Bud Harrelson Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Baseball Career:
First Game: September 2, 1965; Final Game: October 5, 1980
Managed First Game: May 29, 1990; Managed Final Game: September 28, 1991
Bat: Both Throw: Right Height: 5' 11" Weight: 160
Bats right in 1965 and during part of 1975

Awards and Achievements:
Named shortstop on The Sporting News NL All-Star Team (1971)
Won NL Gold Glove as shortstop (1971)

Bud Harrelson
This article was written by Eric Aron and is presented in part, courtesy of the Society for American Baseball Research

For a player who endured nicknames such as Twiggy, Mini-Hawk, and Mighty Mouse for his light weight and short stature, Bud Harrelson is perhaps best known to the casual baseball fan getting into a fight. There’s no doubt that Pete Rose got the better of him in their brawl at second base during Game Three of the 1973 National League Championship Series, but Harrelson’s Mets got in the last punch: They won the pennant. And this came just four years after Bud had helped the Mets pull off the ultimate David vs. Goliath upset of the vaunted Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series.

Bud was not known as much of a hitter—as his 16-year career average of .236 with only seven home runs attests—but his defense at shortstop was outstanding. His lifetime fielding percentage was .969 and he won a National League Gold Glove award in 1971. In addition to appearing in two All-Star Games, Harrelson set a since-broken major-league mark with 54 consecutive errorless games at shortstop in 1970. After his playing career ended, he was a coach, a scout, a special instructor, a broadcaster, and a manager in both the minor leagues and major leagues, all in the Mets organization. Said friend and teammate Tom Seaver, “We simply don’t win two pennants without him.”

Derrel McKinley Harrelson was born on June 6, 1944 (the same day as the D-Day Invasion), in Niles, California, on the Oakland side of San Francisco Bay. After the second grade, his family moved to nearby Hayward. It was a working-class family. Bud’s father, Glenn, was an auto mechanic and a foreman for a used-car agency. The Harrelsons were an athletic household; Glenn was a former football player who dropped out of high school to support his family. Bud’s older brother, Dwayne was a running back in football and a shortstop and catcher in baseball. His mother, Rena, ran track in high school and supported her children’s pursuit of athletics.