Keith Hernandez
Hernandez broadcasting a Mets game in 2010.
First baseman
Born: (1953-10-20) October 20, 1953 (age 58) San Francisco, California
Batted: Left	Threw: Left
MLB debut
August 30, 1974 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Last MLB appearance
July 24, 1990 for the Cleveland Indians
Career statistics
Batting average	.296
Home runs	162
Runs batted in	1,071
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (1974–1983) New York Mets (1983–1989) Cleveland Indians (1990)
Career highlights and awards
5× All-Star (1979, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1987) NL batting champion (1979) National League Most Valuable Player (1979) 11 consecutive Gold Glove Awards (1978–1988) 2× Silver Slugger Award winner (1980, 1984) 2× National League Player of the Month (August 1979 & July 1985) 2× World Series champion (1982, 1986)

Keith Barlow Hernandez (born October 20, 1953) is a former Major League Baseball (MLB) player who was the starting first baseman on World Series championship teams with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982 and the New York Mets in 1986. He began his career in the majors with the Cardinals in 1974, winning the National League (NL) batting title and sharing the circuit's Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors with Willie Stargell in 1979. After a midseason trade sent him to the Mets in 1983, he became the undisputed leader amongst the players of the brash ballclub that also fell a victory short of capturing the 1988 NL Championship Series.^[1]

Hernandez appeared in five MLB All-Star Games and hit better than .300 six times between 1979 and 1987. Generally considered one of the best defensive players at his position, he was awarded the Gold Glove in eleven consecutive seasons from 1978 to 1988, the most by any first baseman in baseball history. He retired as an active player after spending one year with the Cleveland Indians in 1990.

Currently a baseball analyst working on Mets telecasts for SportsNet New York and WPIX since 2006, he has gained a cult following from his broadcasting career.

Early life[link]

Hernandez was born in San Francisco, and grew up in Pacifica and Millbrae, California. He attended Terra Nova High School in Pacifica during his freshman year, then transferred to Capuchino High School in nearby San Bruno for the remainder of his high school years. Hernandez was a star athlete in high school and graduated in 1971. One of his teammates at Terra Nova High School was future major league pitcher Bob McClure, who had also played Little League baseball with him when they were younger.^[2] Given his surname, and the fact that he is from California, it was incorrectly assumed that Hernandez was of Mexican descent, and he was nicknamed Mex by his teammates. In actuality, his father is Spanish and his mother is Scots-Irish.

Hernandez was perceived as having poor attitude issues because he sat out his entire senior year of high school due to a dispute with a coach. He played briefly at the College of San Mateo, a local community college, before he was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 42nd round of the 1971 Major League Baseball Draft as the 783rd player selected.^[3] He batted and threw left-handed, and through most of his career was listed as being 6' tall (1.83m) and 195 lbs. (88.5 kg).^[4]

St. Louis Cardinals[link]

Hernandez's batting average hovered around .250 for most of his minor league career, until his promotion to the Tulsa Oilers in the second half of the 1973 season. With the Cardinals' triple-A affiliate, Hernandez batted .333 with five home runs and a .525 slugging percentage. The following season, Hernandez's average jumped to .351, earning him a promotion to the big league club. He made his major league debut at Candlestick Park on August 30, 1974 against the San Francisco Giants, going 1-2 with two walks, and earning his first major league RBI with a single in the ninth.^[5] Following the season, the Cards traded first baseman Joe Torre to the New York Mets for Tommy Moore and Ray Sadecki to make room for their budding young prospect.

Hernandez ended up splitting 1975 between Tulsa and the Cardinals. Though his fielding was spectacular (.996 fielding percentage with only two errors in 507 chances), Hernandez struggled with major league pitching, batting only .250 with three home runs and twenty RBIs.

Hernandez wore uniform number 18 for the first two years of his career. In 1976, he switched to number 37, insisting that his uniform number end with a "7" in honor of Mickey Mantle (with whom he shared a birthday). While Hernandez became more comfortable with his bat, he was always recognized as a fielder first, snatching his first Gold Glove Award away from perennial winner Steve Garvey in 1978 (the first of eleven consecutive seasons he would win the award, a record for first basemen). In 1979, however, Hernandez's bat exploded as he led the league with a .344 batting average, 48 doubles, and 116 runs scored, and went on to share the National League's Most Valuable Player Award with Willie Stargell.

From there, Hernandez became a perennial .300 hitter, and one of the top stars in the National League. His Cardinals won the 1982 World Series, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games. In Game 6, Hernandez and Cardinal catcher Darrell Porter hit home runs in a 13-1 St. Louis victory. Hernandez also contributed eight RBIs during the seven-game World Series.

After multiple disagreements with Cardinal management, most notably manager Whitey Herzog, Hernandez was traded to the Mets on June 15, 1983 for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Herzog felt that Hernandez had become a cancer on his team and never regretted the trade.^[6] He soon replaced Hernandez at first base with fellow All-Star Jack Clark and won two more pennants in the next four years.

New York Mets[link]

The Mets had retired number 37 for former manager Casey Stengel, so Hernandez switched to number 17 upon joining the club, which he wore for the remainder of his career. As a result of this trade, Hernandez went from a World Series champion to a team that narrowly avoided a hundred losses (68-94), and consistently finished at the bottom of the National League East. Hernandez, however, was determined to prove Herzog wrong, helping to fuel a rivalry between the two teams in the mid-1980s.

Under new manager Davey Johnson, the 1984 Mets did a complete 180, finishing 90-72, and six games ahead of the Cardinals in the NL East (6.5 games behind division winner Chicago Cubs). Hernandez finished second in the NL Most Valuable Player voting behind Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg, and emerged as the Captain of the Mets' young core of ballplayers that included 1983 Rookie of the Year Darryl Strawberry, Ron Darling, Wally Backman and 1984 Rookie of the Year, Dwight Gooden.

Hernandez had such a strong and accurate throwing arm that, as a result, the Mets re-routed their relays through him. Due to his quick instincts, Hernandez was also able to play farther off first base than other first basemen, allowing the other infielders to play farther to their right.

Hernandez played so aggressively at first base that he occasionally discouraged opponents to bunt merely by reputation. Pete Rose, when he managed the Cincinnati Reds, compared bunting against Hernandez to "driving the lane against Bill Russell." Astros manager Hal Lanier said the combination of Hernandez at first and any one of three Mets pitchers— Ron Darling, Roger McDowell or Jesse Orosco— made bunting against the Mets "near impossible," and Cubs manager Jim Frey said he wouldn't ask most pitchers to bunt against the Mets. "You're just asking for a forceout at second, and now you've got your pitcher running the bases," he said.

Hernandez also revolutionized the position— until umpires disallowed what he did— by taking pickoff throws while essentially squatting in foul territory so that he could make tags to his right more readily. Positioning oneself in foul territory is now illegal, according to official baseball rules, which state that all defensive players except the catcher must be positioned in fair territory while the ball is pitched.

Pittsburgh drug trials[link]

In 1985, Hernandez's cocaine use, which had been the subject of persistent rumors and the chief source of friction between Hernandez and Herzog, became a matter of public record as a result of the Pittsburgh trial of drug dealer Curtis Strong. Hernandez has since made a successful recovery.

In the meantime, the Mets and Cardinals became embroiled in a heated rivalry atop the National League East, with Hernandez and newly acquired All-star catcher Gary Carter leading the charge for the Mets. The season came down to the wire as the Mets won 98 games that season, however, they narrowly lost the division to a Cardinals team that won 101 games. The Mets had three players finish in the top ten in NL MVP balloting that season (Gooden 4th, Carter 6th and Hernandez 8th). Meanwhile, the "Redbirds" placed four players in the top ten (Tommy Herr 5th, John Tudor tied Hernandez at 8th, Clark 10th and winner Willie McGee), as well as having the eleventh place finisher (Vince Coleman).

Hernandez set a record for game winning RBIs in 1985 with 24, a statistic that was only official from 1980–1988 (the previous record was 22 by the Chicago White Sox's Harold Baines in 1983). His career total is 129, which is also a record. Hernandez credits his father, who played ball with Stan Musial when they were both in the Navy during World War II, for helping him out of a batting slump in 1985. His father would observe his at-bats on TV and note than when Keith was hitting well, he could see both the "1" and the "7" on his uniform on his back as he began to stride into the pitch. Not seeing both numbers meant Keith was bailing out on inside pitches, trying too hard to pull the ball, and vulnerable to outside fastballs or outside breaking pitches.

1986 World Series Champions[link]

Hernandez and the Mets would not be denied in 1986, winning 108 games and taking the National League East convincingly by 21.5 games over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets won the 1986 World Series in seven games over the Boston Red Sox. Hernandez batted only .231, and recorded the second out in the now legendary tenth inning of game six of that World Series. On the Mets' World Champion team in 1986, Carter and Hernandez finished third and fourth, respectively, in NL MVP balloting.

Team captain[link]

Given his "Mickey Mantlesque" approach to playing baseball in New York, and the celebrity status that comes with it, Hernandez became the poster-boy for the "party hard; play harder" Mets of the '80s. In 1987, Davey Johnson named Hernandez the first team captain in franchise history. A season after the "C" was added to Hernandez's uniform, Carter was named co-captain.

In 1988, Hernandez won his eleventh and final Gold Glove, and led his team to another division crown. The heavily favored Mets, however, lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 National League Championship Series. Both Hernandez and Carter were in the twi-lights of their careers as back, knee and hamstring problems limited Hernandez to only 95 games. Carter, meanwhile, batted .242 for the season, and famously struggled to hit his 300th career home run.

Hernandez's batting average fell to .233 in only 75 games for the 1989 Mets. The Mets chose not to re-sign him after his contract ran out at the close of the 1989 season, and on November 13, he was granted free agency. A day later, the Mets released Carter.

Eleven different Met players have worn his number 17 in the 16 seasons since Hernandez left, most notably pitcher David Cone. In 1991, Cone switched from 44 to 17 in tribute to Hernandez^{[citation needed]}. Former teammates Ron Darling, Bob Ojeda and Roger McDowell have also worn number 17 in tribute to Hernandez for teams they played for after leaving the Mets.

Cleveland Indians[link]

Hernandez signed with the Cleveland Indians for the 1990 season. He appeared in 45 games for the Tribe, batting only .200 with one home run and eight RBIs. He retired at the end of the season.

Retirement[link]

Hernandez has written three books, "If at First: A Season With the Mets" (his diary of the 1985 New York Mets season), "Pure Baseball: Pitch by Pitch for the Advanced Fan" and Shea Good-Bye: The Untold Inside Story of the Historic 2008 Season. "Pure Baseball" gives fans a detailed pitch-by-pitch player's look into baseball strategy.

Hall of Fame candidacy[link]

Hernandez batted over .300 seven times in his career, and led the National League in runs scored (1979 & 1980), doubles (1979), on-base percentage (1980) and walks (1986) throughout his career. He also won 11 Gold Glove awards for his glovework at first base, setting a Major League record for the position that still stands. However, he never received enough support from the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2004, after nine years on the ballot, he received votes from fewer than 6% of the writers, thus ending his eligibility. Hernandez may still be considered for induction by the Veterans Committee in 2011, twenty years after his retirement. He was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1997, and was voted Mets' all-time first baseman by fans in celebration of the team's 40th anniversary in 2002.

[edit] Seinfeld

Hernandez guest starred as himself in "The Boyfriend," a two-part 1992 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. In the episode, Hernandez dated Julia Louis-Dreyfus's character Elaine Benes, and Jerry Seinfeld developed the male-bonding equivalent of a crush on him. A subplot of the episode spoofed the "Magic Bullet Theory" from the JFK assassination. According to the show, on June 14, 1987, the Mets were playing the Philadelphia Phillies at Shea Stadium, and Hernandez committed an error in the ninth inning, allowing the Phillies to score five runs and costing the Mets the game. Hernandez exited the player's gate, where Kramer (Michael Richards) and Newman (Wayne Knight) were waiting and Newman heckled Hernandez with "Nice game, pretty boy!" Kramer and Newman then spent the next five years claiming that Hernandez had spat on them, when in fact they learned that it was really Roger McDowell – a "second spitter", just as Jerry had postulated.^[7] Hernandez also appeared in the final episode of Seinfeld, which aired in 1998. ESPN Columnist Bill Simmons coined the phrase "having a Keith Hernandez Moment" in reference to Hernandez' Seinfeld appearance where he recovers from a moment of self-doubt by simply reminding himself: "I'm Keith Hernandez!"^[8]

Aside from Seinfeld, Hernandez also appeared in a 1994 episode of Law & Order entitled "Wager" and the movies The Scout and The Yards.

SNY broadcaster[link]

Hernandez in 2011.

Hernandez is now a baseball commentator serving as an analyst for Mets' television broadcasts on SNY and WPIX (WPIX games are produced by SNY). A television advertisement for SNY Sports referred to Hernandez's mustache by imagining a celebration known as "Keith Hernandez Day" at which all attendees are required to wear authentic Keith Hernandez mustaches. One sports fan, who refuses to respect the day by wearing a mustache, is met by the steely, disapproving stare of Hernandez himself.^[9] Hernandez admitted that he never wore eyeblack while playing because he had high cheekbones.^[10] Hernandez felt his mustache reduced glare thereby eliminating the need for eyeblack. In 2007 Hernandez won the "Mustache Madness" contest on newsday.com, and the American Mustache Institute chose his facial hair as the "top sports mustache ever".^[11]

On April 22, 2006, Hernandez created a controversy during the broadcast of a game against the San Diego Padres. After witnessing Padres team massage therapist Kelly Calabrese giving San Diego catcher Mike Piazza a high five in the dugout after he hit a home run, Hernandez said, "Who is the girl in the dugout, with the long hair? What's going on here? You have got to be kidding me. Only player personnel in the dugout." After Hernandez was informed later in the broadcast that Calabrese was a club employee, he maintained his position, stating, "I won't say that women belong in the kitchen, but they don't belong in the dugout." After the game, San Diego manager Bruce Bochy expressed displeasure with Hernandez's comments.^[12] Hernandez apologized and alluded to his words being nothing more than tomfoolery by saying, "You know I am only teasing. I love you gals out there — always have."

Hernandez, along with Gary Cohen and Darling, has created a website, www.pitchinforagoodcause.org where the net profit from the merchandise sold by the website goes to the Cobble Hill Health Center, Juvenile Diabetes Research Center, and The Danbury Women's Center. Hernandez is also a strong supporter of the Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter. His mother, Jacqueline Hernandez, lost a nine-year battle with Alzheimer's in 1989.

Hernandez won two 2010 New York Emmys. He won an individual award for Sports Analyst and as part of the SNY Mets broadcast team which won the "Live Sports Event: Series 2009 Mets: The Inaugural Year of Citi Field" award.^[13]

Commercial appearances[link]

Hernandez and Walt Frazier have appeared in several television commercials for Just for Men, a men's hair-coloring product.^[11]

Hernandez has appeared in television commercials for Coin Galleries of Oyster Bay, a coin dealer located in Oyster Bay, New York. In the ads, he says that Coin Galleries is "where you can turn your pot of gold into a pot of cash."

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Baseball portal

• List of major league players with 2,000 hits
• List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
• Hitting for the cycle
• List of Major League Baseball batting champions
• List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions
• List of Major League Baseball doubles champions
• List of doping cases in sport

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Keith Hernandez

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling's charity website
• Ultimate Mets Database: Keith Hernandez
• Keith H
• What Would Keith Do?
• I'm Keith Hernandez/A Film by Rob Perri
• Keith Hernandez at the Internet Movie Database

Gary Carter
Carter on the field prior to Game 1 of the 2008 Golden Baseball League Championship Series.
Catcher
Born: (1954-04-08)April 8, 1954 Culver City, California
Died: February 16, 2012(2012-02-16) (aged 57) Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 16, 1974 for the Montreal Expos
Last MLB appearance
September 27, 1992 for the Montreal Expos
Career statistics
Batting average	.262
Home runs	324
Runs batted in	1,225
Teams
Montreal Expos (1974–1984) New York Mets (1985–1989) San Francisco Giants (1990) Los Angeles Dodgers (1991) Montreal Expos (1992)
Career highlights and awards
11× All-Star (1975, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988) World Series champion (1986) 3× Gold Glove Award winner (1980, 1981, 1982) 5× Silver Slugger Award winner (1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986) 2× MLB All-Star Game MVP (1981, 1984) 1989 Roberto Clemente Award Montreal Expos #8 retired
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	2003
Vote	78.02%

Gary Edmund Carter (April 8, 1954 – February 16, 2012^[1]) was an American professional baseball catcher whose 21-year career was spent primarily with the Montreal Expos and New York Mets. Nicknamed "Kid" for his youthful exuberance, Carter was named an All-Star 11 times, and was a member of one World Series championship team.

Known throughout his career for his hard hitting as well has his excellent defense behind the plate, Carter made a major contribution to the Mets' World Series championship in 1986, including a 12th-inning single against the Houston Astros that won Game 5 of the NLCS and a 10th-inning single against the Boston Red Sox to start the fabled comeback rally in Game 6 of the World Series. He is one of only three people ever to be named captain of the Mets, and he had his number retired by the Expos.^[2]

After retiring from baseball, Carter coached baseball at the college and minor-league level. He was inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.

Early life[link]

Carter was born in Culver City, California in 1954 to Jim Carter, an aircraft worker, and his wife, Inge. When Gary was 12, Inge died of leukemia. He attended high school at Sunny Hills High School, in Fullerton, CA, where he played football as a quarterback and baseball as an infielder. After receiving more than 100 scholarships for athletics,^[3] Carter signed a letter of intent to play football at University of California, Los Angeles, but instead signed with the Montreal Expos after they drafted him in the 1972 Major League Baseball Draft.^[3][4]

Montreal Expos[link]

Carter was drafted by the Montreal Expos as a shortstop in the third round of the 1972 Major League Baseball Draft. Carter got his nickname "Kid"^[5] during his first spring training camp with the Expos in 1974.

Rookie season[link]

The Expos converted Carter to a catcher in the minor leagues.^[6] In 1974, he hit 23 home runs and drove in 83 runs for the Expos' triple-A affiliate, the Memphis Blues. Following a September call-up, Carter made his major league debut in Jarry Park in Montreal in the second game of a double header against the New York Mets on September 16. Despite going 0–4 in that game, his finished the season batting .407 (11-27). He hit his first major league home run on September 28 against Steve Carlton in a 3–1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.^[7]

Carter split time between right field and catching his rookie season (1975), and was selected for the National League All-Star team as a right fielder. He did not get an at bat, but appeared as a defensive replacement for Pete Rose in the ninth inning, and caught Rod Carew's fly ball for the final out of the NL's 6–3 victory.^[8] He hit .270 with 17 home runs and 68 runs batted in, and finished second to San Francisco Giants pitcher John Montefusco for the National League Rookie of the Year award and receiving The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award.

Expos catcher[link]

Carter again split time in the outfield and behind the plate in 1976 while a broken finger limited him to 91 games. He batted .219 with six home runs and 38 RBIs. In 1977, young stars Warren Cromartie, Ellis Valentine and Andre Dawson became full-time outfielders. By June, starting catcher Barry Foote was traded, opening up a reqular starting position for Carter behind the plate. He responded with 31 home runs and 84 RBIs. In 1980, Carter clubbed 29 home runs, drove in 101 runs, and earned the first of his three consecutive Gold Glove Awards. He finished second to third baseman Mike Schmidt in NL MVP balloting, whose Phillies took the National League East by one game over the Expos.

Carter caught Charlie Lea's no-hitter on May 10, 1981,^[9] during the first half of the strike shortened season. The season resumed on Sunday, August 9, 1981 with the All-Star Game. Carter was elected to start his first All Star Game over perennial NL starting catcher Johnny Bench who had moved to play first base that year, and responded with two home runs and being named the game's MVP. Carter was the fifth and most recent player to hit two home runs in an All-Star Game.

MLB split the 1981 season into two halves, with the first-place teams from each half in each division meeting in a best-of-five divisional playoff series. The four survivors moved on to two best-of-five League Championship Series. The Expos won the NL East's second half with a 30–23 record. In his first post season, Carter batted .421, hit two home runs and drove in six in the Expos' three games to two victory over the Phillies in the division series. Carter's average improved to .438 in the 1981 National League Championship Series, with no home runs or RBIs, and his Expos lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.

[edit] 1984 season

Carter hit a home run in the 1984 Major League Baseball All-Star Game to give the NL a 2–1 lead that they would not relinquish, earning him his second All-Star game MVP award. Carter's league leading 106 RBIs, 159 games played, .294 batting average, 175 hits and 290 total bases were personal highs. The 1984 Expos finished fifth in the NL East, and the rebuilding Expos traded Carter at the end of the season to the Mets for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham and Floyd Youmans.

New York Mets[link]

In his first game as a Met on April 9, 1985, he hit a tenth inning home run off Neil Allen to give the Mets a 6–5 Opening Day victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Mets and Cardinals rivaled for the National League East championship, with Carter and first baseman Keith Hernandez leading the Mets. The season came down to the wire as the Mets won 98 games that season, however, they lost the division to a Cardinals team that won 101 games. Carter hit a career high 32 home runs and drove in 100 runs his first season in New York. The Mets had three players finish in the top ten in NL MVP balloting that season (Dwight Gooden 4th, Carter 6th and Hernandez 8th).

A rivalry also developed between the Mets and Carter's former team, the Expos. On July 30 while facing the Expos at Shea, Montreal pitcher Bill Gullickson threw a pitch over Carter's head. Gooden did the same to Gullickson in the bottom of the inning. The Los Angeles Times speculated that Carter caught the ball as if he knew where the pitch was going to end up.^[10]

1986 World Series Champions[link]

In 1986, Carter's Mets won 108 games and took the National League East by 21.5 games over the Phillies. Carter suffered a postseason slump in the NLCS, batting .148. However, he hit a walk-off RBI single to win Game 5. Carter also had two hits in the next game which the Mets won in 16 innnings.^[11]

The Mets won the 1986 World Series in seven games over the Boston Red Sox. Carter batted .276 with nine RBIs in his first World Series, and hit two home runs over Fenway Park's Green Monster in Game Four. He is the only player to hit two home runs in an All-Star Game (1981) and two home runs in a World Series game. Carter started a two-out rally in the tenth inning of Game Six, scoring the first of three Mets runs that inning on a single by Ray Knight. He also hit an eighth-inning sacrifice fly that tied the game.^[12] Carter finished third on the NL MVP ballot in 1986.^[11]

300 career home runs[link]

Carter batted .235 in 1987, and ended the season with 291 career home runs. He had 299 home runs by May 16 1988 after a fast start, then slumped until August 11 against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field when he hit his 300th. During his home run drought, Carter was named co-captain of the team with Hernandez, who had been named captain the previous season.

Carter ended 1988 with 11 home runs and 46 RBIs—his lowest totals since 1976. He ended the season with 10,360 career putouts as a catcher, breaking Detroit Tigers catcher Bill Freehan's career mark (9941). The Mets won 100 games that season, taking the NL East by fifteen games, however the heavily favored Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 National League Championship Series. Carter batted .183 in fifty games for the Mets in 1989. In November the Mets released Carter after five seasons, hitting 89 home runs and driving in 349 runs.

Return to Montreal[link]

After leaving the Mets, Carter platooned with catcher Terry Kennedy on the San Francisco Giants in 1990, batting .254 with nine home runs. He found himself again in a pennant race in 1991 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who finished one game behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League West.

At the end of the season, Carter returned to Montreal for his final season off waivers from the Dodgers. Carter was still nicknamed "Kid" by teammates despite his age. In his last at-bat, he hit a double over the head of Chicago Cub right-fielder Andre Dawson, the only other person to go into the Hall of Fame as an Expo.^[13] The Expos went 87-75 and finished second behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League East.

Carter had a .991 fielding percentage as a catcher and 11,785 career putouts. He ranks sixth all-time in career home runs by a catcher with 298.

Post-playing career[link]

After his retirement as a player, Carter served as an analyst for Florida Marlins television broadcasts from 1993 to 1996. He also appeared in the movie The Last Home Run (1998) which was filmed in 1996.^[14]

Hall of Fame[link]

Gary Carter's number 8 was retired by the Montreal Expos in 2003.

Carter was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 2001.^[15] In 2003, Carter was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame along with Kirk McCaskill, and his number eight was retired by the Expos and is tacitly recognized on the facade of Nationals Park in Washington, D.C..

In his sixth year on the ballot, Gary Carter was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Eddie Murray on January 7, 2003. Carter had originally requested to have the plaque as half an Expo and half a Met, and though the media took it as one of his jokes, there was legitimate debate as to with which team he would be associated.^[16] Carter himself had expressed a preference to be inducted as an Expo during his final season; however, given the uncertainty of the Expo franchise, and Carter's having worked for the Mets organization since retiring as a player, winning his only World Series title with the Mets, and becoming a media celebrity during his stint in New York, Carter was unsure.The final decision rested with the Hall of Fame, and Hall president Dale Petroskey declared that Carter's achievements with the Expos over twelve season had earned his induction, whereas his play during his five seasons with the Mets by itself would not have.^[17] Mets fans pointed to the induction of Reggie Jackson with a New York Yankees cap, despite playing the majority of his career with the Oakland A's as precedent, but Carter ultimately was inducted with the Expos cap. At the induction ceremony, Carter spoke a few words of French, thanking fans in Montreal for the great honor and pleasure of playing in that city, though he also took great care to note the Mets' 1986 championship as the highlight of his career.

After the Expos moved to Washington, D.C. following the 2004 season, a banner displaying Carter's number along with those of Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Rusty Staub was hung from the rafters at the Bell Centre, home of the NHL's Montreal Canadiens. While the Mets have not retired number eight, it has remained unused since Carter's election to the Hall of Fame.

Coaching[link]

Carter was named Gulf Coast League Manager of the Year his first season managing the Gulf Coast Mets in 2005. A year later, he was promoted to the A-level St. Lucie Mets, and guided his team to the 2006 Florida State League championship, again earning Manager of the Year honors. In recent years, Carter has been criticized, most notably by former co-captain Keith Hernandez, for twice openly campaigning for the Mets' managerial position while it was still occupied by incumbents Art Howe in 2004, and in 2008 Willie Randolph.

In 2008, he managed the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League, and again guided his team to the GBL Championship and was named Manager of the Year. For the following season Carter was named manager of the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.^[18] The Ducks won the 2009 second half Liberty Division title, however, they were defeated by the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in the Liberty Division playoffs.^[19] The next season Carter was named head baseball coach for the NCAA Division II Palm Beach Atlantic University Sailfish.

Personal life[link]

Carter attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California. He was married to his wife, Sandy, from 1975 until his death in 2012. They had three children.

His daughter Kimmy is the head softball coach at Palm Beach Atlantic^[20], and was a softball catcher for Florida State from 1999-2002.^[21]

Carter was an active philanthropist. Through The Gary Carter Foundation, of which Carter was the president, Carter and his staff support 8 Title I schools in Palm Beach County whose students live in poverty. Typically, these schools have 90% or more students eligible for free or reduced lunches. The Foundation seeks to "better the physical, mental and spiritual well being of children." To accomplish this, they advocate "school literacy by encouraging use of the Reading Counts Program, a program that exists in the Palm Beach County School District". Since its inception, The Gary Carter Foundation has placed over $622,000 toward charitable purposes, including $366,000 to local elementary schools for their reading programs.^{[citation needed]}

Illness and death[link]

In May 2011, Carter was diagnosed with four malignant tumors in his brain after complaining of headaches and forgetfulness. Doctors confirmed that he had a grade IV primary brain tumor glioblastoma multiforme, an extremely aggressive cancer. Doctors said that it was inoperable and Carter would undergo other treatment methods to shrink his tumor.^[22][23] On January 20, 2012, daughter Kimmy posted on her blog that an MRI had revealed additional tumors on her father's brain. Even as he battled an aggressive form of brain cancer, Carter did not miss Opening Day for the college baseball team he coached.^[24]

Carter died on February 16, 2012, having lost his battle with brain cancer. He was 57 years old.^[25]

On February 25, 2012, the Mets announced that they were adding a memorial patch to their uniforms for the entire 2012 season in honor of Carter. The patch features a black home plate with the number 8 and "KID" inscribed on it. ^[26] For the Mets' opening day on April 5, 2012, the Carter family unveiled a similar patch design on the center field wall of Citi Field (the wall design differs in that it has a thin white border around the black plate).