Gary Carter
From The Met Wiki
Gary Carter was a catcher for the Mets from 1985 to 1989. He played in 600 regular season games for the team. Carter had 89 home runs and 349 runs batted in as a Met.
After ten high-quality years with the Montreal Expos, Carter came to the Mets in a trade for four players on December 10, 1984. In ’85, he led the team with 32 homers and 100 RBIs. Gary hit a home run in the 10th inning to give the Mets a 6-5 win over the Cardinals in the season opener at Shea Stadium on April 9. He hit a grand slam in the Mets’ 5-3 victory over the Braves on May 7 at Shea. Carter singled to drive home the winning run for a 3-2 Mets triumph over the Giants in 12 innings at Shea on May 17. He had a run-scoring single in the 11th that put the Mets ahead to stay in a 7-3 win at Philadelphia on June 12. Gary hit a pair of two-run homers in a 6-2 Mets win over the Cubs on August 11 at Shea. He also hit five home runs with nine RBIs in the Mets’ 8-3 and 9-2 wins at San Diego on September 3 and September 4, respectively.
In 1986, Carter had 105 RBIs for the year to tie Rusty Staub’s team record. He had 215 total bases and set a new club mark with 15 sacrifice flies in the Mets’ World Championship season. At Shea on April 21, Gary singled home the winning run in the ninth inning for a 6-5 Mets victory over the Pirates. He hit two home runs in the Mets’ 8-4 win over the Phillies in 11 innings at Shea on June 10. Carter had a three-run homer and a grand slam in an 11-0 Mets triumph over the Braves on July 11 at Shea. He hit the first of three consecutive Met homers (followed by Darryl Strawberry and Kevin Mitchell) in the third inning for three runs in a 5-1 Mets win at Atlanta on July 27. Gary also hit two home runs in the Mets’ 4-3 victory over the Padres on September 6 at Shea.
Carter had 12 hits and 11 RBIs in the ’86 post season. He played every inning of the Mets’ 13 games. In Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Gary doubled to drive in the Mets’ first run in a 5-1 win at Houston on October 9. In Game 5 of the NLCS on October 14, he hit a run-scoring single in the 12th inning to give the Mets a 2-1 victory over the Astros at Shea. Carter homered twice in a 6-2 Mets win at Boston in Game 4 of the World Series on October 22. He also singled with two outs in the 10th inning to begin a three-run rally for a 6-5 Mets victory over the Red Sox in Game 6 of the Series on October 25.
Gary played in 139 games in 1987. He had 123 hits, including 20 homers, for the season. At Pittsburgh on April 20, Carter had a run-scoring single and a three-run homer in the Mets’ 9-6 loss to the Pirates. He homered in the ninth inning to give the Mets a 4-3 win at San Francisco on May 27. Gary hit two home runs in the Mets’ 9-6 victory over the Cardinals on July 1 at Shea. He had an RBI-double and a three-run homer in a 9-0 Mets win over the Reds at Shea on July 16. Carter had a double, two homers and four RBIs in the Mets’ 13-3 win over the Phillies on August 5 at Shea. He also singled four times and drove in three runs in a 4-3 Mets victory over the Expos on September 23 at Shea.
In 1988, Carter hit .242 with 11 home runs. He drove in 46 runs and had 163 total bases in the Mets division-winning season. At Montreal on April 7, Gary hit a pair of homers in the Mets’ 8-5 win over the Expos. He had a three-run homer in the seventh inning that gave the Mets a 7-4 win at San Diego on May 16. Carter hit his 300th career homer in the Mets’ 9-6 win on August 11 at Chicago. He hit a two-run homer in a 4-3 Mets victory over the Expos in the first game of a doubleheader at Shea on August 14. Gary also hit a clutch two-run double in the ninth inning to give the Mets a 3-2 win over the Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on October 4 at Los Angeles.
Carter missed more than two months of the 1989 season with an injured right knee. He played in only 50 games for the Mets and hit a career-low .183 for the year. Gary hit a home run in the Mets’ 4-2 win over the Cubs at Shea on April 23. He had two singles and two doubles in a 6-0 Mets victory on August 9 at Philadelphia. Carter hit a three-run homer (his last home run as a Met) in the Mets’ 5-2 triumph at Chicago on September 19. He had a two-run single and a three-run double in a 13-6 Mets win over the Expos on September 23 at Shea. Gary got his final hit as a Met with a ninth inning double in the team’s 5-3 loss to the Phillies in the home closer at Shea on September 27.
Gary played for the Giants in 1990 and the Dodgers in 1991. He concluded his career with the Expos in 1992. Gary was elected to the Mets Hall of Fame in 2001 and to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. He also served as a manager for the Mets’ Rookie-level team in the Gulf Coast League in 2005 and the A-level team at St. Lucie in 2006.
