Ed Kranepool: Amazin’ From the Beginning

A teenaged Ed Kranepool came up with lousy Mets teams in the franchise’s opening years, but he created bright moments. After the Mets started the 1963 season with eight straight losses, Kranepool hit his first career home run on April 19, 1963, to help the Mets to a narrow 5-4 defeat of the Milwaukee Braves at home. With the blown-lead, comeback win, New York Daily News reporter Jim McCulley wrote that “The Amazin’ Mets of 1962 are still the Amazin’ Mets of 1963.”