On Friday, Gary Carter’s friends will gather for a memorial service in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where the Hall of Fame catcher lived until he passed away last week of brain cancer.
New York honored the memory of the former Mets catcher by lighting up the Empire State Building in blue and orange.
But nowhere was Carter’s death felt more than in Montreal.
When Carter died, it was as if baseball died again in the French Canadian city.
It reminded a generation of baseball fans there of the glory days of the Expos franchise. Carter became one of the city’s most beloved sports stars from 1974 to 1984, when he was traded to the Mets.
“There has been an incredible outpouring of grief since Gary died,” longtime Montreal sports talk show host Mitch Melnick said. “I don’t doubt that at some level people are also grieving the loss of the Expos.”
It should remind Washington baseball fans of what their brethren lost in Montreal when the Expos moved to Washington in 2005.
Washington didn’t steal the Expos. After years of dysfunctional ownership and neglect following their last great run in 1994 before the baseball strike, the team no longer could exist in Montreal by 2004.
But Carter’s death is a reminder that baseball once was alive and well in Montreal.
It is a reminder that, like Washington baseball fans who grew up idolizing Frank Howard, a generation of kids in Montreal grew up worshipping Gary Carter.
All they will have to pass on to their kids are memories of a game that no longer exists in their town.
Baseball may not be woven into the Canadian fabric like it is in America. Hockey is the Canadian sports culture. But Carter was in the hearts of sports fans in Montreal.
The team enjoyed a stretch of successful years in the early 1980s with a core group led by Carter, outfielders Tim Raines and Andre Dawson and pitcher Steve Rogers. More than 2 million fans every year showed up at Olympic Stadium, arguably the worst park in the baseball.
Carter, with his effusive personality, embraced Montreal, buying a home there, learning to speak some French and becoming the face of the baseball in the city when baseball mattered there.
His death was front-page news in all three daily papers in Montreal even though baseball left the city nearly eight years ago.
The front-page headline in the Montreal Gazette was “?’The Kid’ Was Light Of Expos.”
The Nationals honored Carter in 2010 by putting him in team’s Ring of Honor at Nationals Park, recognizing the history of the franchise in Montreal. His passing should remind Washington baseball fans what was lost in Montreal when baseball returned here.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
