RIP Ed Kranepool

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[GreekFreak]

RIP Ed. Thanks for the great childhood memories.

 

[phillydad]

The real Mr Met. Appeared with the '62 team and their 120 losses. Key player on the Miracle Mets in '69. Bronx native who spent his entire career with the Amazins.
RIP Ed Kranepool.

 

[orangenauburn]

The real father of the Brady boys

 

[pfister1]

Wow!!!! Played his first games in the Big Leagues at the ripe old age of 17, if Baseball Reference is to be believed. Didn't you have to finish high school in those days before going to the big leagues??

Ed Kranepool, a Teenage Met Who Lasted 18 Seasons, Dies at 79​

“Steady Eddie” joined the team at 17, played in more games than any Met and in 1969 helped a once-woeful franchise pull off a “miracle” — a World Series title.
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I'm Sorry Baseball Reference, I take the jab back. Checked the trusty NYTimes and they agreed about the age.

Ed Kranepool, a Bronx-born first baseman whose long career with the Mets began in their first season, in 1962, when they were a comically awful expansion franchise, continued through their World Series championship seven years later and lasted long enough for their return to the cellar, died on Sunday at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 79.

The Mets said the cause was cardiac arrest.

He is the fourth member of the Mets’ 1969 World Series championship team — the “Miracle Mets,” as they were called — to die this year, following Jerry Grote, Bud Harrelson and Jim McAndrew.



And as much as I like to think I know it all.....that wasn't that unusual back in the 50s and 60s...

As recently as 1956 there was a 16 year old in the Bigs when Jim Derrington took the field for the White Sox.....Yikes!!!