4/3/2000 - Joe Carter, Blue Jays Hero

In the waning hours of October 23rd, 1993, Joe Carter made history as he belted Phillies reliever Mitch Williams' 2-2 slider into the Toronto bullpen. As the 52,195 who were lucky enough to be in attendance celebrated, everyone knew they had seen Joe Carter ascend from simply being a great player and an RBI machine into being a Toronto hero for the ages.

Joseph Chris Carter was born March 6, 1960 in Oklahoma City, OK. After graduating from Millwood High School in Oklahoma City (where he played baseball, basketball, football and ran track), Joe attended Wichita State, where he was a second team All-American in 1979 and 1980. In 1981, after being the Sporting News College Player of the Year, he was a first-round pick (and just second over-all) by the Chicago Cubs in the June Free Agent Draft.

He was assigned to AA-Midland in the Texas League where he spent the remainder of 1981 and all of 1982. In 1982, he was named to the Texas League All-Star Team. In 1983, he was promoted to AAA-Iowa of the American Association, where he was named the American Association Rookie of the Year with 22 home runs. Despite staying in the Cubs minor league system for three seasons, he would only play 23 games for the Cubs major league team, hitting just .176 with no home runs and 1 RBI (a far cry from his stats in later seasons). On August 1st, he collected his first major league hit against Philadelphia, a single off Steve Carlton.

In June 13, 1984, he was traded along with Mel Hall, Don Schulze and Darryl Banks to the Cleveland Indians for Ron Hassey, Rick Sutcliffe and George Frazier. If Joe Carter's glory years were with the Toronto Blue Jays, one could also argue that his years with the Indians weren't too shabby either. He became a starter for Cleveland in 1985, and the next year set career highs in games (162), at bats (663 - also an Indians all-time high), batting average (.302) hits (200), runs (108) and lead the major leagues in RBIs with a career high of 121. In 1987, he became the first 30-30 player in Indians history with 32 home runs and 31 stolen bases. In 1989, which would turn out to be his last season with the Indians, he hit a career high 35 home runs. After the season, Carter was traded to the San Diego Padres for Sandy Alomar, Chris James (?) and Carlos Baerga.

In 1990, Carter was the only National League player to play all 162 games, and hit .232 with 15 HR and 115 RBI. His stay in San Diego was short, only one season, before he and second baseman Roberto Alomar were traded to Toronto for Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff in a trade still remembered as one of the all-time great deals. Carter's career really took off in Toronto, starting with a home run on Opening Day off Boston reliever Jeff Gray. He played in his first All-Star game, which ironically was played at Toronto's Skydome, where he went 1-1 and scored a run. After hitting the 200th home run of his career (a 2-run shot off Boston's Joe Hesketh), Joe helped to lead the Jays to the American League Eastern Division title. In the ALCS against Minnesota, Joe hit .263 but was failed by an injured ankle while scaling the wall to catch a Shane Mack triple in Game Three. The Jays lost the series four games to one. Joe was awarded a Sporting News Silver Slugger Award, and by driving in 108 runs, he became the first major league player to have three consecutive 100 RBI seasons for three different teams.

In 1992, Joe hit .264 with 34 home runs and 119 RBIs. He was named to his second consecutive All-Star game in San Diego, getting the start in place of the injured Jose Canseco. Joe went 2 for 3 and scored the first RBI by a Toronto player in an All-Star Game. The Jays also captured their second consecutive American League East title and would face the Oakland Athletics in the ALCS. Joe would hit only .192 in the ALCS, but hit a two-run homer off Oakland's Mike Moore in the 6th and deciding game. Joe rebounded in the World Series, hitting .273 and the first Toronto home run in World Series history in the first inning of Game One off Tom Glavine of the Braves. In Game 6, Mike Timlin scooped up a bunt by Otis Nixon and tossed it to Carter, who was playing first, who made the final out that brought the Blue Jays their first World Series Championship.

Carter almost left the Jays during the off-season, as he was granted free agency on October 30, 1992. However, a dream of playing the outfield in Toronto made him decide to come back to the team and he resigned on December 8th, 1992. And so it was for Toronto, that on May 6th, 1993, Joe Carter hit his 250th home run off Baltimore's Ben McDonald. After being named to a third All-Star team (and going 1 for 3), Joe had a memorable game on August 23rd against Cleveland. He hit two home runs off Albie Lopez in the 1st and 5th innings to give him his 25th two-home run game. In the 8th, he hit another home run off Jeremy Hernandez to pass Lou Gehrig as leader in three-home run games with five. With the first home run, however, he scored his 500th run. On September 1st, he hit a double off Oakland's Mike Mohler which would be hit 1500th career hit.

After recording his 5th 30-homer season, Joe and the rest of the Jays got ready for another post-season. Joe hit .259 in the ALCS against Chicago, although all seven of his hits were singles. It was the World Series, however, where Carter really shined, hitting .280 with two home runs, six runs scored and eight RBIs. But then in Game 6, the Jays were down 6-5 in the 9th inning. Ricky Henderson led off the inning with a walk off Williams. Devon White flied out but Paul Molitor singled. Then it was Joe Carter's turn. Carter would battle Williams to a 2-2 count. Williams threw Joe a slider that hung over the plate one second too long... and then it was gone over the left field wall. Carter lept into the air, his impromptu victory dance becoming a part of Blue Jay history.

On Opening Day, 1994, Joe would play in his 1500th game. He would end the April 9th game with a 2-run homer off Seattle's Bobby Thigpen that would give Joe his 1000th RBI. He was voted to the All-Star game for a second consecutive year and went 0-3 with a run scored as the starting left-fielder. On August 6th against Detroit, Carter stole the 200th base of his career, becoming only the 10th player in major league history to have 200 career steals and 300 career home runs. However, despite this, 1994 would not have too many fond memories for Carter. Not only did the Jays falter in the AL East race, but the season would end a week later as the result of the players strike.

In the abreviated 1995 season, Carter still managed to hit 25 home runs, becoming the 22nd major leaguer to have 10 consecutive 20-plus homer seasons. On September 11th, he had his 32nd multi-homer game, and his first of the game was his 150th as a Blue Jay.

April 1996 was a big month for Joe, as he singled off California's Troy Percival on April 18th to collect his 1800th career hit. The next day, he homered twice off Seattle's Bob Wolcott for his 33rd 2-home run game of his career. Then, on April 22nd, he hit his 8th career grand slam. The rest of 1996 wasn't too shabby either. On May 31st, he became the first Blue Jay to hit 100 home runs at the Skydome, with a dinger off Mark Gubicza of Kansas City. On June 11th, in a game against the Yankees, Joe scored the 1000th run of his career. On July 23rd, he hit a solo shot off Cleveland's Chad Ogea that was the 350th of his career and number 175 as a Blue Jay. Three days later, the Blue Jays announced that they had signed Carter, along with manager Cito Gaston, to a one-year contract extension. It didn't take long for Joe to prove that the Blue Jays had made the right decision. The next day, Joe launched a home run off Oakland's John Wasdin that landed in the 5th deck at the Skydome. He was the first Blue Jay and only the third player in history to do that. (The other two being Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire.) He clinched his 6th 30-home run season with a shot off Baltimore's Rick Krivda on September 15th.

1997 would, sadly, be Joe Carter's last season with the Blue Jays. As always, he still managed to hit 20-plus homers and 100 plus RBIs (21 and 102 respectively). He was used as a designated hitter, but also played first base and right field. When manager Cito Gaston was fired, with just five games left in the season, Joe opted to wear Gaston's old number, 43, rather than his traditional number 29. In what would be his final at-bat in a Blue Jay uniform, the crowd of 40 000 at the Skydome stood and cheered Joe throughout the entire at-bat, which ended with Joe drawing a walk.

At the end of the season, Carter became a free agent. On December 8th, 1997, it was announced that Joe Carter, along with Charlie O'Brien, Orlando Merced and Mariano Duncan, would not be offered salary arbitration. However, Joe was signed by the Baltimore Orioles, thanks primarily to an old friend, Pat Gillick. Joe signed a 1-year. $3.3 million dollar contract with the Orioles, and was used as both a designated hitter and played in the outfield. He also announced that 1998 would be his final season.

In June, 1998, the Orioles played the Blue Jays at the Skydome, and on June 14, 1998, Toronto declared it "Joe Carter Day" and honoured their former teammate with a pre-game ceremony. Pat Hentgen and Ed Sprague presented Joe with a framed jersey and a painting of Carter's most famous home run. Joe received two standing ovations from the appreciative crowd.

But Joe's stay in Baltimore would not be a long one. After hitting .247 with 11 home runs and 34 RBIs for the Orioles, he was traded on July 23rd to the San Francisco Giants for minor league pitcher Darin Blood. Ironically, the announcement was made just houred after Carter had scored the winning run in a 9-7 victory over Oakland. In San Franciscio, Joe found himself in a pennant race, as the Giants were battling the Chicago Cubs for the National League wildcard. Joe hit .295 with 7 home runs and 29 RBIs during his time with the Giants.

Unfortunately, in Joe's last career at-bat, he popped up to become the last out of a one-game playoff between the Giants and Cubs. He would end his career with a lifetime batting average of .259 with 396 home runs and 1445 RBIs.

Joe joined ESPN as an analyst during the 1998 post-season. In 1999, he would join CTV Sportsnet as a colour commentator for Blue Jay games. On July 30, 1999 as the Jays hosted the Detroit Tigers, Joe Carter and Cito Gaston were honoured by the organization, and their names joined those of George Bell and Dave Stieb on the Skydome's "Level of Excellence", a fitting tribute to the man who brought so much excellence to the Toronto Blue Jays.

John M. Milner firmly believes that Joe Carter's home run in the 1993 World Series was one of the turning points of his life. Discuss this, his columns, baseball or life in general with him at docmilner@yahoo.ca.

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