Former Mets Catcher Gary Carter Dies of Cancer

The starting catcher for the last New York Mets team to win a World Series in my lifetime has passed away. Gary Carter is stepping behind a new plate now and he was only 57 years old. Carter, battling brain tumors for the past year lost his battle with cancer yesterday (Feb. 16th).

Nicknamed "The Kid", Carter was the battery behind the 108-win Mets team of 1986. He might be best known for starting the two-out rally in Game 6 of the World Series against Boston that ended with Ray Knight jumping for joy down the third base line as Mookie Wilson's dribbler made Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner a marked man in Beantown, but from all accounts he was an even better person.

I never met Gary Carter, but whenever I saw him on television he always had a smile on his face. It's funny that of all the Mets players that had issues on those 80s teams, Dwight "Doc" Gooden (drugs), Darryl Strawberry (drugs & alcohol), Lenny Dykstra (alcohol), Kevin Mitchell, Keith Hernandez and more, Carter, who was never in the tabloids, never in the news for anything illegal or stupid, was the first to die.

R.I.P. Kid