Sad to say that great Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson died at 79. In July of 2011 I had my day with Bud. We arranged to meet at the Long Islands Ducks ballpark way out on Long Island. I was late, thanks to traffic, but Bud rearranged his day to give me all the time I needed for our interview. When I got there he was pitching batting practice for the independent league team he partly owned. We spent a couple of hours together to talk about the 1973 pennant winners for Swinging ’73. We spoke a lot about the building of that Mets team, his military service, the crazy pennant race, Yogi Berra, and the fight with Pete Rose in the playoffs. He could not have been nicer, more gracious, or more informative if he tried. At one point we were about to break and then we spent another half hour together just talking in his office. I brought him a copy of my book, New York Mets: The Complete Illustrated History. He walked off the field with the book clutched under his arm.
In recent years Bud had been sick for a while, but he rallied a few years ago for a five-Met 1969 reunion at the Tom Seaver vineyard in California. Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman wrote that great book on the 1969 Mets reunion at the vineyard, After the Miracle, which I’ve read a couple of times. Here is a link to a picture that Erik took from the meeting between the late Bud and Tom, longtime roommates on the road—on that trip to the vineyard with Art Shamsky, Jerry Koosman, and Ron Swoboda. You’ll see the prominently displayed copy of Total Baseball just to the left of Bud’s head. Tom Terrific, my first and biggest baseball hero, and the encyclopedia that I slaved over as managing editor for several editions front and center in his baseball library, as Bob Murphy would say. TB sitting next to his picture of his 300th win makes me smile on a sad day.
Putout 1 to 6, 41 fires to 3. Side retired.