Former All-Star and World Collection champion Ed Kranepool handed away on Sunday, the Mets introduced. Kranepool spent his whole 18-year MLB profession with the franchise. He was 79 years outdated.
Kranepool debuted with the Mets at 17 years outdated in 1962, the membership’s inaugural season. Over 18 seasons and 1,853 video games, he helped them win their first two NL East titles, their first two NL pennants, and their first World Collection title in 1969. He made the Nationwide League All-Star workforce in 1965.
The 6-foot-3 first baseman is maybe finest remembered for his house run in Sport 3 of the 1969 World Collection, however his significance to the group goes effectively past one swing of the bat. Kranepool held the franchise report in hits from 1976 till 2011. As of at this time, he ranks second amongst all Mets gamers in profession plate appearances, third in hits, fourth in doubles, and fifth in RBI. He additionally ranks among the many prime 10 in runs and walks. Whereas hundreds of gamers have suited up for the Mets over the previous 63 seasons, nobody has performed extra video games for the franchise than Kranepool. Fittingly, he was inducted into the New York Mets Corridor of Fame in 1990.
Along with his longevity and lengthy checklist of accomplishments, Kranepool can be remembered for his pinch-hitting and first base protection. In 1974, his thirteenth main league season, he appeared in additional video games as a pinch-hitter than at another place. He went 17-for-35 (.486) in its place batter that 12 months, setting a report for the very best single-season batting common by a pinch-hitter (min. 30 AB). His report nonetheless stands at this time (per Baseball Almanac). Furthermore, though he performed lengthy earlier than the times of superior defensive metrics, Kranepool put up a formidable .994 fielding proportion over greater than 10,000 innings at first base in his profession. Longtime teammate Jerry Koosman described Kranepool as “the very best first baseman [he] ever performed with” in a press release relayed by the Mets.
Kranepool will even be remembered for the management function he continued to play lengthy after he final took the sphere. As Mets house owners Steve and Alex Cohen wrote in a press release following his passing, “Ed continued to work tirelessly in the neighborhood on behalf of the group after his enjoying profession ended.”
We at MLB Commerce Rumors ship our sincerest condolences to his household, mates, and colleagues, in addition to the various followers mourning his passing.
