Larry Carter Was a Boy of (Late) Summer

Plus, all baseball roads lead to the Riverfront

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1993 Score Boys of Summer Larry Carter (#18) - Card of the Day

Sometimes, the best coaches are the ones who know what it’s like to overcome adversity. And, when it comes to making it all the way to a big league mound, few hurdles are as daunting to a young pitcher as an arm injury.

Little wonder, then, that Larry Carter has spent most of the last 30 years in the pro coaching ranks.

Selected by the Cardinals in the tenth round of the 1986 draft, Carter went 1-5 with a 3.72 ERA for Rookie-level Johnson City that summer. But an arm injury put him on the shelf and led to his release.

After spending 1987 out of professional baseball, Carter signed a minor league free agent deal with the Giants in late April of 1988. From there he began his climb again, gradually moving up the San Francisco ranks while also upping his workload.

All that work paid off for both sides in 1992, when 27-year-old Carter went 11-6 with a thick 4.37 ERA for the Triple-A Phoenix Firebirds. That September, the big league Giants were going nowhere fast, so they decided to give Carter his shot.

Giants manager Roger Craig tabbed Carter for the start against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium on September 6. The Cards gave the rookie a rude welcome to the bigs, scoring five runs in 4.2 innings on three walks and eight hits, including home runs by Todd Zeile and Felix Jose.

Carter did strike out four Cardinals, though, and he finally had his MLB debut in the books. Craig didn’t give up on Carter, either, and the righty made five more starts through the end of the season.

Overall, Carter went 1-5 with a 4.64 ERA.

Score thought enough of Carter’s showing that they decided to include him in their 30-card “Boys of Summer” insert set in 1993, along with big names like Pedro Martinez, Tim Salmon, Mike Piazza, David Nied (hey, he was big stuff!), and others — though, sadly, not Derek Jeter.

Also sadly for Carter, the Giants thought little enough of his 1992 showing to send him to Triple-A for 1993, deprived of teaming up with new arrival Barry Bonds.

After a solid season back in the minors, Carter jumped over to independent ball in 1994, but he would soon start a coaching career that eventually made him a decades-long member of the Royals organization.

Today, Larry Carter turns 59 years old.

The Ties that Bind Rivals

The last batter to face Carter in the majors was Cincinnati’s Reggie Sanders, who struck out to end the fourth inning on October 3, 1992. The next inning, Matt Williams pinch hit for Carter, and that was that.

Sanders, meanwhile, has an interesting tie to the mid-1970s Detroit Tigers. You can read about that tie, and the baseball card involved, right here.

Coincidentally, it was exactly one year later that the Dodgers trounced the Giants while the Braves squeaked by the Rockies to settle the last great division race before the advent of the wild card.

—

What’s the best division or pennant (depending on the age of your fandom) race you’ve ever followed?

That 1983 slugout between the powerhouse Giants and Braves ranks high for me. The 1987 American League East race was breathtaking, too.

I’d love to hear your picks!

See you tomorrow, and thanks for reading.

—Adam