Mets star and Hall of Famer Ed Kranepool dies at 79

New York Mets Hall of Famer Ed Kranepool died Sunday, the team announced Monday afternoon.

He was 79. Kranepool, the longest-tenured Mets player in team history, suffered a cardiac arrest while at his home in Boca Raton, Florida.

Kranepool made his Mets debut in 1962 at the age of 17. Although Kranepool appeared in only a handful of games that season, the team lost a Major League Baseball record 120 games. Kranepool was one of the surviving members of that team to threaten their infamous record.

“I feel sorry for them,” he said. “Better them than me.”

Fortunately for Kranepool, that was the worst of it. The first baseman earned his first and only All-Star nomination during the 1965 season and went on to help lead the franchise to a World Series title in 1969. Kranepool also hit a home run in Game 3 of the World Series that year.

Kranepool spent 18 seasons with the Mets, reaching the World Series in 1973 before retiring after the 1979 season. He finished with a career batting average of .261 and 118 home runs and 614 RBI.

Kranepool played in 1,853 games for the Mets, the most in team history. He was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1990. Kranepool, who attended high school in the Bronx, received a kidney transplant in 2019 and has battled diabetes in recent years.