Bud Harrelson, the scrappy, switch-hitting shortstop for the 1969 Miracle Mets and the third-base coach for the 1986 world champions, died Wednesday night after a nearly seven-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
He was 79.
The two-time National League All-Star and 1986 inductee into the Mets Hall of Fame spent the first 13 seasons of a 16-year career in Flushing.
He also played for the 1973 “You Gotta Believe!” pennant winners, won the Gold Glove 1971, and received Most Valuable player votes in 1970, 1971 and 1973. He managed the club in 1990 and 1991.
“We were saddened to learn of Mets Hall of Famer Buddy Harrelson’s passing,” Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen said in a press release on the team’s website.
“He was a skilled defender and spark plug on the 1969 Miracle Mets. The Gold Glove shortstop played 13 years in Queens, appearing in more games at short than anyone else in team history. Buddy was the third base coach on the 1986 World Champs, becoming the only person to be in uniform on both World Series winning teams. We extend our deepest condolences to his entire family.”
The team said Harrelson passed away at a hospice house in East Northport, LI.
“The Harrelson family announced they will have a celebration of his life at a later date,” according to the statement.
“Terribly sad to hear of the passing of one of the finest human beings ever to be associated with the @Mets, Bud Harrelson,” said Howie Rose, a lifetime Mets fan and longtime team broadcaster, on X. “Apart from being a World Champion and National League Champion as a player, a World Champion as a coach and a manager, the Mets have never had better ambassador. There was no fan to whom he would refuse an autograph, a handshake or a conversation, no charity to which he would refuse a request for help, or an appearance, and no one who was any prouder to be a New York Met during and after his playing days.”
Derrel McKinley Harrelson was born in California on June 6, 1944 — D Day. He was signed by the Mets in 1963 and joined the team in 1965. He played for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1978 and 1979, and concluded his playing career with the Texas Rangers in 1980.
Harrelson was typical of the slick-fielding, light-hitting starting shortstops of his day, weighing 160 pounds. He hit six of his seven career home runs as a Met, and never more than one in a single season.
By comparison, Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver hit seven of his 12 career home runs as a Met.
But his defense never quit, nor did his fighting spirit, the latter never more famously on display than in the 1973 National League playoffs in which the Mets upended the heavily favored Cincinnati Reds.
In Game 3 at Shea Stadium, with the Mets drubbing the Big Red Machine 9-2, Pete Rose tried unsuccessfully to break up a double play with a dirty, late side.
Rose had taken exception to comments Harrelson made to the media after Game 2. Harrelson, giving away 40 pounds to Charlie Hustle, got right into Rose’s face before Rose grabbed him, slammed him to the ground and began throwing punches.
After the multiple-contest bench-clearing brawl was brought under control and the inning ended, Rose went out to left field to a four-letter serenade and a shower of garbage from the Mets’ faithful until Reds Manager Sparky Anderson pulled his team off the field.
Manager Yogi Berra, Seaver and Willie Mays had to go out to left field to quiet the crowd down.
The unlikely Eastern Division championship club that won only 82 games in the regular season proceeded to finish off the Reds before losing the World Series to the eventual three-peat Oakland Athletics dynasty team in seven games.
1 comment:
RIP Bud !
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