Thursday, February 16, 2012

Gary Carter, the Mets' World Series Pitcher, RIP

My eleven year old poster of Gary Carter's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, 2001.

Gary Carter, the New York Mets' catcher during their 1986 World Series year, has died at the age of 57. I'm not going to pretend to be the biggest sports fan around, truth be told, I've barely watched a full baseball game since my mother died in 1999. But my parents were both huge Mets' fans, and they both could tell you all the stats without looking them up. Gary Carter's name was a big one around our house. 

My parents watched all the games that summer of '86 as the Mets once again heated up, and it looked as if they might even be able to repeat their World Series win of 1969. At the same time, my father was losing his battle with coronary heart disease. As the Mets continued to rack up wins, my father's health deteriorated. My dad died in mid September, 1986, and never saw the Mets win the World Series that October. My mother and I watched the series though, every game, and we knew if he could, my father was watching them, too. 
  • For the Huffington Post article on Hall of Famer, Gary Carter, click here.
  • I was named for Casey Stengel. He was the manager of the Yankees at the time, but he went on to become the Mets' first manager in 1962.


Gary's cute 30-second commercial for Ivory Soap, made after the Mets won the '86 World Series.

1 comment:

  1. CASEY STENGEL, I KNEW THERE WAS A REASON I LIKED YOUR NAME. HIGH FIVE CASEY. YOUR MOM AND DAD DID WELL NAMING YOU.

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