After a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s, Buddy Harrelson, the shortstop who fought Pete Rose and contributed to the 1969 Miracle Mets, died at a hospice house in East Northport, Long Island, the team announced Thursday morning.
“He was a skilled defender and spark plug on the 1969 Miracle Mets,” Mets owner Steve Cohen and his with Alex Cohen said in a statement. “The Gold Glove shortstop played 13 years in Queens, appearing in more games at short than anyone else in team history. Buddy was the third base coach on the 1986 World Champs, becoming the only person to be in uniform on both World Series-winning teams.
Harrelson enjoyed a 16-year big league career, and it all started with the Mets, where the feisty shortstop played between 1965-77.
In Game 3 of the 1973 NL Championship Series between the Mets and Cincinnati Reds, Rose slid hard into Harrelson at second base on a double play. The two ended up toe-to-toe and then wrestling in the infield dirt at Shea Stadium, triggering a wild, bench-clearing brawl that spilled into the outfield.
Outweighed by more than 30 pounds, the scrawny, gritty Harrelson got the worst of it.
But he didn’t back down.
“I have no regrets about going at it with Rose. I did what I had to do to protect myself, and Pete did what he thought he had to do to try to motivate his team,” Harrelson wrote in his 2012 memoir, “Turning Two: My Journey to the Top of the World and Back with the New York Mets” co-authored by Phil Pepe. “We fought and that was the end of it.”
Sort of.
The game was held up as irate fans hurled objects at Rose, and the Reds were pulled off the field by manager Sparky Anderson until order was restored. Mets skipper Yogi Berra and players including Willie Mays and Tom Seaver went out to left field to calm the crowd.
The two became teammates in Philadelphia years later and when their playing days were long over, Harrelson said Rose, baseball’s career hits leader, signed a photo of the fight for him and wrote, “Thanks for making me famous.”
Harrelson later managed Rose’s son with the Ducks, and the elder Rose even attended a couple of games, Harrelson said.
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