As Horwitz tells it, “Ed approached Jeff in front of a lot of people and said, ‘I hear you are selling shares in your team.”’

And then, according to Horwitz, Kranepool added: “I don’t want shares. I want to buy the whole team so I can run it better than you and your father.”’

Asked about that remark, Kranepool remembered the exchange somewhat differently. Kranepool’s name had emerged around that time in connection with a group that was expressing interest in buying the Mets outright. That effort didn’t go anywhere, but Kranepool said Wilpon had made a disparaging remark to him about it.

“One thing led to another, and we had some words,’’ Kranepool said.

The result has been disruption in a relationship that began when Kranepool, as a teenager out of James Monroe High School in the Bronx, briefly made it to the Mets in 1962, the team’s inaugural season. After that, he found a niche for himself, a 6-foot-3, left-handed hitter who never had more than 16 home runs in a season and who finished with a career average of .261.

In all, Kranepool played under eight managers, from Stengel, whom he loved, to Joe Torre, whom he did not. He played alongside some Mets who are forever identified with the franchise’s most inept moments (think Choo-Choo Coleman and Marvelous Marv Throneberry) and with others (think Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Tug McGraw and Cleon Jones) who were among the best to wear the team’s uniform.

Kranepool saw it all, earned the nickname Steady Eddie and was eventually inducted into the Mets’ Hall of Fame.