1973 Topps #329 Ed Kranepool
About Ed Kranepool
On April 15, 1972, the strike-delayed Opening Day, Kranepool homered and drove in three runs against Pittsburgh, but by midseason he was platooning again. Third-series #329 lists him with the Mets. In 1973 he roomed with Tug McGraw, whose "Ya gotta believe" became the club's rallying cry, and hit .239 in 100 games. He went 0-for-3 as a pinch hitter in the World Series against Oakland, and in Game 7 his grounder to first was misplayed for an error that scored the Mets' final run.
Ed Kranepool was born November 8, 1944, in the Bronx and starred at James Monroe High School before the expansion Mets signed him on June 27, 1962 for an $80,000 bonus. He debuted that September 22 at seventeen and was still on the roster in 1979 as the last man left from the original 1962 Mets. A left-handed first baseman who also worked the outfield, he spent all eighteen of his major league seasons in New York. He remains the Mets' all-time leader in games played with 1,853, and he finished with 1,418 hits and 118 home runs. He was New York's lone All-Star representative in 1965 and homered in Game Three of the 1969 World Series, then reached the Series again with the 1973 National League champions. From 1974 through 1978 'Steady Eddie' hit .396 as a pinch hitter. His 17-for-35 in 1974 gave him a .486 mark, still the major league single-season record for pinch-hit average over 30 at-bats. He later worked as a stockbroker and restaurateur, joined the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1990, and died September 8, 2024, in Boca Raton, Florida.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · MLB.com · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 254 | 17 | 96 | 119 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
Team card: #389 New York Mets
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- #55 Jon Matlack
- #87 Ken Boswell
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- #113 Jerry Grote
- #137 Jim Beauchamp
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #329 card?
It is card #329 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Kranepool of the New York Mets.
How many cards are in the 1973 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 679 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, in five series of 132 - #1-132, #133-264, #265-396, #397-528 and the high numbers, #529-660, printed in lower quantities; 19 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fifteen Field Leaders cards, the #20 Stan Bahnsen, #31 Buddy Bell and #504 Earl Williams border-gap pairs and the two #280 Al Kaline printings.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, BaseballCardPedia, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-25.