Ed Kranepool, 1944-2024

When my mother was a teenager, she had a crush on Ed Kranepool, because he was the 1st player from her generation to make it to Major League Baseball, and with a local team, no less.

Yes, the '62 Mets counted as "major league."

Edward Emil Kranepool was born on November 8, 1944 in Manhattan, and grew up in The Bronx. A baseball star at James Monroe High School, the school's biggest since Hank Greenberg, and no Major League Baseball Draft then being in place, Ed Kranepool was fair game. The Bronx-based New York Yankees decided they didn't need him, so the New York Mets snapped him up.

He made his major league debut, still 17 years old, on September 22, 1962, at the Polo Grounds. In the top of the 7th inning, wearing Number 21, he replaced Gil Hodges at 1st base, and grounded out to 2nd batting against Paul Toth in the bottom of the 8th. The Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 9-2.

He played mostly right field, and some 1st base, in 1963, but he'd been brought up too soon. He was sent down to Triple-A. He still couldn't hit, and was sent all the way back down to Class D (what we would now call the Rookie League.) A banner appeared at the Polo Grounds, mocking the not-yet-19-year-old: "IS KRANEPOOL OVER THE HILL?"

On May 30, 1964, he played all 18 innings of a doubleheader with the Buffalo Bisons, when the Mets called him back up. At brand-new Shea Stadium, they played a doubleheader against the San Francisco Giants, and the nightcap went 23 innings. Ed Kranepool played 50 innings in 2 days. But he was up for good: Having been given Number 7, he made the National League All-Star Team in 1965 (only 20 years old), and was a member of the Mets' 1969 "Miracle" World Championship, managed by Hodges, and their 1973 National League Pennant, managed by Yogi Berra.

Later in his career, he did commercials for Gillette Foamy shaving cream. One ad began with him repeatedly striking out on black-and-white film, and the announcer, possibly Met broadcaster Bob Murphy (the ad isn't on YouTube, and I'm working on memory here), said, "From 1962 to 1970, Ed Kranepool batted .227."

The ad then shows him lathering up with Foamy; then, with some symbolism, switches the film to color, and shows him slicing a line drive down the right field line for a double: "Since 1971, Ed's batted .283! What do you think of that, Ed?"

The ad plays on ballplayers' tendency toward superstition, and shows Ed, in the dugout, in full uniform but lathered up, holding a can of Foamy, saying, "I don't know, but now, I shave every other inning."

God only knows why he really started hitting better at age 26. But the stats were a bit off: From 1962 to 1970, his batting average was actually .246; from 1971 to 1978, .281. The closing narration was, "Foamy: More than thick and rich enough for New York's heavy hitters." He was never a heavy hitter: His peaks were 16 home runs in 1966, and 58 RBIs in 1971.

He played his last game on September 30, 1979, shortly before turning 35, with a .261 lifetime batting average, and 1,418 career hits, a club record until surpassed by David Wright. He was the last remaining '62 Met, and his 1,853 games and 16 seasons in a Met uniform remain team records. He was elected to the Mets Hall of Fame, became a stockbroker, making enough money to live in tony Old Westbury, Long Island.

But he developed diabetes, and had a toe amputated. In 2019, he received a kidney transplant. It bought him 5 years, and allowed him to attend the 50th Anniversary reunion of the 1969 World Champions. He had attended the other major anniversary reunions, as well as the 2008 closing of Shea Stadium, the 2009 opening of Citi Field, and the Mets' 50th Anniversary celebration in 2012.

On May 30, 2018, on The Michael Kay Show on ESPN radio, Kay's co-host, Don La Greca, a Met fan, ripped Mets management for letting their great players get away, from Tom Seaver and Darryl Strawberry to more recent players like Jacob deGrom; and lamented on players whose careers got sidetracked by injuries, such as David Wright. He went on an epic rant, saying, "Who is your forever player? Ed Kranepool?"

Ed Kranepool died of a heart attack yesterday, September 8, 2024, in Boca Raton, Florida. He was 2 months short of his 80th birthday.

With his death, there are 8 members of the original 1962 New York Mets: Craig Anderson, Galen Cisco, Cliff Cook, John DeMerit, Rick Herrscher, Jay Hook, Félix Mantilla and Jim Marshall. And there are 15 surviving players from the 1969 World Champion New York Mets: Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry, Wayne Garrett, Cleon Jones, Ron Swoboda, Art Shamsky, Al Weis, Ken Boswell, Ron Taylor, Bobby Pfeil, J.C. Martin, Duffy Dyer, Rod Gaspar and Jack DiLauro.