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NEW YORK — Bud Harrelson, the scrappy and sure-handed shortstop who fought Pete Rose on the field during a playoff game and helped the New York Mets win an astonishing championship, died early Thursday morning. He was 79.

The Mets said Thursday morning that Harrelson died at a hospice house in East Northport, New York, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. He was diagnosed in 2016 and publicly shared his struggle two years later, hoping he and his family could help others afflicted.

Throughout his health ordeal, Harrelson stayed involved with his professional pride and joy. He was part-owner of the Long Island Ducks, an independent minor league team located minutes from his home. He called his decades of work with the club — which he was instrumental in starting and running — his greatest achievement in baseball.

The team said Harrelson’s family was planning a celebration of his life for a later date.

During a major league career that lasted from 1965 to ’80, the light-hitting Harrelson was selected to two All-Star Games and won a Gold Glove. Known to family and teammates as Buddy, he spent his first 13 seasons with New York and was the only man in a Mets uniform for both their World Series titles.

The first came as the infield anchor of the 1969 Miracle Mets, the other as the club’s third-base coach in 1986.

In one of the most famous scenes in baseball history, it was a euphoric Harrelson who waved home Ray Knight with the winning run on Bill Buckner’s error in Game 6 of the ’86 World Series against Boston.

Harrelson also managed the Mets for nearly two seasons, guiding them to a second-place NL East finish in 1990 after taking over in late May. He was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1986, joining Rusty Staub as the first two players honored.

“It was easy to see why the ’69 guys loved him. He was great on defense and he was tough,” Mets broadcaster Ron Darling, who pitched for the club from 1983 to ’91, told the New York Post in 2018.

In Game 3 of the 1973 NL Championship Series between the Mets and Cincinnati Reds, Rose slid hard into Harrelson at second base on a double play. The two ended up toe-to-toe and then wrestling in the infield dirt at Shea Stadium, triggering a wild, bench-clearing brawl that spilled into the outfield.

Outweighed by more than 30 pounds, the scrawny, gritty Harrelson got the worst of it.

But he didn’t back down.

“I have no regrets about going at it with Rose. I did what I had to do to protect myself, and Pete did what he thought he had to do to try to motivate his team,” Harrelson wrote in his 2012 memoir, “Turning Two: My Journey to the Top of the World and Back with the New York Mets” co-authored by Phil Pepe. “We fought and that was the end of it.”

Sort of.

The game was held up as irate fans hurled objects at Rose, and the Reds were pulled off the field by manager Sparky Anderson until order was restored. Mets skipper Yogi Berra and players including Willie Mays and Tom Seaver went out to left field to calm the crowd.

Cincinnati players apparently were peeved about a comment from Harrelson after Game 2. Making light of his own shortcomings, Harrelson said Mets pitcher Jon Matlack “made the Big Red Machine look like me hitting” after the left-hander tossed a two-hit shutout.

“I didn’t think it was all that bad. I was kind of putting myself down a little bit, but I was also putting them down,” Harrelson said. “Then I heard that they were going to come after me and all that, so I figured that was it right there. And when Pete hit me after I’d already thrown the ball, I got mad. And we had the little match. He just kind of lifted me up, laid me down to sleep and it was all over.”

Harrelson later wrote that Charlie Hustle caught him with “a cheap shot.” But the former shortstop would also joke about the fracas, often saying: “I hit him with my best punch. I hit him right in the fist with my eye.”

The two became teammates in Philadelphia years later and when their playing days were long over, Harrelson said Rose, baseball’s career hits leader, signed a photo of the fight for him and wrote, “Thanks for making me famous.”

Harrelson later managed Rose’s son with the Ducks, and the elder Rose even attended a couple of games, Harrelson said.

Harrelson was traded to the Phillies in 1978 and spent two years with them before playing his final season for the Texas Rangers. A switch-hitter, he finished his career with a .236 batting average and .616 OPS. He hit seven home runs — never more than one in a season — and stole 127 bases, including a career-high 28 for the Mets in 1971.

Despite his lack of power, Harrelson could be pesky at the plate. He drew 95 walks in 1970 and was always a good bunter. He batted .333 lifetime (20-for-60) against Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, with 14 walks and just three strikeouts for a .459 on-base percentage.

“I have always said I’ll take God to three-and-two and take my chances. I might foul two off before He gave me ball four,” Harrelson wrote.

Harrelson came off the bench in the 1970 All-Star Game in Cincinnati, getting two hits and scoring twice. He was the National League’s starting shortstop the following season at Tiger Stadium and won his only Gold Glove that year.

Harrelson went 3-for-17 (.176) with three walks when the Mets beat heavily favored Baltimore in the 1969 World Series. He had a .379 on-base percentage during a seven-game loss to Oakland in the ’73 Series, after New York upset Cincinnati in the playoffs.

As manager of the Mets from 1990 to ’91, Harrelson compiled a 145-129 record.

Derrel McKinley “Bud” Harrelson was born in Niles, California, on D-Day: June 6, 1944. He went to college at San Francisco State and signed with the Mets in June 1963 for $13,500 even though the New York Yankees offered $3,000 more.

Harrelson said he was a little intimidated by the Yankees’ storied history and worried he might get stuck in the minors with them. He figured the Mets, an expansion franchise in 1962, might provide a faster path to the majors.

Early in his pro career with the struggling club, he tried switch-hitting at Casey Stengel’s suggestion and stuck with it.

In 1972, Harrelson authored an instructional book titled “How to Play Better Baseball.”

After his diagnosis, Harrelson joined the board of directors of Alzheimer’s Association Long Island and worked with his family to raise awareness. He still made it out to Ducks games, eagerly greeting fans as a goodwill ambassador even if he couldn’t throw batting practice or coach first base anymore.

“I feel like I’m home when I’m there. I’m with the people I love,” Harrelson told the Post.

“I want people to know you can live with [Alzheimer’s] and that a lot of people have it,” he said. “It could be worse.”

Despite his condition, Harrelson was at Citi Field in 2019 for the Mets’ 50th anniversary celebration of their 1969 championship. Tom Seaver, his good friend and former roommate, did not attend after the Hall of Fame pitcher was diagnosed with dementia.

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Rantanen’s ‘fitting’ hat trick caps Stars’ G7 win

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Rantanen's 'fitting' hat trick caps Stars' G7 win

Many of Mikko Rantanen’s greatest moments have come in a Colorado Avalanche sweater. It’s just that the most defining moment of his career came at their expense.

It wasn’t enough that the Dallas Stars were trailing by two goals. It was also the fact that Rantanen scored a hat trick in a string of four unanswered goals that saw his current team, the host Stars, eliminate his old team, the Avalanche, in a 4-2 win Saturday in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at the American Airlines Center.

“Obviously, the feeling was incredible to win a series,” Rantanen said in his postgame media availability. “This series was not exactly what I expected. I expected a seven-game series, even before Game 1. The ups and downs in the series. … Belief was there with the group the whole time. Obviously, I was able to make a pay to get the first one and the crowd started to roll.”

The Stars, attempting to reach the conference finals a third straight time, will advance to the semifinal round in which they will await the winner of series featuring the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets. That encounter will be decided Sunday in Game 7 in Winnipeg.

Soon, the Stars’ collective focus will shift to another Central Division foe. But for now? The attention before, during, and after the game, was on Rantanen.

Part of what made the Avalanche-Stars series arguably the most intriguing first-round series in either conference was the fact it placed two 100-point teams that are in championship window against each other. But, it also came with several subplots with the notable being the team that traded quite a bit to land Rantanen — with the hope he could win them a Stanley Cup now — needed him to defeat the team that he won a championship with back in 2022.

With one assist through the first four games, there was a discussion about if the Stars could manage to win with a sputtering Rantanen on top of the fact they were already without two of their best players in defenseman Miro Heiskanen and forward Jason Robertson.

Rantanen responded with a three-point performance in Game 5, and a four-point performance in Game 6 only to then have a hand in each goal on Saturday. His first goal came on the power-play with 12:12 remaining in the third period when he found enough space to fire a wrist shot that beat MacKenzie Blackwood.

Then came the game-tying goal and the significance it carried. The Stars went on the power play went Avalanche forward Jack Drury was called for holding. Drury part of the trade package the Carolina Hurricanes used to get Rantanen in late January before they would trade him to the Stars.

Drury’s penalty opened the door for Rantanen to score a game-tying goal that might be one of, if not, his signature salvo. Rantanen skated into the Avalanche zone in a 1-on-3 before he split two players before going around the net for a wrap-around goal that went off the skate of Samuel Girard with 6:14 left.

Three minutes later, the Stars received another power-play opportunity that saw Rantanen along with another former Avalanche forward in Matt Duchene work together to find Wyatt Johnston for the game-winning goal.

In the final minute, the Avalanche pulled Blackwood in the attempt to grab a late goal and force over time. Instead? Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger withstood a barrage that officially ended when Stars forward Tyler Seguin got the puck out of the zone only for Rantanen to skate in on an open net for the hat trick with three seconds left.

“I couldn’t care less who scored for them, I really couldn’t,” Avalanche captain and left winger Gabriel Landeskog said when asked about what it was like to watch Rantanen score a hat trick. “Mikko is one of my best friends and I love him, but I couldn’t care if he scored or if somebody else scored.”

For eight full seasons, Rantanen was part of a homegrown movement that saw the Avalanche go from finishing with what was then the worst record in the salary cap era back in 2016-17 to become a perennial favorite to win the Stanley Cup, which did they did in 2023, while also becoming a model for the need to build through the draft.

Building through stars such as Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen allowed the Avalanche to become a success. As did the moves they made to get other key figures like Valeri Nichushkin and Devon Toews.

Like all teams in a championship window, the Avs were facing the prospect of possibly making a difficult decision. They had yet to agree to a new contract with Rantanen, who was a pending unrestricted free agent. Then, came the blockbuster trade that few throughout the league saw coming.

The Avalanche traded Rantanen in a three-team trade that saw them get Martin Necas and Drury along with two draft picks. Rantanen’s time with the Carolina Hurricanes was limited to just two goals and six points in 13 games.

Despite the fact the Hurricanes are also among that cadre of championship contenders, Rantanen struggled to find cohesion in Raleigh. Rather than run the risk of watching leave for nothing in free agency, the Hurricanes put out feelers to a few teams with the Stars being one of them.

A long-time admirer of Rantanen, the Stars packaged two first-round picks, three second-round picks and former prized prospect Logan Stankoven to get Rantanen. They then signed him to an eight-year contract worth $12 million annually.

“It’s two things: It’s where our team’s at, and it’s Mikko Rantanen,” Stars general manager Jim Nill told ESPN back in March.

Rantanen finished the regular season with five goals and 18 points in 20 games prior to the showdown with his former team.

Not only did Rantanen’s hat trick condemn his former team to their second first-round exit since winning the Stanley Cup, but it continued a theme of former Avalanche eliminating their previous employers.

The Avalanche and Stars faced each other in last season’s Western Conference semifinal that saw Duchene, a former Colorado first-round pick, score the game-winning goal.

A year later, it was another former Avalanche first-round pick who delivered the devastating blow.

“It seems pretty fitting,” Johnston said about Rantanen. “Obviously, we want to win for each other and I think that goes a little extra when it’s a guy like that who is such a big part of our team and was there for a long time and everyone knows the trade that went on. It’s so awesome. We’re so happy as a group for him.”

As if Rantanen scoring a hat trick in a four-goal comeback wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that this is now the ninth consecutive Game 7 that Stars coach Peter DeBoer has won his career.

DeBoer’s nine wins in Game 7s broke a tie with Darryl Sutter for the most in NHL history. It was also DeBoer’s third game 7 wins with the Stars.

“I felt something was going to happen,” DeBoer said. “But I could not have predicted that.”

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Canes’ Andersen, 35, secures deal before Round 2

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Canes' Andersen, 35, secures deal before Round 2

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes have signed goaltender Frederik Andersen to a one-year contract for next season, worth $2.75 million for the 35-year-old veteran.

General manager Eric Tulsky announced the deal Saturday, a little over 48 hours before his team starts the second round of the playoffs against the Washington Capitals.

Andersen could earn up to $750,000 in incentives for games played and his participation in a potential run to the Eastern Conference finals next season. He would get $250,000 for playing 35 or more games, another $250,000 for getting to 40 and $250,000 if the Hurricanes reach the East finals and he plays in at least half of the playoff games.

“Frederik has played extremely well for us and ranks in the top 10 all-time for winning percentage by an NHL goalie,” Tulsky said. “We’re excited that he will be staying with the team for next season.”

Andersen and the Hurricanes, the No. 2 seed in the Metropolitan Division, advanced past the New Jersey Devils in Round 1 last week. They will meet the Capitals, who won the division crown, for the right to make the NHL’s final four.

Extending Andersen could give the team a goaltending tandem with Pyotr Kochetkov for less than $6 million combined.

Anderson, a Denmark native who previously played for the Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs, has become coach Rod Brind’Amour’s most trusted option in net. He is expected to return to the starting role for Game 1 of the Capitals series after getting injured in the first round against New Jersey.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sovereignty outduels Journalism to capture Derby

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Sovereignty outduels Journalism to capture Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Sovereignty outdueled 3-1 favorite Journalism down the stretch to win the 151st Kentucky Derby in the slop on Saturday.

Trainer Bill Mott won his first Derby in 2019, also run on a sloppy track, when Country House was elevated to first after Maximum Security crossed the finish line first and was disqualified after a 22-minute delay.

This time, he knew right away.

Sovereignty won by 1½ lengths and snapped an 0-for-13 Derby skid for owner Godolphin, the racing stable of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

It was quite a weekend for the sheikh. His filly, Good Cheer, won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday and earlier Saturday, Ruling Court won the 2,000 Guineas in Britain.

Sovereignty covered 1¼ miles in 2:02.31 and paid $17.96 to win at 7-1 odds.

Journalism found trouble in the first turn and jockey Umberto Rispoli moved him to the outside. He and Sovereignty hooked up at the eighth pole before Sovereignty and jockey Junior Alvarado pulled away.

Baeza was third, Final Gambit was fourth and Owen Almighty finished fifth.

Rain made for a soggy day, with the Churchill Downs dirt strip listed as sloppy and horse racing fans protecting their fancy hats and clothing with clear plastic ponchos.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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