Gary Carter Dies: Obituaries From New York, Montreal

The news about Gary Carter’s health had long been grim, so it wasn’t a surprise that shortly after he passed, there were several thoughtful and well-written tributes and obituaries that were published quickly. The New York Times has two, starting with the more standard obituary …

Carter, at 38, reflected on being known as the perennial Kid.“Everybody calls me that,” he told The Times. “Even our rookie catcher, Tim Laker, calls me that. I got that nickname my first spring training camp with the Expos in 1974. Tim Foli, Ken Singleton and Mike Jorgensen started calling me Kid because I was trying to win every sprint. I was trying to hit every pitch out of the park.”

… and following with a touching piece that recounted one of his last public appearances:

Among those in attendance were several teammates from his Mets days, including Tim Teufel, now the Mets’ third-base coach, who described how Carter gave a short but emotional speech that seemed to capture everything about Carter and his indestructible personality.“For me, that was almost like his Lou Gehrig speech,” Teufel said. “He said he felt like the luckiest guy in the room. His wife and his kids were there, and he just said how thankful he was for everything he had.”

But he wasn’t just a New York icon; the Montreal Gazette remembered him fondly as well:

Like Rusty Staub (Le Grand Orange) before him, Carter made an effort to speak a few words in French. That, combined with his big smile and immense baseball talent, won the hearts of Quebec baseball fans in both languages.Carter went into the Hall of Fame as a Montreal Expo, but he’s beloved in New York for his time with the franchise’s greatest single team. It’s hard to find players split so evenly between two organizations, but Carter was one of the best.