Gary Carter, the slugging catcher known as Kid for the sheer joy he took in playing baseball, who entered the Hall of Fame as a Montreal Expo but who most famously helped propel the Mets to their dramatic 1986 World Series championship, died Thursday. He was 57.
The cause was brain cancer, which had been diagnosed last May. Carter had been treated with chemotherapy and radiation, but his daughter Kimmy Bloemers said in mid-January that new tumors had been discovered. She announced his death on her family journal at CaringBridge.org.
Carter played with intensity and flair, hitting 324 home runs and punctuating many of the ones he hit at Shea Stadium with arm-flailing curtain calls emblematic of the Mets’ swagger in the middle and late 1980s. In his 19 seasons in the major leagues, all but two of them with the Expos or the Mets, he was an 11-time All-Star and was twice named the most valuable player in the All-Star Game.
Long time Mets fan here. Very sad news. Memory eternal.
One of my childhood heroes is gone. He was a good man and a great ballplayer. A credit to the sport. Heartbreaking.
Here’s the more amazin’ thing, In remembering Gary Carter team mate Darryl Strawberry spoke about the difference that Carter made to them by being an example by “being free” and spoke more about Gary as a “man of faith” and his character as a man of “a wholesome life” more than his incredible accomplishments as a champion baseball player and Hall of Famer.
As the boss says ‘read it all’ ya gotta believe!
[url=http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20097481&c_id=nym] Straw remembers the Kid [/url]