Is this Ed Kranepool's boyhood home?

[roger_that]

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8244341 ... FQAw%3D%3D

Google says the building with the driving school is 847 Castle Hill Avenue, and he listed 847 Castle Hill Road as his address in 1962. Any Bronx boys here, or fans who've made the pilgrimage?

[MFS62]

My wife lived on Story avenue (the next block over according to the map inset) and went to James Monroe High School when Kranepool was there. She was a year ahead of him, and she's told me she wasn't in any of his classes.
She was an MFY fan(still is), so I doubt she cared where he lived. But she probably knows where it is.
Later

[roger_that]

Seems awfully grim. No hint that he grew up, upstairs from a driving school and income tax shop, even if those two businesses weren't there when he was growing up.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Yeah. It was on my bucket list. I couldn't wait to go to the fucking Bronx to visit a driving school just because Ed Kranepool might've lived there 75 years ago.

And what's so grim?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Maybe he's commenting on the lack of a historical marker?

Or a larger than life statue?

No disrespect to Ed Kranepool, but he's not exactly Theodore Roosevelt.

[batmagadanleadoff]

There used to be a statue of Kranepool in front of the old Carnegie Deli. Kranepool reportedly once went there to have a corned beef sandwich. But the statue was taken down when the eatery closed permanently a few years ago. How grim, Grimm.

[Cowtipper]

Should be on the National Register of Historic Places.

[batmagadanleadoff]

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8244341 ... FQAw%3D%3D

Google says the building with the driving school is 847 Castle Hill Avenue, and he listed 847 Castle Hill Road as his address in 1962. Any Bronx boys here, or fans who've made the pilgrimage?

Tomorrow, maybe you can start a thread about Brian Ostrosser's boyhood home. Whaddya say?

[Cowtipper]

Being from Canada I imagine Ostrosser grew up in an igloo, so his childhood home is probably melted by now.

[roger_that]

I got the address off a form I'd like to reproduce here--SABR just posted a bunch of documents. I screenshotted it, but am having some trouble getting it to post. Not a fascinating document, just kind of cool to see some of these. Maybe just post the URL:

https://sabr.org/weiss-questionnaires/e ... ool-89981/

[whippoorwill]

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8244341 ... FQAw%3D%3D

Google says the building with the driving school is 847 Castle Hill Avenue, and he listed 847 Castle Hill Road as his address in 1962. Any Bronx boys here, or fans who've made the pilgrimage?

Maybe n 1962 it was a bachelor pad

[kcmets]

Maybe n 1962 it was a bachelor pad

Right, and back then it was a Chinese laundry and a shoe repair
shop instead of a driving school and tax prep joint.

[MFS62]

I checked. My wife lived 1.2 miles away.
Later

[roger_that]

Sorry if I offended anyone with this bit of trivia.

It's a hobby of mine, NYC locales with a little obscure history behind them.

Louis Armstrong house in Corona, walking distance of Citifield, for instance. Anyone been there?

I've got some odd houses that Mets once inhabited in Queens and Long Island on my list. Some hotels in Manhattan. Rusty's former restaurant site in Manhattan. The hotel Casey lived in when he managed the Mets. The restaurant that Ron Darling co-owned with Art Shamsky.

I find it cool to touch the doorknob that maybe these guys once turned.

[Edgy MD]

You offended exactly zero people.

I myself was thrilled and delighted.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Why would anybody be "offended"? Is that the right word?

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Sorry if I offended anyone with this bit of trivia.

It's a hobby of mine, NYC locales with a little obscure history behind them.

Louis Armstrong house in Corona, walking distance of Citifield, for instance. Anyone been there?

I've got some odd houses that Mets once inhabited in Queens and Long Island on my list. Some hotels in Manhattan. Rusty's former restaurant site in Manhattan. The hotel Casey lived in when he managed the Mets. The restaurant that Ron Darling co-owned with Art Shamsky.

I find it cool to touch the doorknob that maybe these guys once turned.

I thought it was cool trivia.

When I was a kid we went to Ed Kranepool's restaurant in Amityville, the Dugout. We went for my birthday and dad came back from the register with a treasure: A ball signed by Ed himself!

[batmagadanleadoff]

I also went to The Dugout when I was a kid. I made sure to touch the door knob to Kranepool's office, knowing for sure that Kranepool also touched it. I was thrilled. And delighted. Thrilled and delighted. So thrilled and delighted that I haven't washed my right hand ever since.

[stevejrogers]

Sorry if I offended anyone with this bit of trivia.

It's a hobby of mine, NYC locales with a little obscure history behind them.

No one is offended. Taken aback maybe by the somber and solemn seriousness you are taking the lack of care of acknowledging someone who is just a random local favorite (I’d hesitate saying legend) from a sports franchise decades ago.

Because of the transcending nature, as well as the educational and tourist trap value, (as well as more altruistic nature of estates when dealing with such for persons who aren’t as notable) of such birthplace/longtime residence and museum establishments, ditto even simple historical markers due to inclusion on national and state registries, the only Met employees in the 63-year history of the franchise I’d say deserves such an honor would be Casey Stengel and Willie Mays.

[batmagadanleadoff]

... the only Met employees in the 63-year history of the franchise I’d say deserves such an honor would be Casey Stengel and Willie Mays.

What honor? Deserving of what honor? And that driving school in the Bronx is a tourist trap?

[Cowtipper]

I, frankly, was offended.

[stevejrogers]

... the only Met employees in the 63-year history of the franchise I’d say deserves such an honor would be Casey Stengel and Willie Mays.

What honor? Deserving of what honor? And that driving school in the Bronx is a tourist trap?

The building that is generally acknowledged as your birthplace, or a long time residence (ie Louis Armstrong’s in Corona) being turned into a museum shrine in honor of you, your time and profession(s).

Pretty much all of the ones I can think of are overwhelmingly well known, or very important figures in their day and professions.

Or as I said, someone who does not fill that description of being such a well known noted person’s estate bequeathed the place to be turned into such a venue for educational and/or tourism value for generations to come

[stevejrogers]

The restaurant that Ron Darling co-owned with Art Shamsky.

I know you meant Swoboda, but that’d be an interesting combo for a Met-centric establishment to have linked to it ;)

Speaking of which, I looked up Straw’s old place in
Douglaston. Sadly, since I like it when establishments stay relatively the same and not completely different (see CBGB now an upscale clothing store), it’s now a real estate broker office

https://maps.app.goo.gl/q5Z66pocDDxvypm ... eview.copy

[batmagadanleadoff]

Darling and Shamsky. Kranepool and Swoboda. Close. Real close.

[roger_that]

The restaurant that Ron Darling co-owned with Art Shamsky.

I know you meant Swoboda, but that’d be an interesting combo for a Met-centric establishment to have linked to it ;)

Speaking of which, I looked up Straw’s old place in
Douglaston. Sadly, since I like it when establishments stay relatively the same and not completely different (see CBGB now an upscale clothing store), it’s now a real estate broker office

https://maps.app.goo.gl/q5Z66pocDDxvypm ... eview.copy

No, I meant Shamsky and Darling.

It was on Murray Street in lower Manhattan, a half block from City Hall Park.

Edited to add: There's a reference to the address and the co-ownership on the Ultimate Mets Data Base: https://ultimatemets.com/profile.php?Pl ... 59&tabno=7 dated December 28 2002.