Gary Carter, the slugging catcher known as Kid for the sheer joy he took in playing baseball, who entered the Hall of Fame as a Montreal Expo but who most famously helped propel the Mets to their dramatic 1986 World Series championship, died this afternoon in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 57.
It drove some people nuts that Carter played every day with the joy as if it were the opening day of Little League. Even that nickname, "Kid," was minted with some derisiveness by jaded Expos veterans when Carter, in his first spring training camp in 1973, had the nerve to run hard on every sprint and bring enthusiasm to every drill.
In his 1987 book, A Dream Season, written with John Hough Jr., Carter wrote, "My enthusiasm for my family -- and for baseball, and other things, too -- strikes some people as a bit too much. My happiness crowds people a little."
Some Expos were put off by Carter's unabashed enthusiasm. They felt he was obsessed with his image and basked in hus press coverage too eagerly. They called him Camera Carter.
Carter's exuberance complemented his prowess at the plate. Curly-haired and with a ready smile, he was loved by the fans, first in Montreal, then in New York.
The light that was Gary Edmund Carter has been extinguished. Kid is dead, and far too soon at age 57 because of the evil of inoperable brain tumors. This world, not just this little game, is less sunny without him.
