Remembering Ed Kranepool, Original Met
On September 8, original Met Ed Kranepool passed away at the age of 79 from cardiac arrest in Boca Raton, Florida. Kranepool was a true Mets’ legend, having made his major league debut with the Mets in 1962 at the age of 17. The native New Yorker spent his entire 18-year career with the Mets.
Kranepool was a member of the 1969 Miracle Mets. He hit a home run in Game 3 of the World Series that year, posting a .250 batting average in both the NLCS and World Series.
Later in his career, Kranepool became an elite pinch-hitter. From MLB.com:
[Kranepool was a] .396 over a five-year span from 1974 to ’78. In 1974, he set a record for highest batting average as a pinch-hitter in a single season (minimum 30 at-bats), going 17-for-35 — a surreal .486 clip that still stands to this day. For his career, he had 90 pinch-hits, six of them home runs.
In the 1973 NLCS against the Cincinnati Reds, “Steady Eddie” delivered a two-run single in the bottom of the first inning of deciding Game 5, helping spur the Mets to a series victory and a World Series appearance against the Oakland Athletics.
For his career, the Bronx native posted an average of .261, with an OBP of .316 and a slugging percentage of .377. Kranepool has his name in the Mets’ record books. Besides ranking first in games played with 1,853, he is second in plate appearances (5,997); third in hits (1,418), at-bats (5,436) and total bases (2,047); fourth in doubles (225); fifth in RBIs (614); ninth in walks (454); ninth in runs scored (536); and 11th in triples (25).
The six-foot, three-inch tall first baseman (and occasional outfielder) reflected on being called up to the major leagues at the tender age of 17. From the above-cited MLB.com article:
“It might not have been to my best advantage to get to the Major Leagues so fast,” Kranepool told SABR in that same 2008 interview. On an expansion team, “you have [more] inexperience than on a better ballclub; a kid of 17 isn’t equipped to handle that pressure. If I was on a good ballclub, the pressure to handle that wouldn’t be so great. With the Mets, we were a bad ballclub. They said, ‘Ed’s going to lead them from a bad ballclub to the pennant.’ One player, even a Hall of Famer, can’t do that.”
Kranepool made his only All Star appearance in 1965. His best statistical season was 1971, when he recorded an OPS+ of 124, on the strength of 14 home runs and 20 doubles. He was diagnosed with diabetes in 1979, the last year of his playing career. He had a kidney transplant in 2019, and was well enough to attend the celebration of the 1969 Mets in June.
The Mets inducted the member of the team’s inaugural squad into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1990. Kranepool was on-hand when the Mets brought back Old Timers’ Day in 2022.
Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen put out a statement on Kranepool’s passing (from the MLB.com article):
“We are incredibly heartbroken to learn of Ed Kranepool’s passing,” said Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen in a statement. “He was an original Met, who debuted at age 17 in 1962. After starring at James Monroe High School in the Bronx, he would go on to play for his hometown team for the next 18 years…”
“The best first baseman I ever played with. We knew each other so well and I could tell by his eyes if a runner was going or not. He saved me a lot of stolen bases.”
“Just devastated. I knew Krane for 56 years. We did so many appearances together. We had lunch last week and I told him I would be there next week to see him again. I’m really at a loss for words. I can’t believe he’s the fourth guy from our 1969 team to pass this year — (Jim) McAndrew, (Jerry) Grote, Buddy (Harrelson) and now Eddie.”
Rest in peace, Number Seven. You will be missed by your hometown team, the only organization you played for in the city you loved.
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