Gary Carter swung for the fences
New York Mets' Gary Carter celebrates his 12th inning game-winning hit against the Houston Astros in Game 5 of baseball's National League Championship Series in New York (Oct. 14, 1986). Credit: AP
From his first home opener as a Met, when his extra-inning homer won the game and got thousands of fans to their feet, chanting his name, Gary Carter was a difference-maker in New York.
On Friday in Florida, the life and career of Carter, who died of brain cancer last week at 57, will be recalled at a memorial service. It's likely to focus not only on the Hall of Fame credentials and moments of high sports drama, but on the admirable person he was.
His arrival from the Montreal Expos for the 1985 season, coming after the trade that brought first baseman Keith Hernandez in 1983, gave the Mets top veteran leadership. They needed it to get past the St. Louis Cardinals, then their constant division rival, and compete for a World Series championship.
Carter was a respected leader on the 1986 Mets, a hard-drinking, chest-thumping, arrogant team -- best described by the title of a book about that season, "The Bad Guys Won!" Unlike many of his teammates, though, he was a straight arrow. He took some teasing for it, but he remained what he was: a man of faith, devoted to family, who played baseball with a great, unquenchable joy.
His greatest on-field moment was the 10th-inning, two-out single that started a rally and brought the Mets back from near-elimination to victory in the sixth game of the 1986 Series. They won it in seven games.
But his greatest achievement was a life that teammates and family can recall with admiration. Kid was his nickname. But he was a man, a Hall of Fame person.
