Monday, September 9, 2024

RIP Ed Kranepool 1944-2024

     I am so saddened by the passing of the Original Original Met that I felt compelled to post here for the first time in far too long. I never got to see Ed play so I really only know him through stories and of course baseball cards. 

He got a career capper in 1980 which has all his career stats.




















 

 

One of the great things about Ed is that his run of flagship Topps cards fits perfectly into two 9-pocket pages. 

The '63 was the last card I got of his, thanks to Tony Oliva.




















 

 

Ed came up as a 17(!) year old bonus baby in the Mets first year of 1962 and stayed through 1979.  He still holds the record for most games played in an Amazins uniform. 

That middle card is a custom and the auto is real.




















 

 

He has this third page of odds and ends in my Mets pages and in fact has the honor of being the only person to lead off two books because he is also the subject of a favorite autograph of mine:





















 

 

A 100 years ago my Uncle Ron, the very big Yankees fan, waited in a very long line at a corporate show to get me an autograph of a Mets player. I have cherished this one a very long time and now, sadly, even more so. 


Original Met, Miracle Met, Lifetime Met. Godspeed Ed.

2 comments:

night owl said...

I know that I saw him play on TV in his later years and I'm sure I heard Ralph Kiner talk about him but I don't remember any of it. It was a long time ago.

Fuji said...

First time hearing the sad news. Don't remember seeing him play when I was a kid... but there's a chance I saw him in person at Candlestick. Amazing collection of his cards. Especially fond of that Topps flagship run.