This one hit me in the gut just now. Ed had always been very good to me and the Queens Baseball Convention. He was our first former player to ever do a panel and a signing for the QBC all the way back to our first one at McFadden’s at Citi Field. He was so happy that the fans remembered him and wanted to hear his stories about on and off the field during his playing days.
I went to his house when he was selling some of his collection off to help raise money for his kidney transplant. It was great the way he would beam about the items he was selling. It wasn’t his “personal” collection but other cool stuff he collected over the years.
Ed came back a second time to the QBC because we wanted fans that missed him the first time to get another shot at his stories and get to meet a genuinely nice guy. We also wanted him to know that the fans still care about him. He was a hit again. He was in his element being amongst the fans taking pics and signing autographs.
We at The QBC felt so strongly that he was a part of the QBC family we had a special event at Katch to help raise money for his kidney transplant. Even when he wasn’t feeling 100 percent he was still on. He was so touched that about 100 folks came out that day to help raise some money to help him out that he teared up a bit. We were all glad to be able to do what we could for him.
On a quick personal note, I don’t talk about this much but one of my uncles tried out for the Mets way back in yesteryear. He was a pitcher and he got the invite to go to spring training. At the time my grandparents and the rest of their family didn’t have the funds to send him down to go see if he had the stuff to make the team. He met Kranepool during the tryouts and they chatted a bit, they didn’t become friends or anything like that but I always was amazed by that story. I’m also amazed how the universe works in weird ways over the years. My uncle met Ed when they were basically still kids in the 60’s, I got to be around Ed Three times because of something my Mets fandom helped me create. I got to go to his home with my buddy Joe (who is also QBC family now) that I met at work and became friends with him because of the Mets, and Ed always remembered me if he saw me at Citi Field or if he was doing a signing somewhere. He always remember my name.
I know I said that was going to be a quick personal note but I misspoke it seems. Ed Kranepool also shares one other thing with my uncle The both passed away within a few weeks of each other. Both at 80(ish) and now I’m thinking these two gentlemen might be able to reconnect and throw a ball around and joke around like they did when they met each other back in the day.
Thanks for indulging my longwinded post but I really felt that Ed Kranepool deserved it.
Thanks for sharing 👍
ReplyDeleteGreat story Keith. :-)
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