1977 gary carter

o-pee-chee didn't make a card for andre dawson in 1977, but they did make some changes for the other expo star, gary carter.  a different photo and a relocated facsimile autograph make for a very cool variation.  here is gary carter's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i addressed (sort of) the different cartoons the other day at garvey cey russell lopes, if you're interested.  i have no idea why o-pee-chee switched the cartoons.

the expos switched carter to a full-time catcher in 1977, as he caught in 146 games and made only one partial game appearance in the outfield.  carter hit .284 with 31 home runs and 84 rbi.  he threw out only 33% of the base stealers who ran against him, but he did lead the league in putouts and assists by a catcher.

in april, carter hit three home runs in a game off of the pirates' jim rooker.  then, in september, he hit two more off of rooker in a different game.  he had 3 other multi-home run games to boot.  he was the first expo to have a three-homer game, and his 31 roundtrippers on the season was a franchise record at the time.

this is the penultimate card to be featured here, and the last of the expos.

voici à vous, 1977 gary carter!

1992 gary carter tribute (expos 1992)

gary carter returned to the expos after the 1991 season for a last hurrah in montreal.  as a result, o-pee-chee gave us the fifth installment of their 'tribute' subset, showing carter in an expos uniform for the last time.

here's the topps front, or at least the topps equivalent:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

the previous installments of the subset i have deemed to be 'checklist variations', even though the 4th card in the series covering his lone season with the dodgers uses the same photo as his lone topps card, shown above.  this one i consider to be a team and photo variation because this is card 45 in the o-pee-chee set, which matches up with the topps checklist, and the backs are the same.

the kid played in 95 games in 1992, but hit a paltry .218 with 5 homers for the expos in his final season. his final big league home run, number 324 of his career, came off of mike morgan of the cubs which i find interesting because carter was morgan's catcher in la when morgan made his last start as a dodger in october of 1991. this is not to say that carter couldn't have homered off of morgan had he not been his catcher (obviously he hit a lot of long balls off of guys he never caught), but i have always wondered how much pitchers and catchers really share and i assume that catching a guy for even a short time gives one a pretty good sense of what he throws in certain situations. anyway, gary carter had a heckuva career and a pretty positive life. rest in peace kid.

voici à vous, 1992 gary carter tribute (expos 1992)!

1992 gary carter tribute (dodgers 1991)

gary carter signed as a free agent with the dodgers in march of 1991. here is the 4th of 5 'tribute' cards from the 1992 o-pee-chee set that were dedicated to carter's career:

here's the back:

although carter's 1992 topps card features the same photo, i am considering this to be a checklist variation only.  that's because the 1992 o-pee-chee set was a full 792 cards, just like topps, and this card is numbered 399, not 45 like carter's topps card (we will see next time around that the 5th carter tribute card in the o-pee-chee set is numbered 45).

anyway, here's the topps card that got kicked to the curb by this carter tribute:

and its back:

for the dodgers, carter played in 101 games and hit .246. he served primarily as a backup to mike scioscia, but also played a bit of first base. he hit only 5 home runs as a dodger, but one of them was a 9th inning shot that tied the game against the astros on august 17th, sending the game to extras in which the dodgers won on a walk-off single by eddie murray. the kid scored his 1000th career run and stroked his 2000th career hit with la, and was picked up on waivers by the expos after the season ended.



voici à vous, 1992 gary carter tribute (dodgers 1991)!

1992 gary carter tribute (giants 1990)

the 1992 o-pee-chee set included a 5 card tribute subset to gary carter, the guy who would become the first expo hall of famer. each card was a tribute to a different team/stage of his career, and this is the third one to be featured on this site (here's the first two). this is his 1992 o-pee-chee tribute card for the year (1990) he spent with the giants:

now here's the back:

here's the front of the topps card that carter's giants tribute displaced:

and its back:

one carter displaces another.  the kid had signed a free agent deal with the giants following his release from the mets after the 1989 season.  as the back of the tribute card states, he set a new national league record for games caught while playing for the no-cals.  he also had his second career 5-hit game and hit a game winning home run in the 9th against the dodgers.  all is forgiven, though, because carter signed with the dodgers for the 1991 season.

wishing him and his family all the best...

voici à vous, 1992 gary carter tribute (giants 1990)!

1985 gary carter

gary carter was traded from the expos to the mets in december of 1984.  here is his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

carter, known as the kid, had led the league in rbi in 1984 with 106, even though the back of his 1985 'baseball picture cards' leaves that stat off.  he drove in 100 runs again in 1985, and set a personal best with 32 home runs.  he was also named to the all-star team for the 8th time (and 7th in a row) and won his 4th silver slugger in his first season as a met.  in 1986, he led the team to the postseason for the first time since 1973, and while he hit only .148 in the nlcs, he had a big hit for the mets in game 6 of the world series - his 2-out single in the bottom of the 10th inning kept the mets alive and sparked the game winning rally. 

voici à vous, 1985 gary carter!

1992 gary carter tribute (mets 1985-1989)

the 1992 o-pee-chee set included a 5 card tribute subset to gary carter, the guy who would become the first expo hall of famer. each card was a tribute to a different team/stage of his career, and this is the second one to be featured on this site (here's the first).  this is his 1992 o-pee-chee tribute card for the mets' years:

there's no similar card in the topps set, but here's the front of the topps card that was deleted from the o-pee-chee set:

now the o-pee-chee back:

 and the topps back:  

carter had his last great season in 1985, his first with the mets.  he is likely best remembered, however, for the 1986 season in which the mets won the world series.  as you recall, it was his two-out single in the bottom of the 10th inning that started the mets' improbable rally against calvin schiraldi and the red sox.  i remember his mets' years for another postseason at-bat, however.  in game 1 of the 1988 nlcs, carter again had a two-out hit in the mets' last at-bat.  this time, his two-out double in the 9th drove in two runs to put the mets ahead 3-2 where they would stay and beat the dodgers.  i have to admit, i was unsure that the dodgers would be able to overcome such a defeat, but they did, and gary carter never played in another postseason series for the remainder of his career.

voici à vous, 1992 gary carter tribute (mets 1985-1989)!

1992 gary carter tribute (expos 1974-1984)

the 1992 o-pee-chee set included a 5 card tribute subset to gary carter, the guy who would become the first expo hall of famer.  each card was a tribute to a different team/stage of his career, and the first one i'll show is his 1974-1984 expos tribute card

there's no similar card in the topps set, but here's the front of the topps card that was deleted from the o-pee-chee set:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the displaced topps back:

carter had some great years for the expos during his first stint with the club.  he was a durable catcher who also played a little bit of outfield and first base.  his first expo tenure ended on a high in 1984 by leading the league in rbi and winning the all star game mvp award, for the second time i might add.  he joined steve garvey as the only player to accomplish that semi-impressive feat.  carter was a big reason the expos made the 1981 postseason, and he pretty much destroyed the phillies in the first round to get to the nlcs that year.  he played well against the dodgers, but didn't do a lot of damage, and never got close to the world series again, with the expos, that is.

voici à vous, 1992 gary carter tribute (expos 1974-1984)!