CRUEL CON OF METS ICON
Kranepool: Auction firm ripped me off $595G suit over vanished Mantle shirt
He stepped right up and fleeced a Met. Ailing Mets icon Ed Kranepool said he gave his Mickey Mantle jersey on consignment to a St. Louis-based sports memorabilia auctioneer – and he hasn’t seen the 54-year old athletic artifact since or a dime from it.
Now Kranepool, 73, is suing Beckett Auctions for $595,000, which he estimates is the combined value of the 1964 jersey that’s worth $575,000, plus a separate $20,000 list of players and their next of kin.
The Long Island federal lawsuit is just the latest fight for the 18-season player who’s been looking for a kidney donor who can match him.
“He’s tough. He’s going to fight through,” Kranepool’s lawyer, Steven Harfenist, told the Daily News.
“This was a young up-and-coming ballplayer who received something from a New York icon at the time,” Harfenist said, noting Kranepool had long held on to the illustrious item and wanted to pass along its assets to his kids – but “you can’t divide a jersey.”
“So he provided it to somebody who, he believed, would reputably sell it,” Harfenist said. “The fact of the matter is he gave this jersey to somebody to value and sell, and they just ran off with it.”
Beckett Auctions is moving to have a judge toss the case. Bill Goodwin, the man Kranepool dealt with, and lawyers for Dallas-based Beckett Auctions could not be reached for comment. It’s not clear from court papers if they have the jersey.
The Bronx-born Kranepool was 16 when he tried out for the Yankees and met Mantle. It was 1961, a famed year for the powerful pinstriped players.
He met Mantle again when he was drafted to the Mets in 1962, and in 1964 when the Bronx Bombers and the woeful Queens crew were at Florida spring training camps.
Months later, the teams dueled in August for the Mayor’s Trophy Game. The Mets lost the exhibition 6-4, but Kranepool won big when Mantle gave him his jersey.
Half a century later, Kranepool met Goodwin at a 2016 Long Island lunch.
The lawsuit said that at the meal, the two entered an oral agreement where Kranepool turned over a list of player contacts on the understanding Beckett Auctions would pay $20,000.
Kranepool brought Goodwin to his home and showed his collection, including his 1969 “Miracle Mets” World Series ring and the Mantle jersey.
Months later, they met again and Kranepool agreed to give the jersey to Goodwin so Beckett Auctions could sell it on consignment.
Kranepool’s suit said he wanted to put the deal in writing. Goodwin said he’d send an agreement once returning to St. Louis — but the document never came.
The jersey hasn’t been put on the auction block, and Kranepool’s demands for its return have been ignored, his lawsuit said.
Late last month, Beckett Auctions said the case is a swing and a miss.
There’s no breach of contract when there’s no written contract, auction house attorneys wrote. Kranepool “has no writings whatsoever to support his staggering claim for $595,000 in damages,” filings said.
Besides, contracts for goods costing at least $500 can’t be enforced “unless there is a writing sufficient to show that a contract has been made that is signed by the party against whom enforcement is sought.”
The argument is an easy grounder, Harfenist said.
New York laws on verbal deals, like the $500 limit, don’t apply if one side has already made good on their end of the bargain, the lawyer said.
“We performed our obligation under the contract,” he said.
Harfenist is suing Goodwin and Beckett Auctions for other memorabilia messes.
He’s representing two other allegedly unpaid collectors, one being Kranepool’s friend and business partner, who say they’ve been left in the lurch after forking over precious baseball-related relics. One of the suits was only filed last month, but Goodwin and Beckett Auctions are fighting the other case.