Gary Carter was ebullient in life, virtually to the very end. His wondrous baseball skills made him an icon to millions, in Montreal, the North Country and elsewhere; his death from a fast and relentlessly moving brain cancer leaves us baffled again that such a strong and good human being leaves us at such a young age.
Carter died last week of glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor that had worked its way into passageways inaccessible to surgeons and defiant of radiation and chemotherapy. At 57, he thus became a tragic figure.
We in the North Country were fortunate to have seen him for 11-plus years at the peak of his powers. In 1977, he supplanted the great Johnny Bench as baseball's best catcher, belting 31 home runs and launching a run with the Expos that left him as one of the top two or three players in the team's 36-year history.
The Expos were famous for finding and developing rare talent and subsequently watching it gravitate to other teams with higher payrolls. Vladimir Guerrero, Andre Dawson, Andres Galarraga, Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, Tim Raines, Pedro Martinez, Steve Rogers and Warren Cromartie, among many, many others, all got their start in the red, white and blue uniform of Montreal.
The Expos never won a World Series, and it was their dispiriting fate to have their best chance in 1994, when the season was abruptly ended by a strike — after Montreal had compiled a major-league-best 74-40 record.
Fans could argue the relative merits of the pantheon on stars Montreal produced, but Carter played perhaps the game's most difficult position with gusto and dash rare in the sport's entire history. He wound up playing 2,296 games and batting .262 with 324 home runs and 1,225 runs batted in. In 2003, he became the first player inducted into the Hall of Fame as an Expo. (He also played for San Francisco, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Mets, before returning to Montreal to finish off his career.)
He was diagnosed last May and was at that time told his life would be measured in months, not years. He had the same disease that had claimed baseball stars Bobby Murcer, Tug McGraw and Dick Hoswer.
After his diagnosis, he underwent treatment, and his condition improved dramatically, seeing his brain tumors shrink by 75 percent.
But the progress was short-lived. Rather than quietly accept his fate, however, Carter returned to coaching for Palm Beach Atlantic University. His daughter, Kimmy Bloemers, told the New York Times that, after Carter finished a five-day chemotherapy treatment, he coached his team's final two games of the fall season, although his body "did not allow him to coach at 100 percent but his mind was sharp and he enjoyed calling the plays."
A robust example of the ups and downs of life, Gary Carter in death leaves a legacy of sports greatness and enthusiasm that will be an inspiration to North Country fans for years to come.
