Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter is battling brain tumors. He's only 57 years old.
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6605984
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6605984
Gary Carter
- Thread starter Don Wassall
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white is right
Hall of Famer
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Say a prayer for the "Kid" as he is in the fight of his life. Multiple tumors doesn't look good though.
Interesting piece on the number of baseball players from the '70s and '80s, all of them White btw, who have suffered from brain cancer.
Carter's cancer all too familiar
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<DIV =story_byline>By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
<DIV =story_>
Major League Baseball and its ever truculent players union share a grand tradition of historic disagreement, but perhaps they should consider a collaboration on what now seems inescapably a worthwhile project: looking hard, clinically hard, at the diagnosis of Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter.
Inoperable Stage 4 glioblastoma is the published description, and the series of tumors at the back of the 11-time All-Star's brain is a heartbreaking reality for Carter, his family and anyone who reveres his contributions to the national pastime.
Were that not sufficiently sickening, Carter's case is just plain too similar to too many people who were around the game in the 1970s and '80s. Brain cancer has too soon taken from us Tug McGraw, Ken Brett, Dan Quisenberry, Johnny Oates, Dick Howser, John Vukovich, Bobby Murcer and perhaps others whose premature deaths had brain cancer as a secondary condition.
Robert Tufts, a former San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals pitcher who went on to take a Columbia MBA, has discussed this statistical paradox frequently at examiner.com but, if anything, Carter's situation seems only to cloud it.
Some working theories have centered on the artificial playing surfaces in Kansas City and/or Philadelphia, likely because six of the aforementioned deceased played for either the Royals or the Phillies, and five of them -- McGraw, Brett, Quisenberry, Oates and Vukovich, played for teams that reached the 1980 postseason that culminated in a Phillies-Royals World Series.
Carter, obviously, joins Murcer as the only ones on the list with no connection to either the Phillies or Royals, but Carter finished a game short of that same postseason and played in Philadelphia frequently with National League East rivals Montreal and the New York Mets. Murcer also played both stadiums in that same era.
Carter's family indicated this week that "The Kid," as he was called by teammates, will bring the same smiling competitiveness to this fight that he brought to National League baseball over 19 summers.
That's a certainty.
Though he lacked the defensive giftedness of Johnny Bench (as did 100 percent of your humans) and the beauteous switch-hitter's stroke of Ted Simmons, Carter otherwise defined catching excellence in his era.
It's often alleged that baseball writers favor nice guys in their Hall of Fame balloting and that they discriminate against the jerks, so how come Carter hung on the ballot for six years before 78 percent of writers finally agreed he was a Hall of Famer in 2003?
Players genuinely nicer than Carter were very few. Questioning him at his locker during the last days of the 1980 pennant race in Montreal's Olympic Stadium, I was stunned to be offered a beer.
"Well, the thing about that," he was saying to whatever I'd asked, "is that -- hey, wanna beer?"
"No thanks," I lied.
Carter had driven in 101 runs and swatted 29 home runs for those Expos, finishing second in the Most Valuable Player voting to Mike Schmidt. Had the Expos taken two of three from the Phillies on that final weekend and won the division, it might have been different.
Fortunately, Carter's career didn't end without postseason glory. Traded to the Mets for four players in December '84, Carter drove in 205 runs over the next two summers and emerged as the reliably professional leader of the hard-partying Dwight Gooden-Darryl Strawberry-Lenny Dykstra 1986 Mets.
Without Carter, the Mets might not have been able to stretch the Boston Red Sox to a sixth game of that World Series, as it was he who mashed two homers over Fenway's monster in Game 4. It was Carter, with the Mets down to their final strike, who started the two-out rally in the 10th inning of Game 6. He singled to left. It was Carter whose sacrifice fly two innings earlier had erased a 3-2 Red Sox lead. If you make a full disc of everything that has crossed the mind of Bill Buckner in the 25 years since that night, one of them has to be, "If it hadn't been for that Carter ... "
After he retired in '92, Carter started the Gary Carter Foundation, which buttresses the educational needs of underprivileged kids near where he lives in Florida.
God Bless and keep Gary Carter. We should know better than to count him outhttp://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11153/1150818-150-0.stm
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Carter's cancer all too familiar
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<DIV =story_byline>By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
<DIV =story_>
Major League Baseball and its ever truculent players union share a grand tradition of historic disagreement, but perhaps they should consider a collaboration on what now seems inescapably a worthwhile project: looking hard, clinically hard, at the diagnosis of Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter.
Inoperable Stage 4 glioblastoma is the published description, and the series of tumors at the back of the 11-time All-Star's brain is a heartbreaking reality for Carter, his family and anyone who reveres his contributions to the national pastime.
Were that not sufficiently sickening, Carter's case is just plain too similar to too many people who were around the game in the 1970s and '80s. Brain cancer has too soon taken from us Tug McGraw, Ken Brett, Dan Quisenberry, Johnny Oates, Dick Howser, John Vukovich, Bobby Murcer and perhaps others whose premature deaths had brain cancer as a secondary condition.
Robert Tufts, a former San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals pitcher who went on to take a Columbia MBA, has discussed this statistical paradox frequently at examiner.com but, if anything, Carter's situation seems only to cloud it.
Some working theories have centered on the artificial playing surfaces in Kansas City and/or Philadelphia, likely because six of the aforementioned deceased played for either the Royals or the Phillies, and five of them -- McGraw, Brett, Quisenberry, Oates and Vukovich, played for teams that reached the 1980 postseason that culminated in a Phillies-Royals World Series.
Carter, obviously, joins Murcer as the only ones on the list with no connection to either the Phillies or Royals, but Carter finished a game short of that same postseason and played in Philadelphia frequently with National League East rivals Montreal and the New York Mets. Murcer also played both stadiums in that same era.
Carter's family indicated this week that "The Kid," as he was called by teammates, will bring the same smiling competitiveness to this fight that he brought to National League baseball over 19 summers.
That's a certainty.
Though he lacked the defensive giftedness of Johnny Bench (as did 100 percent of your humans) and the beauteous switch-hitter's stroke of Ted Simmons, Carter otherwise defined catching excellence in his era.
It's often alleged that baseball writers favor nice guys in their Hall of Fame balloting and that they discriminate against the jerks, so how come Carter hung on the ballot for six years before 78 percent of writers finally agreed he was a Hall of Famer in 2003?
Players genuinely nicer than Carter were very few. Questioning him at his locker during the last days of the 1980 pennant race in Montreal's Olympic Stadium, I was stunned to be offered a beer.
"Well, the thing about that," he was saying to whatever I'd asked, "is that -- hey, wanna beer?"
"No thanks," I lied.
Carter had driven in 101 runs and swatted 29 home runs for those Expos, finishing second in the Most Valuable Player voting to Mike Schmidt. Had the Expos taken two of three from the Phillies on that final weekend and won the division, it might have been different.
Fortunately, Carter's career didn't end without postseason glory. Traded to the Mets for four players in December '84, Carter drove in 205 runs over the next two summers and emerged as the reliably professional leader of the hard-partying Dwight Gooden-Darryl Strawberry-Lenny Dykstra 1986 Mets.
Without Carter, the Mets might not have been able to stretch the Boston Red Sox to a sixth game of that World Series, as it was he who mashed two homers over Fenway's monster in Game 4. It was Carter, with the Mets down to their final strike, who started the two-out rally in the 10th inning of Game 6. He singled to left. It was Carter whose sacrifice fly two innings earlier had erased a 3-2 Red Sox lead. If you make a full disc of everything that has crossed the mind of Bill Buckner in the 25 years since that night, one of them has to be, "If it hadn't been for that Carter ... "
After he retired in '92, Carter started the Gary Carter Foundation, which buttresses the educational needs of underprivileged kids near where he lives in Florida.
God Bless and keep Gary Carter. We should know better than to count him outhttp://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11153/1150818-150-0.stm
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Van_Slyke_CF
Mentor
It's a real shame to see Gary Carter fighting for his life in his 50s. I wish him the best and really enjoyed watching him over the years in his great career.
knightedsoldier5000
Mentor
I remember reading an article about he was about the only player on those mets teams that didn't get all coked up and drunk with everybody else.
JReb1
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I had the privilege to meet Gary Carter and Micky Mantle (RIP) at an autograph signing in 1985 and got both of their autographs. Both HOF legends were really nice guys and Mantle joked with me about being a Mets fan. I hope Carter pulls through and lives a long life.
white is right
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Gary Carter died today. As a child he was one of my favourite Expos on those underachieving teams of the late 70's through early 80's. Drugs and indifference probably cost the Expos 1 or 2 post season appearances. My favorite nickname for the first 4 hitters in the lineup was the track team with Ron Leflore/ Tim Raines leading off, Rodney Scott hitting second, Andre Dawson hitting third and Carter hitting cleanup. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3D_lq0M6us
Yes, I just heard about this. Very sad. So young. One of the greats of the modern era. Played the toughest position in the game and played it very well. Seemed like a good guy too. Isn't it a shame he passes before all of those drug addicts that he played with (as mentioned above). You never know.
DixieDestroyer
Hall of Famer
Gary was also known to be a very likeable, down-to-earth guy off the field as well. I remember his time w/ the Mets, and his energetic leadership on the field. May God grant peace to his their time of loss. 
Carter was one of the most liked players of his era, but also one of the most disliked because he was an extrovert, a trait which is celebrated in blacks but resented by many when displayed by Whites. Steve Garvey, who had a similar old-fashioned earnest, outgoing personality, was also greatly liked and disliked.
RIP Gary Carter.
RIP Gary Carter.
sport historian
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Yes, I used to read this all the time. Gary Carter, like Garvey, played up to the media, which was supposedly a fault. Not many minded O.J. Simpson doing the same thing.
white is right
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I think some people had a problem with Carter campaigning for his hall candidacy after his career was over. It's funny but Carter while getting the short end of the stick in Montreal due to drug problems that the team had probably lost out on a few post season appearances in New York too. The partying that Straw and Doc did made Ellis Valentine and friends seem like high school pot smokers...:thumbdown:
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