It's YOUR decision! Retire Gary Carter's number?

[Benjamin Grimm]

This is a straight-up yes-or-no question. Continuing to keep number 8 in mothballs is not an option. Number 8 either gets retired or goes back into full circulation.



What's your decision?



https://mlb.nbcsports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2012/02/2182145_crop_650x440.jpg>

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

They have a team hall of Fame. Yogi has a better case for retiring 8 for chissakes

[batmagadanleadoff]

Youse know where I stand on this one. To me, the mere mention of retiring Carter's Mets number is so absurd, the case so meritless, that I regard it as lunatic talk.

[Benjamin Grimm]

For the record, I'm one of the NO votes. So far, NO leads YES by a count of 6 to 1.

[A Boy Named Seo]

No on Gary. But if the lockout drags on and the Mets keep starving for content and engagement...

[batmagadanleadoff]

There's a third option here: no on retirement but yes on the mothballs. I woudn't vote for that option, though. Put #8 back in rotation!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jeez, this is such a landslide that maybe we could have that discussion about whether he even deserves to be in the Mets HOF.

[Benjamin Grimm]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=84455 time=1642005650 user_id=68]
There's a third option here: no on retirement but yes on the mothballs. I woudn't vote for that option, though. Put #8 back in rotation!

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Sports Illustrated once opined on Carter -- looking at both arguments -- and others.



https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/05/27/new-york-mets-1986-world-series-retired-numbers-gary-carter-keith-hernandezhttps://www.si.com/mlb/2016/05/27/new-york-mets-1986-world-series-retired-numbers-gary-carter-keith-hernandez

[whippoorwill]

Hell no

[A Boy Named Seo]

SNY: “Yes to Gary, and why stop there!”



https://sny.tv/articles/keith-hernandez-mets-number-retired-more-metshttps://sny.tv/articles/keith-hernandez-mets-number-retired-more-mets

[roger_that]

The dead body is mine.

[metsmarathon]

gary carter is 26th in metly bWAR, with lagares, nimmo and backman ahead of him, and mcneil, ventura, and granderson behind him. as much of a leader and transformative figure as he was, that's a hard sell.



keith is 6th, behind wright, straw, beltran, fonzie, and jose, just ahead of hojo.



and there are pitchers ahead of these guys too.



obviously, it's much more of a strictly-WAR issue, but on-field performance has to be something of a consideration...

[Edgy MD]

And it's worth saying, because often enough it isn't considered, but there are plenty of ways to honor a player, and continue to acknowledge him as long as the franchise lasts, without retiring a number.



Name a seating section after him, name a minor league stadium after him, name an award after him, name a spring training workout field after him, name the bullpen after him, name a road within the stadium complex after him, etc. Build a statue, start a scholarship fund, donate a building to his college or high school, support and sponsor and promote a foundation the family may have started in his name. It's really do-able and it adds distinction and meaning to an honor where retired numbers have been a black-or-white thing.

[Edgy MD]

Continuing to Spitball: How about naming the Complex League Mets "The Kids"? That sounds like something that would make the Florida-based family proud, make the team a more attractive ticket to retired Mets fans, perpetuate the legacy of his defining nickname, and be Carter-specific in memorializing the 2005 Gulf Coast Mets team skippered to a lofty .698 winning percentage and GCL championship.



Carter gets a distinctive honor, and you hopefully never have to hear again about how not retiring his number is a passive or active insult to him.

[Frayed Knot]

Coupla thoughts here



While I'm not advocating for hard and fast rules on number retirement, I think general guidelines should fall somewhere around these

1) HoF stature player or at least something close to it

2) a long tenure with the club and one which constitutes the majority of his career

3) and then you get into contributions and overall good-guy-ness



Keith falls short on both #1 & #2 but is close and close-ish for both

Carter has #1 sewn up but barely 1/4 of his career is Queens falls woefully short even if his five years here were good/great but not even half of that was.

Keith is a bit more sketchy on the good citizen part but a good chunk of his induction is likely tied to his now lengthy broadcast career so that makes up for it.

[ashie62]

No to Carter.

[Centerfield]

He had one great year, one good year, then spent the next 2.5 years hitting like Juan Lagares.



Michael Conforto is more deserving than Gary Carter.

[Edgy MD]

Carter had that two-homer game in Game Four of the 1986 series that evened the series up, and then he had the hit and scored in the last-inning comeback in Game Six. This should not obscure the fact that Conforto had a terrific 2015 World Series and was, by most measures, the stronger post-season performer.



I guess that can be emblematic of the reality of Carter's Mets career. His successes were memorable enough that some seemingly need to be reminded just how many opportunities — and failures — it took to compile them.



I had a friend who was a baseball fan but not a Mets fan. He nonetheless lived in New York in the eighties and couldn't not turn them on from time to time. He said that, for years, every time he tuned in, somebody was going on about how Carter was finally working his way out of that long slump he was in.

[Centerfield]

There was that long dry spell before one of his milestone HRs. Maybe 300? I think it was like 8 years between 299 and 300. At least that's what it felt like.

[Edgy MD]

That's pretty much right. It was the longest home run drought of his career.



I think the stock market was affected.

[kcmets]

I had to look it up, because I too remember it seemed like an eternity.



255 AB between 299 and 300.



https://metsmerizedonline.com/2021/08/otd-1988-gary-carter-hits-300th-career-home-run.html/https://metsmerizedonline.com/2021/08/otd-1988-gary-carter-hits-300th-career-home-run.html/

[Frayed Knot]

And I remember an article in one of the papers the following day saying that there was no reason to believe that #301 would come any faster.

It probably did (too lazy to look up right now) but it was a clear acknowledgement that Carter looked spent by that point.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This landslide poll is a breath of fresh air. I thought I was practically alone in the NO camp. Me, Edgy and VicSage. But it's a pretty unanimous against. As it oughtta be. I think that what drives me absolutely bonkers the most about this idea of retiring Carter's # is that it comes up often in the media, supported by journalists.