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15 Photos: Up close with Mets great Ed Kranepool in Blue Point

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Mets fans had a blast Thursday night chatting with the team’s legendary first-baseman and pinch hitter extraordinaire Ed Kranepool during his visit to Bayport-Blue Point Public Library for an event co-sponsored by the Johnny Mac Foundation.

The lucky group sat for a candid discussion with Kranepool, listening to the retired slugger reminisce about coming up with the Mets as a 17-year-old rookie during the franchise’s infamously awful inaugural season in 1962, and seven years later helping the franchise win its first World Series.

One member of the crowd shared a special memory of having a baseball signed by Kranepool at Shea Stadium in 1965. Another told Kranepool that he worked as a busboy decades ago at Kranepool’s restaurant The Dugout in North Amityville.

Others recalled how friendly Kranepool was to fans at home games, as well as the lefty’s heroics for the 1969 “Miracle” Mets. The fans listened intently as Kranepool described playing for managers Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges and Yogi Berra and batting against such Hall of Fame pitchers as Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax.

“You’d get hits off of those fellas now and then, but you didn’t want to go to school against them,” Kranepool said, referring to his teenage seasons in the Major Leagues.

On playing for the 1962 Mets, Kranepool said “It was like watching a bad movie.” He insisted the 1973 Mets would have won the World Series against the Oakland A’s had Gil Hodges still been alive to be the manager, lamenting that the Mets manager, Berra, with the Mets up 3-2 in the series, chose to start Mets ace Tom Seaver in Game 6 on just three days rest.

Kranepool also kept the crowd loose, suggesting that his cell phone was ringing because it was his wife checking up on him — on her birthday.

He quipped about growing older: “There are things I used to do all night that now take me all night to do.”

The good-humored fan favorite has been getting more and more active since his successful kidney transplant at Stony Brook University Hospital back in May.

On Oct. 16, Kranepool will join other members of the 1969 “Miracle” Mets to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the team’s first World Series win at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Charles Lindbergh Blvd., Garden City.

Seating is limited for the event, which takes place in the Dome Theater at 7 p.m. Click here for more information.

Check out the photos below to see some of the fun during Kranepool’s visit to Blue Point. Be sure to please click on boxes 2 and 3 to see them all.

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