Gary Carter RIP

[Carlota69]

My sports station is reporting it...and so is ESPN

http://espn.go.com/

[seclark]

rip
sec

[Demonpenz]

sucks

[scho63]

Great guy, great career, and very likable person.

Sad to hear- R.I.P Gary

[redsurfer11]

R.I.P Kid

[gblowfish]

I heard about this on the 4pm ESPN headlines. Very sad, too young. Guy was a good player too.

[Stewie]

Man, that sucks. RIP Gary.

[Deberg_1990]

Damn, RIP Gary

[Rain Man]

I though his presidency was pretty weak, but it was nice that he built all of those homes for people.

[ShowtimeSBMVP]

RIP

[Jewish Rabbi]

Touch 'em all Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life.

[threebag]

RIP

[mikey23545]

Fuck.

Maybe it is true, only the good die young.

RIP, Kid.

[FAX]

One of the few Earthlings to ever combat the Martians on their own turf.

RIP

FAX

[Braincase]

RIP, one of the best at what he did.

[Bugeater]

Had to Google his name.

[Pioli Zombie]

I used to love when he said "Whatchu talkin 'bout, Willis?"

[RJ]

Helluva ballplayer. RIP, Kid.

[TIED5573]

I liked it when he finally got Arafat and Begin together. He really Menachemed it out of the park that day!

[Al Bundy]

He was the greatest catcher of my generation.

[kcxiv]

This sux. my first sports love was baseball. I used to be a fucking baseball freak as a kid and this was early to mid 80's so this sux.

RIP KID!

[Demonpenz]

He was the greatest catcher of my generation.

Ozzie Virgil has something to say about that!

[boogblaster]

RIP .. good player ......

[J Diddy]

Had to Google his name.

You had to google the name of a hall of fame catcher? Perhaps you are not that informed and should not comment.

[BoneKrusher]

RIP

[WilliamTheIrish]

It took me a little longer to post in this thread because I wanted to be sure of what I remembered about the guy, his original team and how my view of him changed after he was traded to the Mets.

I have some very old VHS tapes from the 1981 NL playoffs. It was really shitty footage now and I had to go to pawn shop to buy a player for the tapes. It was on NBC with Tony Kubeck and Bob Costas doing PbP and color. Great commercials.

Anyway, I always thought that franchise would break out and win. I followed that team as they used the Royals "blueprint" from the inception of the franchise. They drafted better than any team and found players everywhere.

Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Ellis Valentine. At the time that was the best outfield in the NL as far as range. Infield was Cromartie, Larry Parrish, (Tim Wallach - was listed as an OF at the time) Rodney Scott and they had signed Cris Speier from the Giants. Very solid gloves all through the middle, especially with Carter behind the plate.

They had an "Ace" in Steve Rogers and closer in Jeff Reardon who would gain more fame for his ability to close games for the Twins when the Expos dismantled the franchise.

1981 was the strike shortened split season where two teams who had the best overall records (Cards and Reds) didn't make the playoffs. One team had a combined record of under .500 (Royals) but won the second season and made the playoffs.

Carter was the player I really enjoyed watching behind the plate. I don't think there has been a catcher since Johnny Bench who made the position look so simple. He was big and strong, but was fluid behind the plate. And the guy could hit for power and average. Seemed to be the catcher of his generation. Always waited for Mel Allen and This Week In Baseball to come on to see any highlights of Carter (and the Royals of course).

It looked like they were going to be the NL team of the 80's. But for some reason it just never happened for that franchise. The Expos got by Philly and opened in LA for the NLDS. They got a split, losing to Burt Hooten but beating Fernando (mania!) Valenzuela 7-1 in game two. Steve Rogers beat Jerry Ruess in game 3 and it looked for all the world that the Expos would be in the WS. But game 4 was dominated by Hooten, Bob Welch (who would gain some fame in the 81 WS by K'ing Reggie Jackson) and Steve (junkie) Howe.

Game 5 was Fernando vs Ray Burris. I'll never understand why Jim Fanning didn't start Rogers, but it was a gut wrenching pitchers duel the entire way. The Expos scored in the first on a Raines double and two infield groundouts. Burris pitched well but gave up the tying run on two singles, a WP and 4-3 groundout in the 5th.

And as the game wore on into the 9th, Fanning brought in the ace starter Steve Rogers instead of Jeff Reardon. (Sounds like somebody we all know and remember from 1977, eh Siberian Khatru?)

Rogers got two quick outs. And then Rick Monday hit the HR to straight away CF that I certain was a lazy fly ball, that sent LA to the 1981 World Series.

Carter was pretty graceful in defeat. But I wondered if he knew then that it may never happen with that franchise. I know they traded him in 84, and in 86 he was part of a team that was so damn good but needed Bill Buckner and Bob Stanley and divine intervention to give them the WS.

Too young for Gary Carter to die. When boyhood heroes are put into the ground, my own mortality comes to the forefront.

*raises glass* Salute.

[Demonpenz]

great post WilliamTheIrish