Championship Mets Teams shortstop Bud Harrelson dies at 79

Derrell McKinley Harrelson was born in Niles, California, about 25 miles southeast of Oakland, on June 6, 1944 (the date of the D-Day invasion), to Glenn and Rena Harrelson. His father was a car mechanic and car salesman; his mother, Rena, worked in the real estate industry. His brother, Dwayne, who was two years older, initially called him Bubba because he couldn’t pronounce brother; which evolved into Bud and eventually Buddy.

Harrelson’s first marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, Kim Battaglia; three daughters, Kimberly Psarras, Alexandra Abbatiello and Cassandra Harrelson; two sons, Timothy and Troy Harrelson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

In May 2017, Art Shamsky, an outfielder on the Mets’ 1969 World Series champions, gathered his former teammates Harrelson, Jerry Koosman and Ron Swoboda to visit the Mets’ Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, who lived with his woman. , Nancy, in California’s Napa Valley tending his vineyard. Both Harrelson and Seaver had memory loss by this time, Seaver as a result of contracting Lyme disease. He would die of Lewy body dementia and complications from Covid-19 2020 at 75.

That reunion and the Mets’ 1969 season were recounted in “After the Miracle: The Lasting Brotherhood of the ’69 Mets” (2019), written by Shamsky with the sportswriter Eric Shermanwho had also attended the meeting.

“For nine years, Tom and I were roommates,” Harrelson noted at the reunion. “And we’ve been like brothers ever since.”

As Shamsky put it when recounting that trip: “It’s a cruel twist of fate what time has done to two men synonymous with everything that is great about the game of baseball – and the history of the New York Mets .”

Sofia Poznansky contributed reporting.