Top Blue Jays Player #9: Joe Carter
Position: Right
Field
Seasons With the
Jays: 7 (1991-1997)
MLB Awards: Silver
Slugger (1991, 1992)
All-Star Game
Selection: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996
Stats: Games Played 1039 Batting
Average .257
Base Hits 1051 Runs
Scored 578
Home Runs 203 RBIs
736
Doubles
218 Triples 28
Stolen Bases 78 Walks 286
There’s no doubt that when Blue
Jays’ fans think of Joe Carter, they think of Game 6 of the 1993 World Series
and his walk-off home run to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies. But there was
more to Carter’s Toronto career than that one hit. For seven years with the
Jays, he was a premiere run producer, a consistent power threat and an underrated,
reliable glove man in the outfield.
Carter was drafted by the
Chicago Cubs in the first round (second pick overall) in the 1981 Amateur Draft
and made his debut with the Cubs in 1983. He only played in 23 games that
season and was traded to the Cleveland Indians before the 1984 season. Carter
spent six years in Cleveland, playing for teams that weren’t that good, but
still producing effectively. Starting in 1986, he would embark on an epic
twelve year run wherein he managed to knock in over 100 runs ten times over
that span. In fact, in 1986 he led the American League with 121 RBIs.
His total was 106 in 1987, then
he slipped to 98 in 1988. After 105 RBIs in 1989, the Indians traded him to the
San Diego Padres prior to the 1990 season. Despite all his run-producing
success (another 115 RBIs with the Padres in 1990) Carter had never been
invited to the All-Star Game. Perhaps playing for mediocre teams had much to do
with that.
At the conclusion of his first
year in San Diego, he was traded along with Roberto Alomar to the Toronto Blue
Jays for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez. I once spoke with Donald Fehr, who at
the time of the trade was the executive director of the MLB Players’
Association, and he mentioned that Carter was really upset at being traded to
Toronto and even considered refusing to report. Fehr told Carter that going to
Toronto would be the best thing to happen to his career.
His first season with the Blue
Jays in 1991 saw Carter selected to his first All-Star game, which just
happened to be played in Toronto. Carter became the first player in MLB history
to record 100-plus RBIs in three consecutive seasons with three different
teams. He finished with 108, while also hitting 33 home runs and batted .273. On
October 2nd, the Blue Jays defeated the California Angels on
Carter’s walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to clinch the AL East
Division. In the ALCS against Minnesota, Game 3 saw Carter injure his ankle
while leaping against the wall trying to catch a flyball, an injury that
hobbled him for the rest of the series, a five-game loss to the Twins. Still,
he managed to hit .263 in the ALCS with one home run and four RBIs.
In 1992, Carter once again
helped the Jays to the AL East title, batting .263, hitting 34 home runs and
adding 119 RBIs. In the ALCS against Oakland, while he only had an average of
.192, hit two-run home run in the first inning of the deciding sixth game,
sparked Toronto to a 9-2 victory. In the World Series against Atlanta, he hit
two home runs while batting .273 and recorded the final put-out of the series
when pitcher Mike Timlin fielded an Otis Nixon bunt and threw to Carter who was
playing first base. The Jays had their first World Series Championship.
During the off-season, Carter
(who was a free agent) came close to signing with the Kansas City Royals but
decided to remain in Toronto. He helped the Jays to their third straight, AL
East title and their second straight World Series victory. In the regular
season, he batted .254, hit 33 homers and added 199 RBIs. In the ALCS against
the White Sox, he batted .259 and had two RBIs and made the final catch of the
series (in right field) as the Jays beat Chicago in six games.
In the World Series against
Philadelphia, his average was .280, he drove in eight runs and hit two home
runs, including only the second World Series-clinching walk off homer in
history. The Jays were trailing the Phillies 6-5 in Game 6, when with two
runners on, Carter worked the count to 2 and 2, then lined Mitch Williams’
pitch over the left field fence.
Despite playing only 111 games
due to the players’ strike in 1994, Carter still collected his usual 100 RBIs
(103). But his streak of sixth straight years came to an end in 1995. Even
though he hit 25 home runs, the lack of his teammates getting on base resulted
in only 76 RBIs for him.
He played two more seasons with
the Blue Jays (collecting 107 RBIs in 1996 and 102 in 1997) bringing his total
seasons with the club to seven. The Jays were no longer as competitive as they
had been at the beginning of the decade and after 1997, Carter was not
re-signed and moved on to the Baltimore Orioles.
His final season was that 1998
season and he played in 85 games with Baltimore before being traded to the San
Francisco Giants, playing another 41 games before retiring from baseball.
Since retiring, Carter served as
an analyst on baseball telecasts for the Blue Jays in 1999 and 2000, then for
the Cubs in 2001 and 2002. In 2010, he started the annual “Joe Carter Classic,”
a celebrity golf tournament that raises money to benefit the Children’s Aid
Foundation.
Follow us on Twitter at @topofthethird
No comments:
Post a Comment