Gary Carter

A day of happiness for Gary Carter was one of sadness for Eddie Murray. Both of the former Southern California high school stars learned Tuesday that they had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Carter finally receiving the required 75% of votes cast by eligible members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America in his sixth year of eligibility and Murray doing it in his first. Only Carter, however, was available to express his joy in a conference call with BBWAA members.

Carter played only one season in Los Angeles, 1991, but he got into 101 games while platooning with fellow catcher Mike Scioscia. The former three-sport standout at Sunny Hills High in Fullerton was signed as a free agent the next year by Montreal--where he had begun his career in 1974--and retired at the end of the 1992 season having caught more games, 2,056, than any other player in National League history. Carter, 40, lives in Florida and is the color commentator on the Marlins' telecasts.

"I never had a job; all I did was play." Hal Sherbeck said it with the straightest of faces Sunday, but the standing-room-only crowd witnessing the 13th Orange County Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday outside the Hall's new museum at Anaheim Stadium knew exactly what the retired Fullerton College football coach was all about. Sherbeck had made it a habit of beginning his "play days" at Fullerton at 5:30 a.m.

Gary Carter could have hung on for another season, extended his National League games-caught record, added a few more hits, homers and runs batted in to make his portfolio a little more attractive to Hall of Fame voters. And as August was about to turn to September in 1992, Carter, who had returned to the Montreal Expos for his 18th major league season, had thoughts of a 19th tour of duty. Then his wife, Sandy, was broadsided by a driver who ran a stop sign near their home in Palm Beach, Fla.

Former Angel pitcher Bert Blyleven and former Dodger catcher Gary Carter are among six people to be inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, the Orange County Sports Assn. announced Tuesday. Joining Blyleven and Carter as inductees are Hal Sherbeck, Ray Willsey, Jerry Shipkey and Maurice (Red) Guyer. Blyleven, a graduate of Santiago High, posted 287 victories during a 22-year major league career with the Twins, Pirates, Rangers, Indians and Angels.

Gary Carter went out a hero in his final home game with the Montreal Expos. Carter, who is retiring after this season, hit a run-scoring double against Mike Morgan in the seventh inning Sunday to give the Expos a 1-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The 41,802 fans gave Carter a standing ovation, and he pumped his fists in the air as he stood on second. Carter was replaced by Tim Laker, a former standout at Simi Valley High and Oxnard College.

Nolan Ryan is coming back, Gary Carter isn't. Ryan, who has stymied hitters in four decades while compiling seven no-hitters, 319 victories and more than three dozen major league records, said Friday in Arlington, Tex., that he intends to return for a major league-record 27th season. Meanwhile in Montreal, Carter, with tears and sobs, announced that he would retire from baseball at the end of the season. "Timing is so important," the 38-year-old catcher said during a news conference.

Gary Carter is floating on a comic book collector's Cloud 9. Here he is at the famous Sotheby's auction house headquarters in New York City living out a boyhood dream, elbow-deep in thousands of colorful action-packed renditions of his beloved super-hero tales. All around him, comic books to kill for. Like Detective Comics 27, the May, 1939, copy that features Batman's burst onto the comics scene--and into the hearts and minds of small boys everywhere.

Gary Carter was floating on a comic book collector's cloud nine. There he was at the famous Sotheby's auction house headquarters in New York City, living out a boyhood dream, elbow-deep in thousands of colorful action-packed renditions of his beloved super-hero tales. All around him, comic books to kill for. Like Detective Comics No. 27, the May, 1939, copy that featured Batman's burst onto the comic book scene--and into the hearts and minds of small boys everywhere.