When I watched him in the '86 World Series, I didn't like him. I thought he and his Mets teammates came across as cocky and showboaty. However, everything I heard about him in the years afterward brought me around to admiring and respecting him. The opinions of former players paint a picture of a strong leader, a guy who would do anything for his teammates, and a genuinely nice guy. All this in addition to his unquestioned talent and toughness.
My father in law ran a charity golf outing for Special Olympics at his golf course, the Evergreen Club, in Palm City ( Stuart ) Fl. He started it and developed it into quite an event over an eight year period of time from the mid 90s on. He was able to get a lot of LPGA players as well as the men's senior tour players to play. He was also able to get some local celebs to play like Jim Kaat, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Joanne Carner. One year he got a call from someone who wanted to get involved; Gary Carter. Carter played in this fundraiser for four years. I worked the event for three of those four years. One year I brought my son Scott to the outing; he was 20 and about to ship out to the mid east as a part of the USAF in a couple of months so this was January 2002. My father in law introduced Scott at the party to Carter who could not have been nicer. He bought Scott a beer and the two of them talked baseball for the about 10 minutes. Carter was a religious man and they had some baseballs there for signing. He grabbed one and wrote " To Scott, God Bless You" Gary Carter.
Mrs. JO'Co met Gary Carter a long time ago and always spoke of how nice he was. Some things you can't fake. This was a nice guy.
you know George that is the Gary Carter I met and appreciated he loved the fans he loved kids he loved baseball. When I met him he was w. Montreal and they were in town to play the Dodgers in the playoffs one of my closet friends married to Chris Speier went to meet them for lunch Gary was in their room. He was polite,nice wanted to know if I needed tickets for game (didnt) he was just a nice all around good guy . He will be missed. We need more players like him
Can't say much about Carter, I never really followed his career much but from reading it's pretty clear he was pretty well respected and 57 is way too young.