Tribute to Gary Carter. In memoriam Renato Dulbecco. Remembering Elyse Knox.
Montreal's Only
Expo In The
Hall Of Fame
Tribute to
Gary Carter.
In memoriam Renato Dulbecco.
Remembering Elyse Knox.
Gary Carter was the greatest player who ever played for the
Montreal Expos.
The Expos were the first
Canadian franchise, formed in
1969 and the team existed until 2004 when they became the
Washington Nationals.
Carter was their
Hall of Fame catcher and he later went on to play for the great
New York Mets teams of the
1980's. Renato Dulbecco was one of the great virologists of the
20th Century and he won the
Nobel Prize in
1975 for his work on reverse transcriptase, which was to prove invaluable in the
AIDS epidemic that would soon emerge. Elyse Knox was a beautiful B-picture actress, who has an amazing show business pedigree.
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 hitting and 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]. He was inducted in the
National Baseball Hall of Fame in
2003.
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).
1986 World Series Champions
Main article:
1986 New York Mets season
In 1986, the Mets won
108 games and took the National League East by 21½ 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 Game 6 which the Mets won in 16 innings.[13]
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 both an
All-Star Game (
1981) and a World Series game. Carter started a two-out rally in the tenth inning of Game 6, 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.[14] Carter finished third on the NL MVP ballot in 1986.[13]
[edit]
300 career home runs
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.
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.[15][better source needed] The Expos went 87-75 and finished second behind the
Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League East.