The Crane Pool Forum

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Rest in peace, Bud

Whenever we drove through East Northport (we lived nearby) I'd look out the window in hopes of seeing Bud opening his mailbox or mowing his front lawn. Never happened, though.

Aw, so long to one of my first favorites 😢

Sad, of course, but it sounds like he's been gone for a while. My grandmother lived the last nine years of her life not really knowing who anyone was. I was sad when she died, but not as sad as I would have been if she had still been herself.

I liked him from the time I read about him in the Baseball Digest Rookie Reports.
Those were the days when a "strong up the middle" team had great defense at shortstop. And Buddy delivered.
RIP

Later

One of my favorite Mets of all time. His rank between 2-5 fluctuates. The 1973
NL Championship Series was really the genesis of my lifetime obsession with the
Metropolitans.

I've probably posted this before (because that's what old Metropolitan fans do) but
when my Mom died in 1993 I needed a suit that fit better and we went to Macy's
in the Danbury Mall. Bud and Krane were promoting something, I forget maybe
it was Herman's or one of those other long-gone sporting goods stores, and I got
this. It means a lot to me because it was the first time I met a '69 Met plus the date.

RIP Derrel McKinley, I'm sure Tom and The Boys are waiting for you with a decanter
of the good stuff there will be a little reunion party.

Somebody at the MOFo told a story of meeting Felix Millan. I think Felix had stopped him to ask for directions down in Florida or something, and ended the conversation by pointing to the guy's Mets hat and saying, "I used to play for the Mets. I played with Bud Harrelson."

Felix had a terrific baseball career. It was something to me that, of all things to sum up his Mets tenure, he went with 'I played with Bud Harrelson'."

Cool picture, KC.

I was wondering maybe Felix and Bud were roomies on the road. What I
found out was that Bud and Seaver were road roomies. I don't think I knew
that until just NOW!!!

Calling him an iconic Met would be a massive understatement.

The spirit of the Mets.

How do we assess his managerial career?

Poorly, I would think. With hindsight, does anyone think otherwise?

Provided the spark that was needed in 1990 when Davey's voice was no longer getting through. It didn't last. In his his autobiography, he said he nevwr wanted the job and wished he could have stayed a coach indefinitely.

He was handed the wheel of a sinking ship. Obviously he didn't distinguish himself, but I'm not sure anybody else at that moment would have.

Simply #3

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 2:33 pm Poorly, I would think. With hindsight, does anyone think otherwise?

His winning percentage seems to, for whatever that's worth.

My other cyber-memory of him was a member here (Soupcan?) reporting meeting him sitting in adjacent boxes in the field level seats at Shea and striking up a warm conversation. When Harrelson asked how he was recognized, our friend (again, Soupcan?) said that he spotted the profile immediately, and had his belief confirmed when he saw that Bud was wearing his championship ring.

Bud then amazingly offered the ring to our fellow poster to examine up close.

While our correspondent slipped the ring on and beheld it with awe, Harrelson spotted someone he knew and ran off to say hi, doubly amazingly leaving the ring behind with a stranger he had known all of a few minutes. When he returned, our correspondent asked Harrelson how in the world he could trust the ring with some rando in a seat next to him. Buddy shrugged and said, "That's my 1986 ring. I never would have let you touch the 1969 one."

Great story about Soupcan and Bud

My best memory is being in the orthodontist's chair in 1973 when Buddy and Rose went at it salivary glands acting up and all in the chair

As iconic a Met as any

Lived many years with dementia apparently surrounded by those who loved him

I will miss him

Rip Buddy

kcmets wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 1:07 pm What I found out was that Bud and Seaver were road roomies.
I don't think I knew that until just NOW!!!

That the two Californians born just months apart were road roomies was well known at the time.
And how quaint does it seem to be talking about sports stars living two to a room in hotels?



I may have told the story about my first impressions of Buddy here before, but I'm not sure so I'll do it either again or for the first time.
My first memory of a NYM SS was that of smooth fielding Roy McMillan, then in the closing years of his career. Roy, with his eye-glasses
and weather-lined Texas face looked, to my young self, to be of my grandfathers' generation even though he was actually only months
older than my dad. And even though I was too young to have been throwing around terms like 'grizzled veteran' that's exactly how I
perceived him and so the model he represented became what I thought a proper SS had to be. So when Roy was replaced, eventually if
not necessarily immediately, by this skinny kid with the big ears who looked no older than the teenagers on my block at home, I thought
that there's no way he good be anywhere near as good since he didn't fit the profile of the only SS I had ever followed. Obviously that
changed and it changed pretty quickly. I know Buddy was an early fave of Gary Cohen--a few years older than I so he likely has some
clearer memories--so I'm sure we'll hear some stories once ST and the season get going this year.

He strikes me as The King of the Ultimate Mets Database. How many people logged time as a Mets player, a Mets coach, a Mets manager, and a Mets broadcaster? He's clearly unique in this regard. The Mets version of the EGOT. Only Rusty Staub and maybe Yogi Berra come close, and not particularly. A Mets minor leaguer and a Mets opponent also.

Like Frayed Knot above, Gary Cohen makes a note of his inheriting his job from Roy McMillan. Like Bud later, McMillan would get a chance to take over the team mid-season in 1975.