From when the Mets still didn't quite know what to do with Eddie: A 1984 piece reprinted by Mets Merized Online visited the lion somewhat shy of winter. Of course, after playing 17 years for the Mets, Ed Kranepool knows plenty about suffering; adversity was what the Mets were all about, so after a while, you develop a taste for crow. But now that this Metsian legend has hit 40, doesn�t nostalgia dictate that Kranepool have a taste of glory, or at the very least chicken, at a dinner in his honor. �I don�t need them to give me a dinner,� Kranepool says simply, but not very convincingly. Jim Schiaffo, the man who once hit Eddie grounders at Christmas, feels differently. �I�m personally disappointed,� says Schiaffo about the Mets� oversight. �Seventeen years with the team, and no recognition. They didn�t even buy this kid a sport jacket, for God�s sake.� �I hope that someday they will give him a day,� says ex-wife Carole. �I think it would take away some of the bitterness he feels about leaving the team. He�s hurting.�