Bud Harrelson will be remembered for many things.
Teammates remember how much he loved playing for the Mets. A slick-fielding shortstop on the 1969 Miracle Mets World Series team, Harrelson played with pride, passion and with an edge to his game. When the former Mets infielder and manager died at 79 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease earlier this month, the tributes came pouring in from all over the baseball world.
Even Pete Rose paid tribute to Harrelson, remembering him as a “good guy.” Harrelson, a smaller, scrappier player, infamously took on baseball’s controversial hit king during the 1973 NLCS, starting a scuffle that led to a benches-clearing brawl at Shea Stadium.
Fans remember Harrelson as an affable, friendly face. He sat for long lines of autographs and he posed for photos with kids. Born Derrel McKinley Harrelson, the nickname “Buddy” was apt since everyone who met him felt like he was their buddy.
“Bud was the same friendly giving individual whether you met him at the ballpark or the gas station,” Frank Boulton, his longtime business partner with the Long Island Ducks, told the Daily News.
Make no mistake, while much of his career came in Queens, his influence went far beyond. It extended to those he helped get back into affiliated baseball and it extended to other families affected by Alzheimer’s, with the Harrelson family having helped to raise $61,000 for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
With the Mets, Harrelson played in two World Series (1969 and 1973) and coached in another (1986). He managed Mets affiliates in the 1980s and in the big leagues when was named the successor to Davey Johnson in 1990. It was this experience that became key for Harrelson a decade later.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Harrelson made his home on Long Island and it truly did become a home for him. This is why Harrelson brought the Ducks to Long Island and why, after receiving his diagnosis in 2016, he helped raise money for the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
While his accomplishments later in life may look like a footnote compared to his illustrious Major League career, to him, it was his legacy.
“Bud, on many occasions, claimed the Ducks were the best thing he ever did in professional baseball,” Boulton said. “I truly believe the connection with our fan base was the driving factor. He loved to engage with our fans.”
Boulton founded the Atlantic League in 1998, not long before he was connected with Harrelson.
Independent leagues have come and gone throughout the years, but the Atlantic League has seen considerable success. It can often be seen as a last stop of sorts for players who are unable to get contracts with affiliated teams, but it’s much more than that. Players have parlayed Atlantic League contracts into second chances at affiliated ball, or even a second chance in the big leagues.
The league now works with MLB to test new rules and has even welcomed women onto its teams.
Harrelson’s first foray into minor league ownership was with Boulton. A former trader from Brightwaters, Boulton was introduced to Harrelson in 1991. He previously owned two minor league teams affiliated with the Yankees and Harrelson expressed interest in minor league ownership. The two purchased the Peninsula Pilots, a Class-A Carolina League team, and relocated it to Wilmington Delaware.
Boulton and Harrelson would talk about their desire to bring a minor league team to Long Island on car rides up from Delaware to New York.
“Bud and I, on rides back and forth to Wilmington, knew that if we could bring professional baseball to Long Island it would be successful,” Boulton said. “And 24 years later and 9 million fans through our gates, we accomplished our goal of bringing affordable family entertainment to our friends and neighbors on Long Island.”
Harrelson took great pride in bringing a quality product to his home when the team was founded in 2000. He was the Atlantic League’s first president and the Ducks’ first manager, helping to bring credibility to an emerging team.
Harrelson was a fixture at the ballpark even after he stopped managing. He would make the drive from his home in Hauppauge often, interacting with fans, players and even the mascot, QuackerJack.
“He coached from 2001-2018, he would be the first base coach at home games, catch a ceremonial first pitch from a sponsor, then he would want to go upstairs [with the fans],” said Michael Pfaff, the Ducks president and chief business officer. “He’d go up to the luxury suites and he would take pictures with fans and sign autographs. He would just be everybody’s buddy. He created a tremendous amount of memories.”
Pfaff came to the Ducks in 2022 from the NFL where he worked for the office of the commissioner. When he pulled into the parking lot of the ballpark for his interview, Harrelson was in the parking lot waving to him as if the two had known each other for years.
“Bud had a very unique talent of making everyone feel like he knew them,” Pfaff said. “From the minute they met him, he made them feel like they had been lifelong friends. And I’m no different in that regard.”
Harrelson kept coming to the ballpark even after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2016, though not as much as he once did. It was around that time that he started going to support group meetings with the Long Island chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, along with his ex-wife, Kim Battaglia, who became his caretaker. Harrelson didn’t go public with the diagnosis right away, but when he did, he made sure the Alzheimer’s Association was involved.
They got in touch with the chapter’s executive director Doug Davidson, who feared that Harrelson would find out that he was a Chicago Cubs fan during an introductory dinner.
“I was scared out of my mind,” Davidson joked.
Battaglia, Harrelson and his five kids formed “Team Harrelson.” They not only managed his care as the disease progressed but they also got involved with advocacy efforts. Harrelson and Battaglia joined the board of directors and he became a chairman of the walk. The Ducks put together an Alzheimer’s awareness night at the ballpark, where his daughter, Kassandra, “brought down the house” with a speech.
It was so impressive, she ended up becoming the keynote speaker at a caregiver conference.
“The family became so full-on with the mission,” Davidson said. “Bud’s message was that he wanted to help educate others and help spread awareness. I just was blown away that a man who had accomplished all this was helping. It was unfortunate enough to be suffering with this horrible disease, and yet he was still so selfless in wanting to help others.”
A study released last year showed that the east and southeastern U.S. have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2023, Suffolk County, where Harrelson resided, ranked 11th of 62 counties with a prevalence rate of 11.7%. More than 30,000 people over the age of 65 are estimated to be living with Alzheimer’s in the county.
Disease doesn’t discriminate. Harrelson might have been a member of the Mets Hall of Fame and a beloved member of his community, and still, Alzheimer’s took hold of him, erasing his memory and his motor functions. What we’re left with is memories of Harrelson.
His memory will live on with the Alzheimer’s Association, with the money he raised helping other families understand how to cope with a terrible disease.
His memory will live on with the Ducks. The team already retired his number in 2018, holding a night dedicated just for him. They plan to play with patches embroidered with No. 3 on them this season. He is still listed as an owner on the team website, along with Boulton and Seth Waugh.
Harrelson made an imprint on New York baseball that few could ever forget.
“The Ducks are part of the fabric of the community that he cared so much about,” Pfaff said. “Providing affordable entertainment in a market where that doesn’t exist is something that is a benefit to the community. It’s a quality of life benefit… We consider it an honor to continue that legacy for as long as the Ducks play.”
