Hardball Times has a thorough list of Carter’s career highlights. Here are three I will never forget:
April 28, 1985: It’s the first of several marathon Mets games Carter plays in that feel like they are lost episodes of the Twilight Zone. In this one, the Mets top the Pirates 5-4 in 18 innings. The Mets run low on position players and are forced to using veteran pinch-hitter Rusty Staub in the outfield for the last seven innings of the game. Carter is hitless, but he draws a walk in the bottom of the 18th and the pinch runner who replaces him scores the winning run.
July 4, 1985: For those who thought the Rusty Staub game was too normal, we present the Rick Camp game. This contest, discussed at length here, is the stuff of legend. It’s a 19-inning contest featuring multiple rain delays and won’tt end under 3:55 a.m. Most memorably, Atlanta reliever Camp comes to the plate in the bottom of the 18th with two out and none on and the Mets winning 11-10. After two quick strikes, he improbably belts a 3:30 a.m. pitch into the bullpen for a game-tying home run. He then allows five runs in the 19th, and the Mets hold on to win, 16-13.
Carter is 5-for-9 with a career-best six times on base. Teammate Keith Hernandez hits for the cycle, but that’s overshadowed in the game’s overall weirdness.
Oh, one last detail can’t be left out. After it finally ended, this Fourth of July game had the required fireworks display go off—at 4 a.m. Many residents near the ballpark called the cops thinking they were being bombed.
…
July 22, 1986: It’s the last of the great Twilight Zone Mets games featuring Gary Carter. In this 14-inning contest, (depicted in detail here) due to a series of mid-game replacements and late-game ejections, the Mets run out of position players. For the last four innings they have only seven position players, two of whom are catchers. Mets manager Davey Johnson improvises by using relievers Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco in an odd platoon arrangement. They go to the mound when it gives the Mets a corner-outfield advantage, and go back to the corner outfield slot the batter is less likely to hit to when the other side bats.
As for Carter, he plays third base—a place he manned for one inning back in 1975—while his backup calls pitches behind the plate. Somehow, the Mets win, 6-3 in 14 frames.
