By Dan Hock

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Edward Emil Kranepool III (November 8, 1944 – September 8, 2024) was an American professional baseball player. He spent his entire Major League Baseball career with the New York Mets. He was predominantly a first baseman, but he also played in the outfield.

Born in the Bronx, New York, Kranepool attended James Monroe High School, where he began playing baseball and basketball. Mets’ scout Bubber Jonnard signed Kranepool in 1962 at the age of 17 as an amateur free agent. By the time he retired in 1979, he had become the last remaining Met from their inaugural 1962 season and from the Miracle Mets World Championship team of 1969.

MIRACLE METS

Kranepool was reportedly part of proposed a trade package along with Amos Otis and Bob Heise when the Mets attempted to acquire the Braves’ Joe Torre who went to the St. Louis Cardinals for Orlando Cepeda instead.

On May 21, 1969, the Mets won their third game in a row for a .500 winning percentage 36 games into the season for the first time in franchise history. This was followed by a five-game losing streak that saw the Mets fall into fourth place in the newly aligned National League East.

The Mets then went on an 11-game winning streak that included a two home run performance by Kranepool against the Los Angeles Dodgers.^[7] By the end of the streak, the Mets were in second place, seven games back of the Chicago Cubs.

On July 8, Kranepool hit a fifth-inning home run off Ferguson Jenkins to give the Mets a 1–0 lead over the Cubs. By the time the Mets batted in the ninth inning, however, the first place Cubs had taken a 3–1 lead. The Mets scored three runs in the ninth to win the game, with Cleon Jones scoring the last run on Kranepool’s single to center.

The Mets completed their remarkable “Miracle” 1969 season, in which the team, backed by Kranepool, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman, won their first World Series title against the Baltimore Orioles. Kranepool hit a home run in game three of the series, a 5–0 win for the Mets.

Kranepool’s autobiography The Last Miracle: My 18-Year Journey with the Amazin’ New York Mets was released in August 2023.

Kranepool died of cardiac arrest in Boca Raton, Florida, on September 8, 2024, at the age of 79.