Famer Hank Greenbergâs single-season home run record at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. Ed was 17 and living at home.
"Kranepool brought a jolt of youthful promise to a team managed by Casey Stengel, the wizened former Yankees skipper, and stocked with mediocrities, castoffs, players past their primes and the inaccurately nicknamed Marvelous Marv Throneberry."
Kranepool, the Times writes, "never became a superstar. Rather, he was a line-drive hitter with modest power â he never had more than 16 home runs in a season â who turned into an elite pinch-hitter as his time as a first baseman and outfielder diminished."
And he was, as much as anyone on the 1969 championship team, symbolic of a more innocent time, when impossible dreams were possible.
I remember him well and saw him play a number of times throughout the years. He lasted a pretty long time in the league. A native New Yorker from The Bronx. RIP Ed...
Ed Kranepool, who played with the New York Mets for 17 seasons, starting as a 17-year-old just out of high school, and helping the Mets win an unlikely World Championship in 1969, has passed away. He was 79, and the cause was cardiac arrest.
Kranepool's story is an original one, as explained in the New York Times obit:
"He is the fourth member of the Metsâ 1969 World Series championship team â the 'Miracle Mets,' as they were called â to die this year, following Jerry Grote, Bud Harrelson and Jim McAndrew.
"The Mets were nearly halfway to a 40-120 record in 1962, their first season as a National League franchise, when they signed Kranepool for a bonus of $80,000. A tall, left-handed batter, he had just broken the Hall of Famer Hank Greenbergâs single-season home run record at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. Ed was 17 and living at home.
"Kranepool brought a jolt of youthful promise to a team managed by Casey Stengel, the wizened former Yankees skipper, and stocked with mediocrities, castoffs, players past their primes and the inaccurately nicknamed Marvelous Marv Throneberry."
Kranepool, the Times writes, "never became a superstar. Rather, he was a line-drive hitter with modest power â he never had more than 16 home runs in a season â who turned into an elite pinch-hitter as his time as a first baseman and outfielder diminished."
And he was, as much as anyone on the 1969 championship team, symbolic of a more innocent time, when impossible dreams were possible.
Well there goes another favorite actor/singer of that generation. Lived him as Vic Fontaine, the holographic lounge singer on âStar Trek: Deep Space Nine.
My buddies saw them play for BC at the UML games. This was the point when I was taking care of mom and never got the chance to see them. They were tops in college hockey.
Just plain sad.
There was some hope that he'd sign with the Flyers before he went to the Blue Jackets 2 years ago... but he and the team were on different trajectories (lucky for him).
My buddies saw them play for BC at the UML games. This was the point when I was taking care of mom and never got the chance to see them. They were tops in college hockey.
I have ridden a bicycle for 30 years outside...in larger groups, with some who raced, and plenty solo... some years over 10k miles... on and around the road he was killed on. It's not "the middle of nowhere"... but it would feel like it 99% of the time.
I have all but stopped riding outside because there was a stretch where I knew at least 1 person a year killed on a bike. Distracted drivers....angry drivers... drunk drivers... careless drivers... and a lot of bad luck. I love riding, but have lost the desire. I was toying with getting out this weekend... but doubt that'll happen now. This really sucks.
