Ed Kranepool Was 17 Years Old Facing Koufax, Drysdale and Gibson

Imagine being 17 years old and going up against the all-time legends of baseball? That was Ed Kranepool’s life while rooming with players in their 30’s like Frank Thomas. Ed talks about his time with the Mets playing with the likes of Willie Mays, Tom Seaver and being on those 1969 Miracle Mets! #mets #newyorkmets #edkranepool #kranepool #seaver #mays #williemays #tomseaver #drysdale

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Hi it’s Jay harwitz with a special edition of amazing conversations with M Hall of Famer at cran poool we’re here to talk about Ed new book The L miracle and I thought I knew everything about you but you had a chance to be in the natural and you turn the parts down

How’d that happen well you know I I didn’t want to go to California and do all this stuff you know you didn’t know what was going to happen and I didn’t want to go to Syracuse where they were producing this thing called buffalo one of these cities you know they were going

To produce it I was there and I was stuck there for a long time you know back in uh I guess 70 or 71 I didn’t like the town and I knew my wife wouldn’t want to stay there so I said you know I could be stuck there for you

Know a couple of months and uh you know be by myself so I I just turned any second thoughts look it back I didn’t have any second thoughts because I took her up there to Syracuse later R when they had the introduction of of the stadium the new stadium up there and

They asked me to come up there uh Mr Rich who is the owner he sent his private plane down picked my wife and I up we went up to Buffalo that’s where it was and you know what she wanted to leave before the weekend was over so I

Said I know I wouldn’t have made it did you ever have any interaction with Rober redfred after that or no just when they introduced the movie that’s about it you know other than that you know we helped the guys Tony Ferrara who used to pitch back practice the Mets he was in the

Movie he there for it he wanted to do it he didn’t have anything to do in New York so he he had some fun and another had everyone loves Raymond you had a chance to do we did that you did that I mean and but I didn’t want to go I told

My wife you could had a whole otic care already I don’t know about that you know they didn’t ask me to talk in any of these things you know so I didn’t have much of a part but it was fun yeah mean where M was good a big sports fan and

His brother was great you know and we named the dog after to Art Shamsky yeah art was the reason we really had the show they wanted to name the dog Shamsky and of course somewhere along the line his wife uh talked to the people and

Wound up getting a show out of it anded your book is really more than a sports book right I mean right 69 param it’s about your your your your your struggle to get a kidney Monica’s illness right and you really you me for 18 years were

It wasn’t always easy with bumps in the road I remember sure looking back you you know how was it you signed 17 years old and a Jay’s mon how was it being in the locker room with guys double your age well my first roommate was Frank Thomas he was 35 you

Really don’t have anything to do with these guys you have nothing in common with them you can’t do anything on the road you know guys are out having a drink after the ball game I couldn’t even go in the bar I was 17 and you don’t develop to the major league level

Against kofax and D D and Bob Gibson these are all H or famous I was a young kid 17 force-fed to the major leagues and they ask me to play and you trying to produce and you’re struggling you’re striking out you’re doing things you know and you’re trying to develop

Against Hall of Famers it just doesn’t work that easy you know speaking of kfax uh your first game in Los Angeles you saw sties with first no hitter he pitched a no hitter struck out 13 and I’m on the bench you know and I’m watching this and you know good thing

Casey didn’t use me I tell he used Jade Woodley right Jane Woodling he struck out on three pitches came back into the Dugout he said get me new bats he had a real heavy bat I guess with the you know over with the Yankees I guess he could

Swing that thing but when kofax struck him out on three pitches he said get me light a b well you’re 17 years old you first came with Sandy Ki you said to how am I going to do this thing I mean is is it all going to be like this I thought I

Was going back to college I said this is going to be tough you know watching this you know you don’t really see this too often you know I didn’t see no hitters you know being thrown and he just dominated everybody for six years and I didn’t realiz I mean you really were a

Yankee fan growing up right I was I and B James Monroe uh how was the transition going from you know Yankees really didn’t come after that much today well they did I worked out for Yankee Stadium Jake Gibbs was the the number one pick

For them in in SE 61 I worked out with the Yankees and then I I couldn’t sign until I graduated high school which was the following year and then I graduated but the Mets were following me the last year Johnny Murphy who was our vice president was there and Bubba janard was

The original Scout he followed my me my junior year senior year in high school every game he saw Sandlot baseball High School baseball the graduation I don’t know whether they showed up there but they showed up at my house right after I graduated and they said we’re not

Leaving until you sign and we negotiated a little bit and um I actually had allegiance to the white socks also my my health director in school Steve Ray uh he was a scout for the for the white socks he wanted me to sign with them so

I said to the Mets I’m not signing till I call the white socks and my friend St r i i I figured I’d ask him if he wanted to do something he called Chicago and when he I told him what the Mets offered me he said um you know go ahead we can’t

Sign you for that I mean you thought the opportunity would be better with the Mets right cu the I knew it was going to be better I knew you know I was pretty smart about that I said let me get to the major leagues in a hurry I didn’t

Think it was going to take two days to get to the major leagues but I got there in a hurry as it turned out it was probably the the toughest thing I did playing at home very difficult cuz all your friends know you in in Sandlot

Baseball and how well you did you sign with your your home team everyone’s critiquing you they’re wondering why you’re not hitting 350 like you were hitting in in sandlots well it’s pretty tough I hit wound up hitting 250 well you know what it wasn’t bad when you

Consider at the end of my career I hit 261 but when I started to catch up with the league and hit 300 292 323 they thought I was around for 25 years and said you know what this guy’s over the hill they had that when I was

22 because I didn’t lead the club to the pennant but if I would have played with another ball Club I would have developed in the minor leagues for a year or two CU I did well I hit over 300 every time I went to the minor leagues I would have

Came up I would have been caught up with the league in a year or two and then I would have developed and by the time I was hitting 300 323 I would have played regularly instead of every manager kept getting new first basement and said you can

Always pinch it they knew I could do a good job that’s what it took you so you really came up as a first baseman then when clinten came Milner to the Outfield he transition to the top pitch hitters in in in baseball how tough was that for

You to keep changing your your your your positions well I just wanted to hit I didn’t care what position I played you know some guys you know want to play one position I knew I could play first base Gil hod just taught me that then I went

To left field went to right field I started in 1963 in right field I was the opening right fielder you know opening day and I played there for a number of weeks until I got hurt but I kept going out to the miners get more experience come back do

Well move around and and then you just happen to be around too long with the same or organization I didn’t want to get traded I wanted to play in New York and I wanted to produce here when I did people thought I was too old but I was

Still a young kid we won the pennant won the World Series I was only 25 by that time and he play for two of the most iconic management history Casey stangle Casey has the reputation be the quote buffoon I know you told me that’s not

The case at all he he put on an act when he wanted to take the pressure off the play players he wasn’t that way every day he’d sit in the clubhouse he talked to you he discussed baseball he liked the young players he knew when he looked

Around the clubhouse he didn’t have the talent to perform in the National League he knew he couldn’t compete and win a pennant so he tried to get the young guys I was the first young guy coming up then of course Cleon joined the ball Club in 62 he knew he had some Talent

Worked with him he worked with Buddy harlson Ronnie sabota coming up in the mid-60s then we started to really hit the Bonanza we had Tom cver that we were very lucky in acquiring him in the draft something happened down in Atlanta they actually drafted him they he had signed

With the Atlanta Braves he would have been Atlanta Brave but the commissioner changed that and the Mets wound up getting them in some kind of a draft Jerry kman joined the ball club and then we kept adding young players but Casey worked with all these guys so it was

Like there a method to his man it’s like he told me once he he tried to deflect the attention away from the players did and make jokes and so they would talk to him and not you know ridicule the player he did he knew the ball Club was not a

Good ball Club was losing a lot of games so he said how do I get the Press on our side so he he discouraged us you know he wound up talking to the press and he told told all kinds of stories the one time there was a clown on the ball club

That tried to outdo Casey was Jimmy pierceall he run backwards he hit a home run it was his 100th home run and he ran the bases backwards in the Polo Grounds by the time he got to home plate Casey was up on the steps yelling at him and

We didn’t know what was going on cuz he was having fun Jimmy piol but he got rid of him the next day he didn’t last very long there was only room for one clown on the New York Mets and that was Casey two the other characters were were Mark

Throneberry and Rod Canal right I mean but they didn’t do it on purpose Jimmy piol did it on purpose he hit the home run in the PO grounds turned around and trotted around the bases backwards wasn’t one thing with thrb missed a couple of bases well he did that few

Times and hepr yeah he missed the second base too you know yeah but well that’s what happened with Casey Casey was very quick when he went out to argue about when throbber was on third base don’t worry about it he missed first and second so he missed two bases you know

One day I went to talked about I was actually at the game you know growing up I was a Die Hard willly ma fan so it was May 31st 1964 met the Giants double hter um you had just come back from Syracuse correct so in the space of two days you

Played what one day well when one day I on Saturday night I played a double header in Syracuse and it was called up so Sunday morning about 6:00 I caught a flight out of Syracuse came back to ball club and Casey met me in the clubhouse

And he said we got a double headed today you’re going to play the first game I said you know he knew I played two games the night before I said that’s fine I was ready to play played the first game and then he said I forget whether we won

Or lost or whatever Willie May played Short Stop okay but the second game Gord Perry was Gord Perry was a pitcher he was going to get sent to the minor leagues he was ready to get sent out he had nothing but a fast ball he started fooling around with the baseball putting

Grease on it vaseline on it all kinds of stuff on the ball and the ball was dancing all over the place wound up going nine innings pitched a shutout Casey started me that game he said Ed you only play a couple of innings can

You make it I said sure you know with 19 years of age 18 years of age I said well I can play well after three or four Innings he used up all the players had nobody to put in there I wound up playing 32 Innings right 32 Innings and and and

The game ended about 20 minutes to 12 I took a back bus back to Clifton got like 3:00 in the morning and I I said to the Press I had the best quote I wish the game had played 20 more minutes it would have started in May and ended in June it

Would been really been a long game let me stop I want to talk about Willie me you and I both on the Hall of Fame committee you were his teammate what was it did you were he he really maintain a friendship through the years we both helped get his number

Retired thanks to the cones what how has he be able to retain a relationship with him all these years well my wife and I developed a friendship with Willie and we used to play golf together we used to go down to the Dal hotels in Florida at

Christmas time so I would invite Willie to come down as a guest come down and play just play golf have a good time and he’d love to play golf and his wife was very nice so they all came down and we’d spend a week or so in Florida Play

Playing golf playing softball with the guests I mean having Willie Mays play at the dur was great and we had a good time we frequented together in New York he didn’t travel and go outside very often he liked to stay in his room he was always afraid of people he didn’t like

To really get M mingle but you know what we got along F yeah we’re proud of them then he got is is I’m glad you worked hard well he was my adult growing up before I want to touch on Gil Hodes uh in the 69 pennant race uh we you know we

Were be behind 11 to 12 game won the beating in by eight you said to me because of Gil the way he hand the Rost you said to me the Cubs play the same guys all the time right he did and we all today 25 man Rost and that was the

Key in your mind I think so we were fresh comes the end of August we were fresh where Chicago was dragging you could see them out on the field they you know they’ lost a little step and you know they weren’t as positive and and we

Started beating every club we had to win we beat and you know we took the Cubs four straight you know you go from 10 game lead down to six you’re thinking about it all of a sudden this club starting to catch up and you know what

We kept following up the next series we’ win that series we won every series coming down the stretch I think the only club that we had a problem with was Houston we’ve always had a problem I think playing indoors really affects us but you know what the Mets played well

Down the stretch and we beat Chicago by 10 games made up a lot me almost 20 games yeah it was unbelievable how crazy was this 73 pennant race I mean in July we’re 12 games under 500 you were to mg’s roommate right I was what do you

Remember about You Got to Believe speech has become one of the folk more battle CES well I tell you what it was it was a strange day we got called off the field and they said Donald Grant who was our president wanted to talk to the club we

Had just recovered a lot of guys were hurt got back into the lineup and we put together the full staff because early in the year we had a lot of injuries and we start playing pretty good baseball Donald Grant starts giving us a speech in the locker room saying I know you

Guys have had a tough beginning but you’re back together as a team you’re better than you’re playing things will will get better just give 100% and it was really a pretty good speech but meanwhile in the back of the room his locker was really in the corner was tug

Mcro who would say anything do anything have a good time in baseball well he started screaming rant and Raven you got to believe well Donald Grant who is a very formal person sees that tug yelling hears him screaming and all of a sudden cuts his speech short what he it’s over

He starts walking out of the clubhouse well when I went over the tug I said I got to do something I think he’s going to get himself traded because he embarrassed the president of the ball club and he walked out so I said to tug you better go tell him that you really

Didn’t mean anything about it it wasn’t a negative uh stunt you were pulling you were trying to encourage the players and go along with Donald so before we left we had a little room outside we called B up to Donald Grant and I said Mr Grant

Tug mcgo wants to say something you know about the speech and he told him what he was doing and he was trying to really encourage the guys he turned around and they both got along they shook hands so I said well we’re okay we got over this

Hurdle but it was tug and that was our rallying call you got to believe because from that point on we really started to play good baseball he how disappointed was the World Series go to Oakland up three to two and wind up losing two games you know Another World Series in

An immense grass and it didn’t follow it’s probably the biggest disappointment that we’ve had you know this organization has been around a long time it’s only got two penet winners two World Series winners 69 and 86 but we have two games to go and we’ve

Got Siver you know ready and we got John Matlock ready but the guy who should have pitched the sixth game was George Stone we had a pretty good year with 11 he was 12 and three he won seven in a row people forget this he won seven in a

Row coming down the stretch was probably our best pitcher he was a sneaky left-hander we acquired him in the trade with Felix meon you know for Gary jentry and somebody else and he pitches great for us he’s fully rested and supposed to pitch and everybody knows this in the ballpark and

Expects him to pitch Siver had pitched other game and was short rested and Yogi’s thinking about who to pitch in the sixth game we know there was no choice we know George should have pitched he pitched all year he goes up on the plane and talks to Siver about pitching well Tom didn’t

Volunteer the pitch but he’s a Hall of Famer he’s a our Mr Baseball he’s not going to say no if you say will you pitch on Saturday of course not he comes to me saver and says try to talk to Kate to Yogi you know cuz I should really

Pitch Sunday fully rested he hasn’t been short changed all year never did really Yogi after talking The Seer decides he’s going to pitch stor CER George Stone hasn’t pitched yet he never got into the game on on Saturday CA gets knocked out it was like a pin one right in the

Balloon knocked the air out of us we could have went home Saturday night we didn’t we had nothing left that’s that’s a nothing left we should have saved sver told George Stone go out on the field your pitch as long as you can you’re the only guy that’s out there

Today and George was the type of pitcher who was very sneaky and you know what he won all those games he should have been in there and let me take it back to May of 1960 196 on May of 2019 right my my math is band

2019 that’s 50 years from 16 May 2019 right the the uh ceremony was um you know that month you weren’t feeling well at that time talk about what you thought about you know whether You’ be able to make the the uh game or not and then out

Of the blue maybe the the transplant happened three person transplant how how nervous were you you know at that time in your life well right after I I retired from baseball I figured you know I better get in better shape after retiring I wanted to lose some weight

And I started a diet right after the season I wanted to come back the next year and have a good year that’s even though I I thought I was going to retire you still have choices sometimes you can do it you don’t do it I started to lose

Some weight and the next thing I know it I lost the 10 lbs I wanted to and kept losing weight and I said there’s something wrong I don’t feel quite right I don’t see properly well I I wound up getting uh reports from the doctor I

Needed a kidney I wasn’t doing very well and I had to put it out for a kidney and we struggled for almost over two years to get a kidney I was ready for dialysis which would have changed my complete life uh it made it very difficult to to

Produce and do anything you’ve got to always make these appointments to go in for dialysis to three times a week so it was very difficult and out of the blue a donor comes up and says he’s willing to donate a kidney to me well that’s a very serious situation you know you’re not

Buying it off the shelf so you go ahead and plan for that but things changed along the way along with my kidney we didn’t take the first donor the donor was a gentleman he was a police officer at laguadia airport we wound up taking another gentleman was going in for a

Kidney transplant his wife wanted to be the donor for him it didn’t work the next thing you know it we start talking and my doctor comes up to me and says you know the craziest thing about the situation with your kidney is you have a perfect donor but the guy’s

Wife the fireman’s wife who wanted to donate to her husband was a perfect match for me so we wound up switching transplants so we wound up saving two people having two operations at the same time we saved the fireman he would have been continued in uh you know

Transplant stuff and uh it was unbelievable it was a miracle speaking of M for a while Monica your wife is pretty sick you had a pretty serious surgery now you guys are taking cruises went to Alaska I mean life is healthwise life is good right right life is good

But my wife was sick for over year right she got sick we had decided we were going to move to Florida want to get out of the cold weather but my wife took a s sickness she U you know had a a a situation where she was um had an

Organ that was not good her kidney was not good and she was we thought it was um that she had a blockage and we didn’t know what it was we sent her to the hospital she had checked up she wound up having pancreatic cancer which is very

Serious there was a surgery we could do for her try to help her in Florida we wound up getting it Fred wilpon was one of the fellows instrumental and helping me and he was wonderful about it made a couple of phone calls we got an appointment Dr saw my wife and we wound

Up having transplant surgery down there and got to not good with everything’s okay with both everything is good with both of us now and look at the record books your name is and all the L games at bats stuff but I you told me the record you’re most proud of you one of

The three people to play for their Mets the entire career it’s you um Ron Hodes and David Wright you have 18 years I mean what does that mean to play your whole career one was well I was lucky Jay you I could have been traded a

Couple of times this ball Club traded a lot of people in the first six or seven years before we won a pen but I kept you know keeping my nose clean just played as much as I could always the only time I criticize the ball Club was for lack of playing so

They can’t really get mad at you because you know everybody wants to play It’s the guys that don’t want to play and want to collect their salaries that’s the guys you got to worry about I wanted to play I didn’t get an opportunity under certain managers but I pinch hit

Play Left Field play right field do whatever they had to but I wanted a hit so it didn’t matter the for me and I just stuck stuck with it and his team is now it’s 54 years since’ 69 this is the fourth team you the fourth team me to

Write a book about them it’s Cleon uh Shamsky and SWOT I mean what what makes this team so ionic you know from rck to riches I mean I mean what makes this such a different team well the difference in this team is everyone loved this team it went from the bottom

To the top we won in New York in 1969 it was a perfect time to win in the World Series in New York I mean we had the Vietnam War we walked on the moon that year we had Woodstock we had a lot of things happening in New York and yet we

Had baseball the Mets took everybody’s attention away from all these negative things that were happening in New York and they just followed baseball and they loved the Mets we had Yankee fans come over and watch us they wanted to see us win and we won we played so well coming

Down the stretch that uh you know they just can’t forget it so it was a great opportunity for us 50 60 years later they’re still talking about being at the Ballpark grabbing the grass replanting it in their backyards and develop a a backyard for themselves you enjoying the

Book tour I like it it’s been fun I I did it you know I have a lot of good stories I didn’t rip into players good you know I kept it clean and I kept it up to date and I think it was very refreshing well I think it’s a great

Read for all men fans Baseball fans the last miracle by Ed CR poool published by Tri go and get the book you’ll enjoy it thank you very much thanks Dy