In Memoriam: Gary Carter
Very sad to hear that Gary Carter, a.k.a. “The Kid”, passed away. My condolences, for what it’s worth, to his family, friends, and former teammates.
I remember watching Gary Carter and those great Mets teams on WOR with my dad. We became Mets fans in ’84 and ’85, when exciting young players like Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry made the team.
I think of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, and how Gary Carter kept the Mets alive in the 10th inning. It was a magical moment that still holds up to this day.
I remember my dad and I rooting for Gary Carter to hit home run # 300 back in ’88 or ’89. I learned a lot about the aging process watching Carter that year, a once-proud power hitter who couldn’t get past home run 299 for like three months. We were so thrilled when he finally hit that home run in August of that season.
I recall how Gary Carter was blasted for his announcing. I guess he didn’t have a lot of friends amongst TV/Radio Critics. Personally, I still don’t understand how Tim McCarver gets to be a color commentator, but Gary Carter didn’t rate according to the experts.
I appreciated what Daryl Strawberry had to say about Carter on WFAN. He called everyone out who accused Gary of being a phony. The bottom line was that Carter never cheated on his wife, never partied, and he never gave in to temptation while on the road. He was a good man.
Here’s the Strawberry interview with Mike Francesa:
I’m not sure if Gary Carter was an Enneagram Type 3. That might explain why he came across as a phony to some people, but he was clearly faithful to his wife and his God. He was accused of wanting to look good in front of the camera, but you know what? If you are constantly going out of your way to sign autographs, do charity work, and stay faithful, that’s more than just trying to look good. That’s a real person.
Carter is a human being. If you’re in the spotlight and are a phony, you’re eventually going to get caught. I think Gary Carter was a non-controversial guy who was genuinely nice. I am glad to have seen Carter from a distance, and appreciate the good life he lived. He will be missed, and I think his life should inspire us to be a little better, every day.
Side-note: for all the people who think everyone has some kind of vice, is getting drunk, cheating on their wives, doing drugs, whatever: Gary Carter is an exception to your cynical rules about life.
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I am glad you tackled the narrative and personal story of Gary Carter- all I could do was the stat post because that’s what time permitted me. But I have time now to talk about the so-called “bad” version of Carter.
Even an MLB.com obituary written by Marty Noble called him a “complex” man who needed to hear cheers and to get credit where credit is due.
See, dumb Mets journalists and skewed Mets fans made HUGE issues out of drama stories like Carter and Keith not liking being co-captains. Carter even was mocked for curtain calls, which is now an EVERY DAY baseball tradition.
As a kid I NEVER UNDERSTOOD why Carter rubbed people the wrong way. He seemed like a boy scout and poster boy for wholesome entertainment. As I got older, I saw that some people just don’t like CONFIDENCE- it makes them feel inferior.
Carter also rubbed the Mets wrong by celebrating his Expos heritage in the HOF.
Not sure why Marty Noble had to paint Carter in such a light:
“But he…had to crow, too. So teammates called him “I-me.” Opponents used that and other terms.”
I am not saying a person’s history should be whitewashed or retconned just because he or she died, but Marty Noble and the other old school Mets writers and radio people back in the day really took away from Carter’s legacy by focusing on gossip and his “phoniness”. Was he really PHONY if he believed it? And can he be faulted for having that view if he really WAS the top catcher in baseball??
For some reason Reggie Jackson, Ricky Henderson, and (to an extent) Cal Ripken were praised for being selfish and egotistical behavior. [Ripken's streak was selfish, not selfLESS- there's no question about it.]
Meanwhile guys like Carter, George Brett, Wade Boggs, and Roger Clemens were called out for being self-centered players who only cared about “stats” and attention.
Carter’s family seemed to have made jokes about how Gary would always tell stories after he retired about how great he was and how he was the center of everything. Bob Ojeda made some friendly well-meaning jokes about it too. SO there is no doubt that’s who Gary was. I do recall when Gary wanted the Mets managerial job (unsolicited) before Willie was fired, and it was weird. That was Gary, but the way the media painted it back in the day and which Marty Noble has revisited really took away from him being a genuinely good guy.
The Canadians seemed to have treated Carter with much more respect than the tools in Flushing.
I mean it’s not like he had a bad career like BARRY LYONS, and said he was a superstar and a leader. It’s not like he was CHARLIE O’BRIEN demanding curtain calls. He was so integral in the Mets1986 championship and anchoring the pitching staff for all of those years. Look at Ron Darling’s career after Carter was phased out. All the pitchers respected Carter even though he was super tough on them.
Sure Carter may have been a little dickish in the clubhouse on occasion, and maybe he was like Booster Gold from DC Comics- but…WHO CARES? I don’t!
I always gave Jorge Posada credit for being aggressive with pitchers and “dickish”. Thurman Munson is an icon for being an angry catcher. Not sure why a guy who SMILED all the time was sometimes ripped in NY while he played.
The good news is that it’s a footnote now, with all of his former teammates coming out and spreading the good word, and his family is great people.
Keith Hernandez just said:
“With the Mets, the two of us were out front … with Doc and Darryl. We were the veterans, though. We were talked about in the same sentences. We were so contrasted. There was Gary, and over here I was. Different. Both of us were decent people, though. But he was a family man and did things the way his mother and father probably wanted them done.”
“We all lived a little wild back in the day, except for Kid and Mookie and couple of other guys. Kid was never in the papers for doing something wrong. All he did was get big hits and catch us and block balls in the dirt. ”
“I had a lot of clutch hits in my career. And I had a chance to do what he did, and I feel that I failed. But Gary got it done. He was the right guy for that situation. He was stronger than I was. I wasn’t afraid of those situations. But he welcomed them. It wasn’t just about ability. It was about his approach, his makeup. He wanted to be the hero. And you’ve got to have a player like that.
“He was different from a lot of guys. He had bad knees, awful knees. But he always ran — and I mean ran — to his position. He busted it every inning, every game. It takes a special kind of motivation.”
Darling: “Gary was from ‘Leave It To Beaver’ and ‘Pleasantville.’ He was, when we played together, what most of our parents had wanted us to be. And now we see value in it. And that makes this all the sadder.”
During the terrible Keith Hernandez interview on WFAN, at one point he said, “I spoke with Marty Noble last night…”
That explains why Marty felt compelled to put Gary down. Keith rehashed all the 80′s drama, in the name of honesty.
What a couple of [CENSORED DAILYSKEW].
Was Carter still mugging for the camera when he was friendly to fans while coaching a minor league team? Please.
I don’t care what his motives were for being a nice guy. While Keith Hernandez waits for the right motivations, Gary Carter just did it.
Ron Darling’s point says it all about Carter on the field, and why the Mets fell apart when he aged and eventually left.