THE 1966 BRAVES: #43 Rico Carty
#43 RICO CARTY
Outfield
What came before: Ricardo Adolfo Jacobo Carty, AKA the “Beeg Boy.” He was a pure hitter, 6-3, 200 with shoes that resembled small suitcases and the biggest outfield glove in the majors. Even before a knee injury destroyed what little speed he was given, Carty was all about hitting. As a rookie in 1964, his .330 average was second only to Roberto Clemente's .339 and ahead of his teammate, Henry Aaron's .328. He had a pair of five-hit games, both in the same week.
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Carty learned about the sophomore jinx, even though he hit .310 in 1965, but the injury bug was already starting to become his constant companion. He appeared in only 88 games, 73 of them in the field, and drove in only 35 runs.
That 1966 season: Carty was embraced, even beloved, by the Braves fans due to his infectious smile and live bat. He enjoyed a rare full season of health, appearing in a career-best 151 games and slashed his way to a .326 average (third best in the league), 15 homers and 76 RBIs. On a hunch, he was even used as a catcher and accounted himself well, throwing out 50 percent of would-be basestealers (7 of 14) but had trouble blocking pitches.
What happened next: A funny thing happened on Carty's stroll to the Hall of Fame. He took ill -- and not just any disease, but a disease nearly eradicated in our country – tuberculosis. He began feeling its effects in 1967 as a shoulder injury more directly led to a drop to .255, but he still played in 134 games, then won a Dominican winter league batting title. Even though he hit .315 in the spring of 1968, he lost 10 pounds and reported a loss of strength before being diagnosed the last weekend in March.
He’d miss the entire 1968 season, confined to a third-world sanitarium for five months.
But he was rested and while not quite at full strength, ready to return for the 1969 season. In 304 at-bats, he struck out only 28 times and hit .342 to lead the march to Atlanta’s first pennant, the inaugural NL West championship, but did not have enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title due to three separate stints on the DL due to a recurring shoulder separation. He also hit .300 in postseason play, but the Braves were overwhelmed by the Miracle Mets.
That all changed in 1970, as Carty was in Beast Mode all season. He had a 36-game hitting streak, rolled to his first batting title at .366 (the highest total in the NL since 1948), drove in 100 runs for the only time in his career and was an All-Star Game starter thanks to fans’ write-in votes.
But Fate wasn’t through with him. Playing winter league ball in his home country, he suffered a multiple knee fracture in an outfield collision with winter league teammate Matty Alou. He was flown to the U.S. for surgery to find the damage extended to damaged muscles, and he would miss an entire season (1971) for the second time in four years.
Carty had controversial moments upon his return from his second lost season, but those in the know indicate that a run-in with superstar Hank Aaron led to the organization essentially giving him away to the Rangers for reliever Jim Panther. Playing for three teams in the 1973 season, Carty hit only .229 and seemed to be done. But it’s not wise to write of the Beeg Boy.
A trip to the Mexican League allowed Carty to add another chapter to his career, as he spent most of 1974 with Cordova and finished second in the league with a .354 average at the age of 34. The Cleveland Indians saw, and believed, and signed him in August. His final six weeks, he hit .363, then followed with full seasons of .308, .310 and .280 with more than 80 RBIs the final two season.
But from that point, the 38-year-old was a hired gun for Oakland, then Toronto, hitting .282-31-99 at age 38 and in his final major league season, DH’ing for the Blue Jays at age 39, he hit in 132 games, bad knee and all, hitting .256-12-55. The shame of it was that his dropoff in batting average left him with a career average of .299. Today, he remains a hitting guru in his native Dominican Republic.
Tomorrow: Billy O'Dell
