Name | Gary Carter |
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Position | Catcher |
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Bats | Right |
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Throws | Right |
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Birth date | April 08, 1954 |
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Birth place | Culver City, California |
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Debutdate | September 16 |
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Debutyear | 1974 |
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Debutteam | Montreal Expos |
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Finaldate | September 27 |
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Finalyear | 1992 |
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Finalteam | Montreal Expos |
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Stat1label | Batting average |
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Stat1value | .262 |
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Stat2label | Home runs |
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Stat2value | 324 |
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Stat3label | Runs batted in |
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Stat3value | 1,225 |
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Teams |
Montreal Expos (–)
New York Mets (–)
San Francisco Giants ()
Los Angeles Dodgers ()
Montreal Expos () |
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Highlights |
World Series champion ()
11× All-Star (1975, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988)
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 |
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Hofdate | 2003 |
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Hofvote | 78.02%
}} |
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Gary Edmund Carter (born April 8, 1954), nicknamed
"Kid" and
"Kid Carter", is an
American former
Major League Baseball catcher. During a 19-year baseball career, mostly with the
Montreal Expos and the
New York Mets, Carter established himself as one of the premier catchers in the
National League, winning three
Gold Glove awards and five
Silver Slugger awards. He was inducted in the
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 2003 wearing the Expos cap.
Montreal Expos
Carter was drafted by the
Montreal Expos as a
shortstop in the third round of the
1972 Major League Baseball Draft. Prior to signing with the Expos, he had signed a letter of intent to play football at
UCLA. Carter recalled how he got his nickname, saying,
''Sporting News'' Rookie of the Year
The Expos converted Carter to a catcher in the minor leagues. In 1974, he clubbed 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
Parc Jarry 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, Carter's hitting improved dramatically after that. For the season, Carter batted .407 (11-27), hitting his first major league home run on September 28 against
Steve Carlton in a 3-1 victory over the
Philadelphia Phillies.
Carter split time between right field and catching his rookie season (), and was selected for the National League All-Star team as a right fielder. Though he did not get an at bat during the game, he came into the game 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.
Carter 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
Carter again split time in the outfield and behind the plate in , however, a broken finger limited him to just 91 games, in which he batted .219 with six home runs and 38 RBIs. For , new Expos manager
Dick Williams gave promising young stars
Warren Cromartie,
Ellis Valentine and
Andre Dawson outfield jobs. On June 15, the Expos traded starting catcher
Barry Foote to the Phillies, and Carter was given a permanent home behind the plate. He responded with 31 home runs and 84 RBIs.
In , 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.
First post season
Carter caught
Charlie Lea's
no-hitter on May 10, 1981, during the first half of the
strike shortened season. Following the two month strike, 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, and responded with two home runs and being named the game's
MVP. Carter was the fifth (and latest to date) player to hit two home runs in an All-Star Game, joining
Arky Vaughan (),
Ted Williams (),
Al Rosen (1954) &
Willie McCovey ().
MLB team owners decided to 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 would then move on to the two best-of-five League Championship Series. It was the first time that Major League Baseball used a split-season format since . The Expos won the NL East's second half with a 30-23 record.
In his first post season, Carter batted .421, clubbed 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, however, he had no home runs or RBIs, and his Expos lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.
season
Carter hit a second inning home run in the
1984 Major League Baseball All-Star Game to give the NL a 2-1 lead that they would not relinquish, and earn Carter his second All-Star game MVP award. Carter's 159
games played, .294
batting average, 175
hits and 290
total bases were all personal highs, as was his league leading 106 RBIs.
Despite these numbers from Carter, the 1984 Expos finished fifth in the NL East with a 78-83 record. Needing to rebuild, the Expos traded Carter at the end of the season to the New York Mets for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham and Floyd Youmans.
New York Mets
In his first game as a Met on April 9, 1985, he hit a tenth inning
walk-off home run off
Neil Allen to give the Mets a 6-5
Opening Day victory over the
St. Louis Cardinals. The Mets and Cardinals became embroiled in a heated rivalry atop the National League East, with Carter and
first baseman Keith Hernandez 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. Carter clubbed 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). Meanwhile, the "Redbirds" placed four players in the top ten (
Tommy Herr 5th,
John Tudor tied Hernandez at 8th,
Jack Clark 10th and winner
Willie McGee), as well as having the eleventh place finisher (
Vince Coleman).
Something of a rivalry developed between the Mets and Expos as well as a result of Carter's departure from Montreal. On July 30, while facing the Expos at Shea, Montreal pitcher Bill Gullickson sailed a pitch over Carter's head in the fifth inning, which drew boos from the Shea Stadium crowd. Though he denied it was retaliation, Gooden did the same to Gullickson in the bottom of the inning. Interestingly, Carter caught the ball as if he knew exactly where the pitch was going to end up.
1986 World Series Champions
Carter and the Mets would not be denied in , winning 108 games and taking the National League East convincingly by 21.5 games over the Phillies. 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 crushed two home runs over
Fenway Park's
Green Monster in Game Four, giving him the distinction of being the only player to date to have hit two home runs in 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, coming around to score 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.
Carter finished third on the NL MVP ballot in 1986.
300 career home runs
Carter batted only .235 in , and ended the season with 291 career home runs. He seemed determined to hit 300 career home run immediately, clubbing eight home runs by May 16 . However, it would take him until August 11 against the
Chicago Cubs at
Wrigley Field to reach the milestone. 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 the season with eleven home runs and 46 RBIs—both the lowest totals he'd put up in either category going back to his sophomore season in 1976. He also 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 over the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, both Hernandez and Carter were in the twilights of their careers, and the heavily favored Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 National League Championship Series. Carter batted only .183 in fifty games for the Mets in . On November 13, the Mets released Carter — a day after Keith Hernandez was granted free agency. Carter would play five seasons with the Mets hitting 89 home runs and driving in 349 runs. His first hit as a Met was a double into the left field corner at Shea Stadium on Opening Day, 1985. His last hit as a Met was a double into the left field corner at Shea Stadium on September 27, 1989.
Return to Montreal
After leaving the Mets, Carter enjoyed something of a resurgence in a platoon role with
Terry Kennedy on the San Francisco Giants in , batting .254 with nine home runs. Carter found himself again in a pennant race in , signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His club finished 93-69, one game behind the
Atlanta Braves in the
National League West.
At the end of the season, Carter returned to Montreal for his Swan song when the Expos selected Carter off waivers from the Dodgers. Carter was still nicknamed "Kid" by teammates despite his age of 38. The Expos 23-year-old second baseman Delino DeShields told Carter, "I grew up on you, man. You were like Wheaties to me. Eat my Wheaties and watch Gary Carter play baseball." 37 games into the season, the Expos fired manager Tom Runnells and replaced him with Felipe Alou. With Alou at the helm, the Expos went 70-55 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
After his retirement, Carter served as an
analyst for
Florida Marlins television broadcasts from 1993-1996. He appeared in the movie ''
The Last Home Run'' which was filmed in and released in .
Hall of Fame
Carter was inducted into the
New York Mets Hall of Fame in . In , 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 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 if he could have the plaque as half an Expo and half a Met, and though the media took it as one of his jokes, it was a legitimate debate as to with which team he would be associated. 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 had changed his mind by the time the moment arrived, and expressed a preference toward the Mets. 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. 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.
After the Expos moved to Washington, D.C. following the 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
Carter was named Gulf Coast League Manager of the Year his first season managing the
Gulf Coast Mets in . A year later, he was promoted to the A-level
St. Lucie Mets, and guided his team to the
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
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. 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.
The next season Carter was named head baseball coach for the NCAA Division II Palm Beach Atlantic University Sailfish.
Personal life
Carter is an alumnus of
Sunny Hills High School in
Fullerton, CA.
Carter has been married to his wife, Sandy, since 1975. They have three children—Christy, Kimmy and D.J., and three grandchildren. They reside in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
His daughter Kimmy is the head softball coach at Palm Beach Atlantic and was a softball catcher for Florida State from -.
Carter also has been a very active philanthropist. Through The Gary Carter Foundation, of which Gary Carter is the President, Carter and his staff support 8 Title I schools in Palm Beach County whose students live immersed in poverty. Typically these schools will 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.
In May 2011, Carter was diagnosed with four malignant tumors in his brain after complaining of headaches and forgetfulness. Doctors confirmed that he has Stage 4 glioblastoma, an extremely aggressive cancer. Doctors say that it is inoperable and Carter will undergo other treatment methods to shrink his tumor.
A special web site has been set up where fans can leave messages of support for Carter and his family.
See also
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
List of Major League Baseball retired numbers
List of top 300 Major League Baseball home run hitters
List of major league players with 2,000 hits
List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
DHL Hometown Heroes
References
External links
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
The Official Website of the Gary Carter Foundation
Ultimate Mets Database: Gary Carter
Category:1954 births
Category:Living people
Category:American Christians
Category:American expatriate baseball people in Canada
Category:Baseball players from California
Category:Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Cocoa Expos players
Category:Florida Marlins broadcasters
Category:Gold Glove Award winners
Category:Los Angeles Dodgers players
Category:Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVPs
Category:Major League Baseball announcers
Category:Major League Baseball catchers
Category:Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Category:Memphis Blues players
Category:Montreal Expos broadcasters
Category:Montreal Expos players
Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Category:National League All-Stars
Category:National League RBI champions
Category:New York Mets players
Category:Peninsula Whips players
Category:Québec Carnavals players
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Category:Tidewater Tides players
Category:West Palm Beach Expos players
fr:Gary Carter
ja:ゲーリー・カーター