A popular fielder, he helped the team win the World Series that year and another in 1973. He was with the Mets as a manager and briefly as a manager.
Mets’ Bud Harrelson, left, and, from left, New York Mayor John V. Lindsay, broadcaster Lindsey Nelson and teammates Ron Swoboda and Rod Gaspar celebrate in the Mets locker room at Shea Stadium. The Mets won the World Series on October 16, 1969, defeating the Baltimore Orioles.
Bud Harrelson, the pitcher who led the Mets to the 1969 World Series championship and the 1973 National League pennant, served as the Mets’ manager in the 1980s and as a manager in the early 1990s. , died Thursday in East Northport, Long Island, New York. He is 79 years old.
Mets vice president of alumni relations Jay Horwitz announced his death at the hospital. Harrelson was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.
Harrelson played in the big leagues for 16 years, 13 with the Mets. He appeared in 1,322 games with the team, the fourth most in franchise history. (Ed Kranepool is first with 1,853 games, followed by David Wright and Jose Reyes.)
At 5-foot-10 and weighing 145-155 pounds at various points, he’s a menace at the plate. . He had a career average of .236 per game and only hit seven home runs. But he has a strong grip and a strong hand on the ground. He won the National League Gold Award for his defense in 1971, played in two All-Star games and was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1986.
Harrelson signed with the Mets in June 1963 after starring at shortstop. And San Francisco State University.
After playing in the minor leagues, he made his debut with the Mets in early September 1965, joining a team that had been struggling since its debut three years earlier. He is best remembered for the dramatic scenes at Shea Stadium in Queens during Game 3 of the 1973 National League Championship Series between the Mets and the Cincinnati Reds.
After the Mets’ Jon Matlack shutout the Reds in Game 2, Harrelson told sports reporters that the team known as the Big Red Machine “looks like my weapon.“ Those words reached Red Star Pete Rose.Hall of Fame second baseman and Rose friend Joe Morgan warned Mets players that Rose had promised to pay.
In the fifth inning of Game 3 with the Mets leading 9-2, Morgan hit a grounder to first base off Rose and John Milner threw the first ball to Harrelson, who doubled. When Harrelson threw a punch back, Rose hit him.
Harrelson had a memorable fight at second base with Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds in Game 3 of the 1973 National League Championship Series.
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Marty Lederhandler/Associated Press
“He beat me after the play,” Harrelson recalled in ” Turning Two” (2012), a memoir he wrote with Phil Pepe. “I spoke to him and cursed him. “We’re rolling around the dirt, the guys are running around the bays and the bulls, and there’s a bit of a crash all over the field.“
When play resumed, the outfielders threw rubble at Rose, who was playing left field. No points were scored. The Reds won Game 4, but the Mets won Game 5 and advanced to the N.L. pen They defeated the Oakland A’s in seven World Series.
Harrelson battled career-ending injuries with the Mets and was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in early 1978. He retired with the Texas Rangers in 1980.
Harrelson was named the Mets’ first base coach in 1982 and later joined the Mets’ television staff. He managed the Mets’ minor league system for part of the 1984 and 1985 seasons, then became the Mets’ third base coach, replacing Bobby Valentine when Valentine left to manage the Texas Rangers.
Under manager Davey Johnson, the Mets returned to the World Series in 1986 against the Boston Red Sox.
In Game 6 at Shea Stadium, Boston entered the bottom of the 10th with a 5-3 lead and needed one more win to win the World Series. But the Mets bounced back. With the score tied at 5-5 and two outs, Ray Knight scored from second base when Mookie Wilson hit a grounder to the feet of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner, Knight scored the winning run.
In his memoirs, Harrelson recalled, “When Knight got on third base, I didn’t take him home, I went with him.“ “I jumped up and started running. I had to slow down because Ray won and I couldn’t get to the plate or get in front of him.
The Mets won Game 7 of the second and the World Series.
Harrelson replaced Johnson as manager of the Mets on May 29, 1990, and they remained in contention for a postseason game until the final week of the season. But the Mets finished fifth in the N.L. In the East in 1991, he was fired with few games left in the season. He later served as the team’s minor league scout and coach.
Harrelson was the owner of the Long Island Ducks when the football club, based in Central Islip, Suffolk County, began play in the independent Atlantic League in 2000. He got that first time, then became their teacher and gave them proper practice.
Harrelson replaced Davey Johnson as Mets manager in 1990, but was fired before the end of 1991.
Derrell McKinley Harrelson was born on June 6, 1944 (the date of D-Day in Glen and Rena) ( Horton) Harrelson in Niles, California, about 24 miles southeast of Oakland. His father was a mechanic and car dealer. His mother worked in that company..
