Online Home of Gotham Baseball Magazine

Main Menu

CLICK ON ME!

Gotham Sponsor

Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Flash Image Rotator Module by Joomlashack.
DIGITAL MAGAZINE
wintermeetings
Shamsky
Appel
RockWrap

Return Of The Kid

Written by Keith Hejna

Monday, 10 November 2008

“The Kid” is back in New York. On Monday, Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter was introduced as the manager of the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. As he did for the 1986 World Series champion Mets, he will wear number 8, but this time it will be on a jersey of a different color.

“I’m just very proud to be back in New York and in this organization,” the former three-time Gold Glove award winner said at his press conference at Citibank Park.

Carter coached the Gulf Coast Mets in 2005, the A-level St. Lucie Mets in 2006, and most recently, the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League in California. He had immediate success, leading all three teams to respective championship games (winning with the latter two) and earning Manager of the Year honors in each league.

“I’ve come here to try to provide a championship for the Ducks,” said the Fullerton, CA native. “I love to win and I hate to lose … at anything.”

Carter joins a staff that includes former Mets shortstop and manager, Bud Harrelson, who is a coach and Sr. Vice President of Baseball Operations, and former Met Kevin Baez, who coaches third base.

“No one played harder and worked harder than Gary Carter,” Harrelson said. “The way that Gary worked, if that rubs off on the Ducks, we’re going to be awesome.”

The Ducks, who were named the 2007 Independent Organization of the Year, celebrate their 10th anniversary next season. Players such as Edgardo Alfonso, Carlos Baerga, Juan Gonzalez, Bill Pulsipher, Nelson Figueroa, and the infamous John Rocker have come through the organization, which helps cultivate young talent and keep veteran players’ careers alive.

“The Atlantic League is known as the big leagues of the independent leagues,” Carter said. It is one of eight independent professional baseball leagues in the United States.

The Ducks have been to the playoffs every season since their 2004 championship run, but have not made it back to the top of the Atlantic League since. Carter aims to change that.

“There is nothing that could ever replace winning a championship,” he said. “I played in one World Series, right here in New York, and there was nothing like it.”

Carter hit a two-out, two-one fastball into left field in the tenth inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series to begin a late rally that ended with the most notorious error in baseball history – a grounder through Bill Buckner’s legs. Though Carter spent most of his 18-year career in Montreal, and went into the Hall of Fame as an Expo, he still feels at home in New York.

“In a lot of ways I feel like my identity, a lot of it, came from being here in New York,” he said. “Coming to New York was probably the best thing that could have happened to me.”

His 324 home runs rank him fourth behind Mike Piazza, Carlton Fisk, and Johnny Bench for career HRs by a catcher.

“The focus has been placed more on handling the pitchers, who are the higher paid players of today, but I think the emphasis is reverting back to the era in which Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Lance Parrish and myself played in – where there were more power hitting-type catchers.”

Carter worked as a television analyst for the Florida Marlins for three years after he retired, but decided to pursue a managerial career instead.

“My passion is being in uniform, and being on the field working with the up and coming superstars of the future,” he said, looking as comfortable as ever behind the microphones and in front of the cameras. “Hopefully this will lead to a major league job.”

Though he hopes to crack back into the big leagues as a manager, he has his immediate sights set on winning another championship, in another league, with another team. With the same wide-eyed grin and driven attitude that opposing players hated and Mets fans loved, he might just do it.

“It’s kind of nice to be 54 years old and still be called ‘The Kid.’”

Comments

Add New