Friday, February 17, 2012

Peace Out, Gary Carter


Thanks to Find the Swagger for the image.

Gary Carter is involved in one of my most vivid live baseball memories. I had just gotten into the whole "Beckett Baseball Card Monthly" thing and had learned about how players will sign autographs before games, during batting practice. We had tickets to a Mets vs. Giants game at Candlestick Park, so I rounded up some baseball cards of Mets and Giants players and a couple of baseballs. (It would take me a few years to realize that people generally went with brand-new baseballs for autographs, not ones that were well-played with, scuffed, and grass-stained.)

We got there during Mets batting practice and I scrambled down to the dugout. Gregg Jeffries was signing autographs, and he was the new hotness because he was a "Rated Rookie" and his card was worth serious bucks so everyone clamored around him. He signed a few autographs and departed, with many people (including me, I'm sure) looking disappointed. Who should step to the wall next but Gary Carter, wearing his signature flapless Mets helmet. The dude was a catcher, after all. The throng was less intense for him, but I knew he was a great catcher, one of the best in the majors (because my baseball cards said so). I didn't have a Carter card with me, so I handed out my scuffed ball and a ballpoint pen. He signed it and handed it back. I said thank you. I walked back to my dad, trying to play it off like it was no big D. But it was. It was my first autograph from a baseball player. I got one of those cheap plastic ball display cases for it, the one where the ball part always topples over if you nudge it. I put my ticket stub from the game in with the ball and it stayed on one of my shelves for a decade or so.

A few years after that autograph was signed, Carter actually came to the Giants and immediately became one of my favorite players. Because of our bond, you see. When he was elected to the Hall of Fame, I felt more pride than I probably should have. But how can you not love Gary Carter, even if you never had him sign your baseball before a Giants game?

I'm actually not sure whether I still have the baseball somewhere. I hope I do. Even though I sold a lot of that sort of stuff a few years ago, it's likely I held onto that. To this day, it remains the only autograph I've ever gotten at a baseball game. Everyone should be so lucky.

- Bill

1 comment:

  1. Great stuff, Bill. Honestly I had completely forgotten he was ever a Giant. When I heard Carter died I sent an email to a buddy of mine, a completely rudderless Expos fan with nothing to love now, basically, except how good Alan Ashby is on the radio and so a begrudging tolerance of both the Toronto Blue Jays and the American League broadly has begun to emerge in recent years, but mostly he's still bitter. All I wrote in the email was, "the greatest expo?" to which he replied "Yes. Though you'd never know it from the coverage which is heavily Mets biased." You're probably the only guy thinking about the Giants connection right now.

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