The kid was alright. A people’s player. A classy and well liked man. Hardnosed.Smart A throwback and also very modern. But could someone be that happy all the time? The Expos clubhouse was divided and fractured and apparently so it was with the Mets . Unfortunately for Montreal, it may have cost them a pennant, but Carter can’t be held responsible. He was a big target and had broad shoulders, and if he was a great ambassador to the game, he didn’t foist it on his teammates. Montreal management, and Charles Bronfman in particular should have booted the malcontents out and laid down the law to the fence sitters. But they did not defuse it. In typical Canadian fashion, they figured they’d just muddle through and hope it would disappear.
Carter arrived at the right moment to replace the much liked and charismatic Rusty Staub, “La Grande Orange” who was traded, ironically to the Mets. Big no.8 was one of the rare examples who put forth the time and effort to learn conversational French, something which showed a sensitivity and respect to the Francophones.Carter began playing just before the Sovereignty party came to power and Quebec society was a cauldron of antagonism between English and French, as well as corruption and scandal with regard to the organization and financing of the Olympic games in 1976.
Looking back, Carter would have been a product of the social media age with an authentic engagement with the media and fans of Montreal that ultimately, in his era, must have taken a toll since back then it was all face to face or organized events. I hope Mayor Gerald Tremblay sees a Gary Carter Project through.Something without water meters and the usual muckraking. And, If the city has an airport named after Prime Minister Trudeau who enacted the War Measures Act and brought the army into Quebec against his own people, we can at least have something for Gary Carter.
Read More:http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/opinion/2012/02/gary-carter-beloved-in-montreal-former-expos-bat-boy.html ---More than 36 years have passed since Daniel Plamondon met an energetic, young Californian named Gary Carter, but his memories of "The Kid" are still fresh. A former bat boy and batting practice pitcher with the Montreal Expos, Plamondon was a big-league "rookie" in the same year as the future Hall of Famer. And starting in 1975, the-then wide-eyed 17-year-old formed a brotherly bond with Carter who was four years older than him. Carter, who spent 12 of his 19 major league seasons in Montreal, would assist Plamondon with his homework, while the francophone teen would help Carter hone his French. The duo would grow up together in the clubhouses at Jarry Park and Olympic Stadium, and few would come to know Carter as well as Plamondon.--
from Jeff Pearlman ( see link): Baseball clubhouses are much like junior high lunchrooms, in that the cool kids divide themselves from the un-cool; the studs distance themselves from the geeks.In the oft-ignorant, oft-shallow world of baseball, Carter was deemed a geek from the very beginning. He didn’t drink and didn’t smoke. He didn’t curse and he didn’t talk smack. He showed up to work early, played hard, embraced home-plate collisions and—by all accounts—worked his tail off. He was loyal to his wife, Sandy, and an involved and dedicated father to their three children.
Yet this was rarely good enough for teammates. In Montreal, where Carter established himself as a star from 1974-84, he was derisively tagged “Teeth,” “Lights” and “Camera Carter” for his apparent love of the spotlight and his willingness to grant any and every interview request. Such behavior didn’t sit well with many of the Expos, who mocked him (cowardly, Carter would later tell me) behind his back and made him the butt of their juvenile jokes. Why, Carter’s famous nickname—The Kid—was born of neither love nor appreciation, but scorn.Read More:http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/2/17/2803797/jeff-pearlman-everybody-didnt-love-gary-carter
If Carter had played his prime years away from Montreal,almost anywhere else, his power figures would be more impressive. The joke of Olympic stadium architect the Frencman Roger Taillibert was that the venue looked like a space age toilet and the team played in a dank hole. It was humid, uncomfortable and fly balls seemed to lack the will and volition to reach to cheap seats.
and from JCSuperstars: “The Baseball Hall of Fame is something every player dreams about, but being a member of God’s Hall of Fame is the greatest achievement of all. God offers each of us the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. When we accept God’s gift of salvation, our name is written in The Book of Life, guaranteeing us a place in heaven forever.” “I made that decision during spring training in 1973, and prayed asking Jesus to come into my heart as Lord and Savior. It was then that I first realized that when Jesus died on the cross, he died for me and paid for my sins. Accepting his payment was all I needed to do. I couldn’t earn my way into heaven. You can become a member of God’s Hall of Fame too, by making the same decision today.” Read More:http://jcsuperstars.wordpress.com/2007/12/29/gods-hall-of-fame-more-important-to-gary-carter/
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