REVISITING A POST FROM 2013: 1975 GARY CARTER DEDICATED ROOKIE

On the blog today, we revisit a post from October, 2013, my 1975 "Dedicated Rookie" for one of the all-time great catchers, Gary Carter:

Loved Carter as a kid growing up in the early 80's, seeing him pick up where Johnny Bench left off as the game's best catcher.

Here's the original write-up for that post:

Let's give another Hall of Famer a "proper" rookie card, as opposed to some lame multi-player card that was actually issued by Topps.
Today's player, Gary Carter, was a former teammate of my first subject in this thread (Andre Dawson), part of that young talented Montreal Expos roster in the late-70's/early-80's.
In 1975 Carter made his first card appearance on the multi-player card you see below (#620).
It was an awesome set with some fantastic rookies (Brett, Yount, Lynn, Hernandez) and all-time legends winding down their careers (Aaron, B. Williams, Ron Santo, F. Robinson), so really I'm not trying to complain about it here.
However as I stated with the first post on this thread, I was never a fan of these multi-player rookie cards. Looking back on them now it's incredible to see how many of the players depicted never even made it up to the Majors in the future. Wasted space in my eyes (the 1977 set was particularly brutal in this respect).
Sadly Gary Carter was picked by Topps to be on one of these cards, so we also have the "un"legendary Dan Meyer, Marc Hill and Leon Roberts taking up space on what should have been a classic card of the best catcher in the 1980's and eventual Hall of Famer.
But today, allow me to imagine what a "dedicated" rookie card of Gary Carter in 1975 could have looked like had Topps issued one.
Instead of using one of those "Gary Carter-like" smiling poses we're used to, I found a slightly more serious shot of him posing at-bat. Just seemed nice and different for a change.

I remember when Gary Carter really took over the "best catcher" tag from Johnny Bench around 1981. It was like he was suddenly everywhere with that smile of his!
Sure you still had Carlton Fisk producing in the American League, but Carter really took over as the top backstop and held onto that title for pretty much the rest of the decade.
This was a guy who had nine seasons of 20+ homers and four 100+ R.B.I. seasons as a catcher. Not too shabby!
After finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting in 1975, Carter also went on to have 11 All-Star game nods, five Silver Slugger awards, three Gold Gloves and seven seasons where he garnered M.V.P. votes, finishing in the Top-10 four times.
By the time he retired after the 1992 season, he finished with 2092 hits, 324 home runs and 1225 runs batted in.
Needless to say Cooperstown came calling, and in 2003 he easily got voted in after being selected on 387 of 496 ballots, securing his place in baseball history forever.
However, sadly years later Carter was diagnosed with brain cancer, and despite undergoing aggressive treatment he succumbed to the disease about nine months later in February of 2012.
A tragic and shocking loss for the baseball world to say the least.

OPC VARIATIONS- 1977 GARY CARTER

The next OPC image variation we spotlight here on the blog is that of Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, who was just beginning his fabulous career that would eventually land him in Cooperstown:

OPC version

Topps version

One of the rare instances where I prefer the Topps version rather than the OPC, given the catching pose from the OPC batting pose.

Nevertheless, both are nice clear images of the young catching stud, on his way to becoming the top catcher of the 1980's.

Actually I remember when Gary Carter really took over the "best catcher" regardless of league from Johnny Bench around 1981. It was like he was suddenly everywhere with that smile of his!
Sure you still had Carlton Fisk producing in the American League, but Carter really took over as the top backstop and held onto that title for pretty much the rest of the decade.
This was a guy who had nine seasons of 20+ homers and four 100+ R.B.I. seasons as a catcher. Not too shabby!
After finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting in 1975, Carter also went on to have 11 All-Star game nods, five Silver Slugger awards, three Gold Gloves and seven seasons where he garnered M.V.P. votes, finishing in the Top-10 four times.
By the time he retired after the 1992 season, he finished with 2092 hits, 324 home runs and 1225 runs batted in.
Needless to say Cooperstown came calling, and in 2003 he easily got voted in after being selected on 387 of 496 ballots, securing his place in baseball history forever.
However, sadly years later Carter was diagnosed with brain cancer, and despite undergoing aggressive treatment he succumbed to the disease about nine months later in February of 2012.

1978 SPECIAL SUB-SET- "1977 30 HOME RUN CLUB" GARY CARTER

On the blog today, we add Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter to my on-going "30 Home Run Club" 1978 sub-set, celebrating the first of his two 30-homer campaigns, which occurred during the 1977 season:

 

The 23-year-old bounced back from an injury-riddled 1976 season to hit 31 homers along with 84 runs batted in for the Montreal Expos, on his way to taking over "best National League catcher" title from the great Johnny Bench a few season's later (sorry Ted Simmons!).

Actually I remember when Gary Carter really took over the "best catcher" regardless of league from Johnny Bench around 1981. It was like he was suddenly everywhere with that smile of his!
Sure you still had Carlton Fisk producing in the American League, but Carter really took over as the top backstop and held onto that title for pretty much the rest of the decade.
This was a guy who had nine seasons of 20+ homers and four 100+ R.B.I. seasons as a catcher. Not too shabby!
After finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting in 1975, Carter also went on to have 11 All-Star game nods, five Silver Slugger awards, three Gold Gloves and seven seasons where he garnered M.V.P. votes, finishing in the Top-10 four times.
By the time he retired after the 1992 season, he finished with 2092 hits, 324 home runs and 1225 runs batted in.
Needless to say Cooperstown came calling, and in 2003 he easily got voted in after being selected on 387 of 496 ballots, securing his place in baseball history forever.
However, sadly years later Carter was diagnosed with brain cancer, and despite undergoing aggressive treatment he succumbed to the disease about nine months later in February of 2012.

NICKNAMES OF THE 1970'S: "KID" GARY CARTER

Next up in the on-going “Nicknames of the 1970’s” thread is Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, who was just about to take the torch from Johnny Bench as the premier backstop in the National League, if not all of baseball:

Carter came up as a full-time catcher for the Montreal Expos in 1975 and finished second in the National League Rookie of the Year race to San Francisco Giants pitcher John Montefusco.
From there all he proceeded to do was string together nine 20+ home run seasons, four 100-RBI seasons, and a second place finish in 1980 and third place finish in 1986 for the NL MVP.
After 12 years North of the border, he found himself a member of the New York Mets, where he solidified his future place in Cooperstown when he guided the team to a World Championship in 1986, while leading a group of young talent to the franchise’s most successful run in team history between 1985 and 1988.
By the time he retired after the 1992 season, he finished with 324 homers, 1225 RBIs, 1025 runs scored and 2092 hits, along with three Gold Gloves and eleven All-Star nods.
Though it took six tries, Carter was finally selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 with exactly 78% of the vote, eventually being joined by former teammates Andre Dawson and Tim Raines representing a missed Montreal Expos franchise that was really killed by the 1994 baseball strike.
I still can’t believe he passed away at such a young 57 in 2012 after a long battle with cancer.
RIP “Kid”.

DEDICATED "ROOKIE CARDS" #2: 1975 GARY CARTER

Let's give another Hall of Famer a "proper" rookie card, as opposed to some lame multi-player card that was actually issued by Topps.
Today's player, Gary Carter, was a former teammate of my first subject in this thread (Andre Dawson), part of that young talented Montreal Expos roster in the late-70's/early-80's.
In 1975 Carter made his first card appearance on the multi-player card you see below (#620).
It was an awesome set with some fantastic rookies (Brett, Yount, Lynn, Hernandez) and all-time legends winding down their careers (Aaron, B. Williams, Ron Santo, F. Robinson), so really I'm not trying to complain about it here.
However as I stated with the first post on this thread, I was never a fan of these multi-player rookie cards. Looking back on them now it's incredible to see how many of the players depicted never even made it up to the Majors in the future. Wasted space in my eyes (the 1977 set was particularly brutal in this respect).
Sadly Gary Carter was picked by Topps to be on one of these cards, so we also have the "un"legendary Dan Meyer, Marc Hill and Leon Roberts taking up space on what should have been a classic card of the best catcher in the 1980's and eventual Hall of Famer.
But today, allow me to imagine what a "dedicated" rookie card of Gary Carter in 1975 could have looked like had Topps issued one.
Instead of using one of those "Gary Carter-like" smiling poses we're used to, I found a slightly more serious shot of him posing at-bat. Just seemed nice and different for a change.
Enjoy...

Carter's first appearance on a card, in 1975 as issued by Topps.

My design for "The Kid" in all his youthful glory on a dedicated card.

I remember when Gary Carter really took over the "best catcher" tag from Johnny Bench around 1981. It was like he was suddenly everywhere with that smile of his!
Sure you still had Carlton Fisk producing in the American League, but Carter really took over as the the top backstop and held onto that title for pretty much the rest of the decade.
This was a guy who had nine seasons of 20+ homers and four 100+ R.B.I. seasons as a catcher. Not too shabby!
After finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting in 1975, Carter also went on to have 11 All-Star game nods, five Silver Slugger awards, three Gold Gloves and seven seasons where he garnered M.V.P. votes, finishing in the Top-10 four times.
By the time he retired after the 1992 season, he finished with 2092 hits, 324 home runs and 1225 runs batted in.
Needless to say Cooperstown came calling, and in 2003 he easily got voted in after being selected on 387 of 496 ballots, securing his place in baseball history forever.
However, sadly years later Carter was diagnosed with brain cancer, and despite undergoing aggressive treatment he succumbed to the disease about nine months later in February of 2012.
A tragic and shocking loss for the baseball world to say the least.