Gary Carter wasn't shy about curtain calls

Barbara Barker

12:53 PM EDT, May 2, 2008

Gary Carter was the king of the curtain call, a guy whose signature fist pump would come to define both him and the swaggering Mets of the middle to late 1980s.

Not even Carter knows how many curtain calls he gave since introducing his move 23 years ago after hitting a 10th-inning home run to give the Mets a 6-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. But it's safe to say it never would have occurred to him not to accept a curtain call like Carlos Delgado did in a the Mets' win last Sunday over the Atlanta Braves.

"I never went out for a curtain call just because I liked it. I did it because the fans asked for it and wanted to see an appearance," Carter said in a phone interview this week. "You go out and raise a fist or tip a hat or whatever it is.

"You just go out to recognize that the fans are recognizing what is happening. I feel it is something where you are acknowledging the fans because they are as much a part of the game as anyone else."

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At the same time, Carter thinks a little too much has been made over Delgado's decision not to accept a curtain call, noting that different players had different attitudes toward the tradition.

"I don't know if it was a slap in the face in the face of fans," Carter said of Delgado's refusal. "He hasn't been playing well, he's frustrated and he didn't feel it was in his own best interest."

Carter said Delgado isn't the only one who doesn't fully embrace the curtain call, noting that he has seen Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter refusing to participate.

"I look back at the day when Roger Maris hit his 61st home run, and his teammates had to force him out of the dugout because he was embarrassed," Carter said.

Carter's fist pumping days are over. And, for now, so are his days as a Mets employee. Carter, who served as a roving catching instructor for the Mets for four years before managing the Gulf Coast Mets in 2005, led the Single-A St. Lucie Mets to a championship in 2006. In December of 2006, he was offered the managing position for the Double-A Binghamton Mets, but declined, citing the fact that the Mets wanted him to decide quickly and would not give him any commitment regarding his future advancement in the organization.

Since leaving the organization, he has written a recently published book, "Still a Kid at Heart" and is getting ready to manage the Orange County Flyers of the Independent Golden League in California.

"Imagine that? A Hall of Famer managing an independent league team?" Carter said with a somewhat bitter laugh.

What I imagine is that the Flyers won't be declining any curtain calls.