By Joe Pantorno
Ed Kranepool, an original member of the New York Mets who spent 18 seasons with the organization as a player from its inception in 1962, died at the age of 79 after suffering a cardiac arrest in Boca Raton, Florida, the team announced on Monday, September 9.
For more than two decades, he and his wife were fixtures on the East End, living on their 68-foot boat on Three Mile Harbor.
“We are incredibly heartbroken to learn of Ed Kranepool’s passing,” Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen said in a statement. “We cherished the time we spent with Ed during Old Timers’ Day and in the years since. Hearing Mets stories and history from Ed was an absolute joy. We extend our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.”
A New York City native who attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx, where he broke Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg’s long-standing home run record, Kranepool signed an $80,000 bonus to join the Mets and debuted as a 17-year-old for the expansion side in 1962. He went on to play 1,853 games with the team — a record that still stands to this day.
“I just spoke to Ed last week and we talked about how we were the last two originals who signed with the Mets,” his former teammate and outfielder, Cleon Jones, said. “The other 1962 guys came from other organizations. Eddie was a big bonus baby and I wasn’t. He never had an ego and was just one of the guys. He was a wonderful person.”
An All-Star in 1965, the left-handed-hitting first baseman was also a member of the 1969 Miracle Mets, who defeated the Baltimore Orioles to win their first-ever World Series title. While Kranepool only appeared in one game that series, he made it a memorable one, hitting a home run in the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 3 off Orioles reliever David Leonhard in New York’s 5-0 win.
Across his 18 seasons from 1962 to 1979 — which also featured a National League pennant in 1973 — Kranepool’s 1,418 hits and 2,047 total bases rank third in Mets history, while his 614 RBI rank fifth. He was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1990.
“Just devastated,” 1969 Met Art Shamsky said. “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.”
In 2019 with his kidneys failing, Kranepool received a life-saving transplant after years of searching for a match.
“He battled for so long and never complained about anything,” his former teammate Ron Swoboda said. “I thought once he got his kidney transplant, things would be great. He was a wonderful guy and an even better teammate… I can’t believe he is gone.”
