Mets set stage for championship by trading for Carter

The New York Mets were looking for a veteran bat to stabilize their young lineup. Gary Carter was looking for a chance to play in the World Series.

The team and the player found their perfect match on Dec. 10, 1984, when New York sent four players to the Montreal Expos in a deal for the man widely acclaimed as the best catcher in the game.

“I’m thrilled – what can I say?” Carter told the Associated Press after the deal. “I’m well aware of the Mets’ nucleus of fine talent and I’m anxious to make a contribution next year. I’ve never been on a world championship team and I’m hopeful to get that chance in New York.”

In his eight full seasons as a catcher with Montreal, Carter had been named to six All-Star Games – winning All-Star Game Most Valuable Player honors in both 1981 and 1984. Carter had also earned three Gold Glove Awards and topped the 100-RBI mark twice, including an NL-best 106 runs batted in during the 1984 season.

The Mets, meanwhile, were fresh off their first winning season in eight years and had assembled a talented roster that included young aces Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling and Sid Fernandez. New York general manager Frank Cashen had to give up four players – Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham and Floyd Youmans – to get Carter but felt the price was worth the return.

“It’s a banner day for the New York Mets,” Cashen told the AP. “To acquire a player of Carter’s caliber, you have to part with some talent, and that’s what we did, but you really can’t measure the type of imprint Gary Carter will have on the Mets next year and for years to come.”

Cashen proved to be prophetic as Carter hit a career-high 32 home runs and drove in 100 runs in 1985 while helping the Mets win 98 games. New York finished second in the National League East behind the Cardinals but added 10 wins to its total the next season, rolling to the division title as Carter hit 24 home runs and totaled 105 RBI.

In the NLCS vs. the Astros, Carter’s 12th-inning RBI single plated Wally Backman to give the Mets a 2-1 win in the pivotal Game 5, and the Mets went on to win the series in Game 6. Then in the World Series, Carter totaled seven hits and seven RBI in the first five games against the Red Sox. But the Mets found themselves behind in the series 3-games-to-2 entering Game 6 – and then trailing by a score of 5-3 entering the bottom of the 10th.

After the Red Sox got two outs to start the frame to climb within one out of a championship, Carter lined a single to left field that started an improbable three-run rally that gave the Mets a win and forced Game 7. The Red Sox took an early 3-0 lead in the final game but Carter tied the score in the bottom of the sixth when the Red Sox’s Dwight Evans could not come up with his flare to short right field. Backman, who was on third base, scored, and though Evans forced Keith Hernandez out at second on the play, the momentum now belonged to New York.

The Mets won the game 8-5 to capture the title and deliver a World Series ring to Carter.

Carter played three more seasons with the Mets before ending his career in one-year stints with the Giants, Dodgers and Expos. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2003.

“Everyone knows about our search for a right-handed power hitter,” Cashen told the AP on the day of the trade that changed the Mets’ destiny. “And they don’t come much better than Gary Carter.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum