Coming to Terms With Gary Carter

Gary Carter's death this week at the age of 57 is a bit of a stomach kicker. For one, the guy was only two years older than I am. Plus, it came during the same week when I lost a man very dear to me who has been a part of my life for over thirty years. So it's already been a week of loss and sadness. There is a lot of such sadness in life and our only recourse is to balance that with the blessings and the good times. Since the man I lost this week was 95 years old, there is much more sadness for me than for him as he had a rich life and died peacefully. There are so many good memories that can be recalled to soften the tears. But what of Gary Carter? Unlike the man in my life that I lost, I spent most of my adult life with a fetish of dislike for Gary Carter. But I saw the beginning, middle and end of his career and athletes aren't supposed to die. Not that young anyway.

Much of this is irrational. And I realize that. Mourning the passing of a ballplayer is over-hyped in a world where people die by the millions every week. Because the player was famous and a Hall of Fame player at that, his passing is given much more attention than it deserves. There is little attention except for perhaps a back page story for a child that has lost a father or a mother who has lost a son in any small town in America. But because Gary Carter was a Hall of Fame catcher, his death is given much more coverage. That's just the way it is. And my dislike for the man was every bit as irrational.

When did that dislike start and why was it so? Don't ask those silly questions of a baseball fan. Is there ever any good reason? I dislike Kevin Youkilis. Always have. Is Youkilis a bad guy? Probably not. But something inside me is turned off by the guy. Maybe it's his stupid batting stance or the way he takes a personal affront to every inside pitch or his temper when he strikes out. But other players have done that, so what gives? I don't know. Something about Gary Carter pushed all the wrong buttons inside me.

Carter was known as an intense player. Perhaps that is the tie of his dislike to that of Youkilis, who is also intense. We love intense players when they are on our team. But when they are on the other team, we like them a lot less. Carter was a catcher. Catchers are supposed to be low-profile guys. Grunts. The tools of ignorance guys. But Carter was flamboyant and even as a member of the Expos, became famous for a team that did not get a lot of national press. Carter went to seven All Star Games as a member of the Expos, including a run of six straight from 1979 to 1983. Plus, he played in the post season in 1981. It was during those contests when the dislike built.

But the loathing came to a full head in 1986 when Carter was a member of the World Champion New York Mets. Gary Carter was center stage in that post season and certainly in that improbable tenth inning of the most famous Game Six in World Series history (perhaps eclipsed this year by the Cardinals). Gary Carter helped break my heart that season.

Though I've spent a lifetime as a fan of the Red Sox's rivals, that 1986 Red Sox team had captured my heart. It was the season I developed a major man-crush on Roger Clemens. Dwight Evans will always remain one of my favorite all time players. Wade Boggs was the most amazing hit machine I have ever seen in my baseball life. Tom Seaver was having his last hurrah with that team. Bruce Hurst was an underrated left-handed starter. Bill Buckner and Marty Barrett were blue collar heroes. Oil Can Boyd was comic relief.

That team just captured my imagination. As I have mentioned here many times, I was living in southern Maine at the time (just over the NH border) and we didn't have cable television. There was no MLB.tv. Channel 38 and the Red Sox were the only games I could watch with my antenna on the roof. So I watched nearly every game of that 1986 season. I saw every one of Clemens' brilliant starts. I saw every Wade Boggs hit. I exalted over every perfectly positioned throw from Evans in right field. It was a magical season.

And that magical season led to the 1986 World Series. I kind of liked the Mets with their band of bad boys. But, of course, I didn't like Gary Carter. And then came Game Six. The game was in the bag. This Red Sox team that I had grown to love was going to win it all! It was the bottom of the tenth with just three outs and it would be done. You can "Bill Buckner" me all you want. But I remember vividly watching that last inning and screaming at the television. It was to be one of the worst managing moments in history. Boston manager, John McNamara, lost that World Series. Buckner should have been replaced defensively. Calvin Schiraldi had already yielded the lead in the bottom of the ninth and shouldn't have started the tenth. He had already pitched two tough innings. Why was he still out there?

But then Schiraldi got the first two Mets to fly out to start the tenth. One more out! One more out! It never came. I remember standing behind the couch with the couch as a barrier between me and the television. It was if I needed the furniture to keep me from devouring the television. I was close to euphoric. The Mets were down to their last out. But then Gary Carter came up. Carter with his permed hair and his All-American boyish looks hit a single. No problem, McNamara will take Schiraldi out and get this over with. Kevin Mitchell came up to pinch hit. It was the perfect time to make the switch. Except McNamara stood there. Mitchell got a hit. Still, McNamara stood there. Then Ray Knight got a hit that scored Carter. Knight was another player I hated for much the same reasons as Carter. Of course Carter's helmet came off when he slid into home. Of course, he crowed in his All-American goodness. Of course his rah-rah style of play was evident. I fumed. That couch saved lives that day.

Finally, McNamara removed Schiraldi. Bout time, stupid. But it was too late. The rest was history. I was crushed and dancing on the field, in the middle of the pile of happy Mets was Gary Carter. Loathing became hatred. Hatred burned deeply. One of my most disliked players had helped break my heart.

Flash forward to the present. That same Gary Carter was diagnosed with cancer, that dreaded disease that strikes fear in all of us. Carter was upbeat and leaned on his faith. He faced his illness with class and courage. How can you hate such a man? Footage was shown just recently of him at an event and ravaged by illness, he still had a big smile on his face. Where does such courage and faith come from? Years of loathing and animosity melted away to admiration in less than the time it took to write this post. I came to love that Gary Carter.

How strange life is. Carter's death will forever be linked to the other loss in my life this week. The two will be paired. One man I lost will be a love grown over thirty years and an influence on my life that will never end. The other's death was a man I had disliked as long as I had loved the other man. But both are mourned today. The inherent goodness of both men is the bottom line and I have no doubt that both will have eternal rewards beyond this life. Both men led by example. One just took longer to get his message across than the other. Rest in peace gentlemen. Rest in peace.

Sixteen Best Ever Seasons By a Catcher

Catching talent is a bit like looking for lumber in a stack of sale-price boards. There might be a few good ones in there but the rest of them are a bit warped and full of knots. Nothing brought this home any closer than news that the Tampa Bay Rays have traded one mediocre catcher (John Jaso) and signed another (Jose Molina). The dearth of good catchers is why Joe Mauer was given his current contract and also why that contract would be worth considerably less to the Twins if Mauer were to change positions. Everyone can list off Hall of Fame catchers. There's Johnny Bench, Gary Carter, Mickey Cochran, Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Mike Piazza and yes, Ivan Rodriguez and Joe Mauer. Sites in the past have tried to list which of these catchers was the best ever. But what about greatest seasons ever? This post will attempt to bring you the best sixteen seasons ever by a major league catcher.

Why sixteen? Well...that arbitrary number was because Yogi had the sixteenth best season ever and if this post didn't go that far, he would have not made the list. We couldn't have that. So it's sixteen. How do you determine the best seasons ever? That's a bit arbitrary too. This post will use WAR. But which WAR? And that's a great question. Take 2009 for instance. Both baseball-reference.com AND Fangraphs gave Joe Mauer a 7.9 WAR that season. But the year before (2008), B-R gave the same Mauer a 8.7 WAR while Fangraphs gave him a 6.2. Wuh? So what this writer did was to seek out the best seasons adding up both the rWAR and the fWAR and dividing by two. If you think there is a better way to judge, feel free to comment or come up with your own list. The Fan would love to see it.

Some of these great seasons will surprise you. Sure, it is sprinkled with Hall of Fame catchers. But there were some one-hit wonders in there too. Some were outstanding for the offense the catcher generated that season. Others were a combination of great offense and great defense. WAR adds all that stuff up and gives us a number we can use. So here goes. Here are the best sixteen seasons by a catcher ever. Oh, wait. One more thing, a catcher had to catch at least 50 percent of his games played that season to qualify. Here we go.

1. Johnny Bench (1972) - 9.65 average WAR. Bench was spectacular in 1972. He slugged .541 that season with 40 homers and 125 runs batted in. Baseball-reference.com gives a 1.4 of defensive WAR (or dWAR) to Bench that season. He threw out 40 of the 70 base runners that attempted to steal (57 percent!). And he walked a hundred times that season too. He was the (like duh!) MVP that season.
2. Mike Piazza (1997) - 9.35 average WAR. Mike Piazza has arguably the best offensive season of any catcher ever in 1997. Indeed, his 1.070 OPS that season is the all time high. He batted .362, second only to Joe Mauer's .365 as the highest batting average for a catcher. Piazza had over 200 hits that season including 32 doubles and 40 homers. He scored 104 runs and drove in 124. The 9.7 oWAR baseball-reference gave him that season has to be the highest ever and had to make up his obvious defensive shortcomings which both sites always landed him in negative territory.
3. Darrell Porter (1979) - 8.2 average WAR. Surprise! Bet you didn't expect to see this name on this list never mind third all time!. But his 1979 season was that spectacular. Porter walked 121 times that season and only eight of them were intentional. Porter scored 101 runs and drove in 112. He hit 22 doubles, ten triples (!) and 20 homers. On top of those kinds of numbers, he threw out 57 base runners in 121 stolen base attempts. It was by far his best season in an overlooked career.
4. Johnny Bench (1974) - The Big Red Machine revolved around Johnny Bench. His 1970 through 1975 campaigns just might be the best catching run in history. On top of another great offensive season, Bench threw out 49 percent of base steal attempts and only allowed three passed balls in 121 games behind the plate. How Steve Garvey won the MVP in 1974 is beyond logic.
5. Gary Carter (1982) - It's funny how when you don't like a player, you kind of block out how good he was. Gary Carter was terrific. He was just all goody goody about it which made you want to dump water on him. 1982 was Carter's best season but he had five great ones. His OPS of .890 was good for a 146 OPS+ and just added to terrific fielding behind the plate. He was the complete package.
6. Joe Mauer (2009) - The memory of Mauer's season in 2009 is fading, but it shouldn't be. It was one of the most remarkable offensive seasons of all time from a catcher and probably rates second behind Piazza's season. His .365 batting average was easily good enough for the batting title and the highest batting average for a full time catcher in the modern era. He hit with power that season too for some reason and finished with a 1.030 OPS. Unbelievable. And the MVP.
7. Roy Campanella (1953). Campanella started his career in 1948, just after the color line was broken in baseball. His career was cut short after ten years due to an accident that left him paralyzed. It's a shame too because he was as good or better than Yogi Berra during those seasons. 1953 was his best. Campanella played 140 games behind the plate and threw out 53 percent of all base steal attempts and only allowed three passed balls all season. He was dynamic on offense as well, hitting 41 homers and led the league in RBIs with a staggering 142. It was the second of his three MVP seasons.
8. Roy Campanella (1951). His first MVP season wasn't quite as good offensively as 1953 but it was close. And he threw out 63 percent of base steal attempts. Can you imagine!?
9. Bill Freehan (1968). 1968 was the year of the pitcher, remember? Only one batter in the AL that season batted over .300 that season. With such little production everywhere, Freehan's .819 OPS was more impressive than it sounds. Plus 1968 was the third of four straight Gold Glove Awards for Freehan behind the plate. And the Tigers won the World Series that season. Freehan started every game behind the plate in that post season. Freehan is another often overlooked catcher. And if it wasn't for Yaz in 1968, Freehan might have won himself an MVP that season.
10. Joe Mauer (2008). If you remember from the intro to this post, this was the season where B-R thought he was superfantastic and Fangraphs thought he was just fantastic. Mauer did win the batting title that season, but the difference in the WAR that season was how each site viewed his fielding. B-R--obviously--thought it was better than Fangraphs did.
11. Darren Daulton (1992). Another surprise entry on our list. But Daulton was unbelievable in 1992. That season was another down year for offense and Daulton's .908 OPS for the Phillies was good for a 154 OPS+. He also led the league that season in RBIs. His season in 1993 was nearly as good and that was the year that Joe Carter's home run won the World Series for the Blue Jays to defeat the Phillies. Daulton was never that great before those two seasons and would never be close to that good after they were over.
12. Mike Piazza (1993). 1993 was the season Piazza burst on the scene for the Dodgers and won the Rookie of the Year. It was also one of the few defensive seasons where he rated in the positive numbers. Add that to his  .932 OPS that season and that spells one of the best seasons ever for a catcher.
13. Chris Hoiles (1993). Chris Hoiles!? We mostly forget about Hoiles because he only played ten seasons and retired at the age of 33 (and he was still an effective catcher at that point too). But 1993 was his best season. Hoiles hit 29 homers that season and in 503 plate appearances, put together this fantastic slash line: .310/.416/.585. Wow! He also threw out 41 percent of base steal attempts that season and only allowed two passed balls the entire season. Chris Hoiles. Who knew? Oriole fans probably did.
14. Carlton Fisk (1977). Fisk was the iron man of all catchers. He played 24 seasons and is obviously in the Hall of Fame. What set apart 1977 for Fisk was that it was his best defensive season (he was always a very good offensive player). He threw out 50 of 110 base steal attempts and only allowed four passed balls (and only 12 wild pitches!). Fisk caught an incredible 151 ballgames that season.
15. Gary Carter (1983). Fangraphs and B-R disagree on Carter's value that season, but it was another great one. Carter had better offensive years for Montreal and later the Mets, but 1983 was arguably Carter's best defensive season.
16. Yogi Berra (1956). In 1956, Berra came to the plate 597 times and only struck out 29 times. And that was high for him. Berra slugged .534 that season with 30 homers and drove in 105. Berra also threw out 47 percent of base steal attempts that season. Berra had won the MVP Award in 1954 and 1955, but 1956 was his best season overall. He only came in second in the MVP voting that season because of some guy named Mickey Mantle (who hit for a Triple Crown).

There! That's the Fan's list of the sixteen greatest catching seasons ever. What do you think? Comments are always welcome. Below is the calculations used for this post with the added bonus to see who comes below these sixteen.

Gary Carter Interviewed by the Hall of the Very Good

Gary Carter wasn't a player you had few emotions about. He was either hated or he was loved. He had one of those images that made you want to muss him up a bit even if you shared his belief system. For this Fan, Gary Carter was in the same category as Steve Garvey of the Dodgers. Both seemed too good to be true and thus were the objects of some deep dislike.

But they were very different in other ways. Steve Garvey was always trying to be dignified, like he was a Clark Kent on the baseball field. It's hard for any catcher to be dignified as that position is as close to constantly playing in the dirt as possible. He was more flamboyant than Garvey and much more animated. That combined with what seemed to be a yearning for attention from the media and that ridiculously permed hair made him somewhat cartoonish for this Fan during his playing days.

But Carter is in the Hall of Fame, so that is the ultimate comeback answer to all those guys like this writer who didn't like him. And he deserved his election. He hit over three hundred homers and drove in over 1200 runs. He played well in the post season, especially in 1981 for the Expos when we first found out who he was. In the end, it didn't matter who we thought Gary Carter was, because his body of work told us what kind of player he was. He won. And rightly so.

There is a terrific site on the Web called the Hall of the Very Good. The Fan has recently discovered it and the author of the site always keeps it interesting with on-point interviews and other posts of interest. The Fan has really come to enjoy it. The Fan encourages you to see the latest post as the site interviews Gary Carter, the Hall of Fame Catcher. Check it out.