Mets Player Ed Kranepool will be honored
 | | Stephen and Arlene Genatt are shown |
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Ed Kranepool played a big role in the New York Mets 1969 drive when they beat the Baltimore Orioles and won the World Series, "their miracle season."
Kranepool's commitment to the game of baseball is only one example of his passion for life and his dedication to those in the world around him. Kranepool is a friend and supporter of The Hagedorn Little Village School. He is the founder of the Ed Kranepool Foundation, a not-for-profit charity that gives resources to children with autism or diabetes. He has hosted attended countless benefits to offer his name and face in hopes of promoting awareness and raising funds for organizations and institutions that better the lives of children afflicted with autism and other ailment.
Kranepool will be honored for his charitable work for children on Oct. 21 and presented with the Hagedorn Little Village School's Golden Rule Award during their annual awards dinner held at The Garden City Hotel. Kranepool will pose for photos, sign autographs and talk baseball with his young and old fans.
Also, during the awards dinner, the Susan Weshler Memorial Award will be presented to Mr. And Mrs. Stephen Genatt, close friends and relatives to Susan. Mr. Genatt is president of Genatt Associates Insurance Brokerage. Mrs. Genatt is a practicing family therapist. Weshler was an active participant in many activities at the Hagedorn Little Village School.
 | | Shown is Ed Kranepool's baseball card. |
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Cocktail/dinner tickets are $250 and can be ordered by calling Maureen McElwreath at 520-6043. Program/ journal advertising is still available.
The Hagedorn Little Village School is a member agency of the United Way. The school has been serving the special needs of children since 1969 and is located on the site of the former Massapequa Hospital at 750 Hicksville Rd., Seaford/Massapequa.
| Posted By Carolyn James (9/18/2008 12:21 PM EDT): | |
In reference to your Ed Kranepool article: I shall never forget and will olways be thankful to Ed Kranepool and the Met orginization for his visit to my son Louis back in 1967. Below is a brief description from my book, The Third Strike, of that visit that includes the report that appeared in the NY Daily News with a full page photo which I still have of Ed Kranepool at my son's bedside. (We lost Louis 12 years later in 1979 after succumbing to his 3rd bout with cancer. He was the best baseball fan ever.) I wish I could personally thank Mr. Kranepool and all of baseball for what they did for our Louis.

The buzz of excitement still permeated the hallways when I passed the nursing station after my arrival at the hospital. Ed Kranepool, the young first baseman of the Mets, had in the past hour led a baseball entourage into Louis's room, and upon departing, left Louis in ecstasy. In a high-pitched voice Louis related the details of the eventful afternoon, frequently prefacing his statements with his familiar childhood expression: "You shu' see, Da..."
Reporter Joseph Cassidy of the New York Daily News had also been present along with a photographer. His heartrending story of the visit, accompanied by a cover photograph of Louis and Ed Kranepool, appeared in the Tuesday, May 23 edition of the newspaper. An abstract of the article under the by-line, In Which a Game Boy Meets his Baseball Hero, is quoted:
The kid has been lying in the high hospital bed for two weeks now. Nine days ago surgeons performed their art on his right eye. A large patch of white gauze is taped over the place where a lively ball of light blue had looked out over the world, seeing it as only an 8-year-old can.
In the early afternoon yesterday, just after they feed the patients in the children's pavilion of Mount Sinai Hospital, the kid lay propped up on the bed, his gaze surveying the light green walls for the thousandth time. His good eye wandered over the pile of games stacked up on the night table, the half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich, the pictures of baseball players tacked to the wall.
The kid loves baseball. He is wild about the sport, believes the Mets are fantastically wonderful and that first baseman Ed Kranepool has no peer. He idolizes the big, 22-year-old player with the devotion a small boy reserves only for his father and his favorite athlete.
The kid was day-dreaming yesterday afternoon, his head filled with the thoughts that children have, the thoughts that adults have forgotten, when this big man came into his room and looked down at him.
"Hey, Louis," the man said, "I'm Ed Kranepool. I heard you're my biggest rooter." The kid stared, he blinked and then a smile started on his thin face, not stopping until it reached his ears. His words tumbled out. They were boy's words, classic utterances that, sadly, are usually lost from vocabularies when boys start becoming men.
"Whoopee! Hot dog! Holy smoke! Gee, I watch ya on teevee. I cheer for ya, I really do. Gee, gee, it's really you, Omigosh!"
The kid and the ballplayer talked for a while, the man in a smartly cut sports jacket, the boy in rumpled pajamas. They sat on that high hospital bed chattering like a couple of old buddies and the kid got an autographed picture and a real major league baseball covered with the signatures of the team, the whole team.
When it was time to go, they shook hands, each promising to meet at the ballpark in the summer, the kid pointing to the game schedule on the wall and reeling off exactly which games he knew he'd be at.
During the ride back to the stadium, the ballplayer sat quietly looking out the window, lost in his own thoughts. He's a young man and strong and he's got his whole life ahead of him. In the high hospital bed the kid was sleeping. The baseball tight to his chest wh |
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