Ed Kranepool, who jumped from a Bronx high school to the big leagues with the original Mets at the age of 17 and who spent all 18 of his major league seasons in Flushing, died Sunday in Boca Raton, Fla., after suffering cardiac arrest. He was 79.
Kranepool, a left-handed hitting first baseman who was a member of the Mets’ first two World Series teams, had received a kidney transplant in 2019. He also suffered from diabetes.
“He battled for so long and never complained about anything,” teammate Ron Swoboda said of Kranepool. “I thought once he got his kidney transplant things would be great. He was a wonderful guy and even better teammate. We went into the restaurant business together. I can’t believe he is gone.”
Fellow 1969 champion Art Shamsky said he was “just devastated” by Kranepool’s passing.
“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,” Shamsky said. “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.”
Days after graduating from James Monroe High School, where he broke Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg’s long-standing home run record, Kranepool signed with the Mets, pocketing an $80,000 bonus.
“I chose the Mets not only because they offered me enough money, they also presented an opportunity to make the big leagues in the shortest amount of time,” Kranepool said several years later. “For my career, that was very important.”
He joined the team in Los Angeles on June 30, 1962 — the first time he had ever been on a plane — and arrived just in time to sit in the dugout and watch Sandy Koufax no-hit his new teammates. After a week of not playing, he was sent to the minors, where he sampled a few levels — in reverse order, falling from Triple-A Syracuse to what was then called Class-A, and then all the way to Class-D.
In September and with nothing to lose en route to finishing with a 40-120 record, the Mets promoted Kranepool from Class-D Auburn, where he was hitting .340. He made his major league debut on Sept. 22 when he replaced Gil Hodges, who’d later become his manager, at first base in the seventh inning of yet another loss.
He would start at first base the following day and pick up his first major league hit, a double. He finished that first big-league season, with that one hit in six at-bats.
