RICO CARTY

Our top 1998 vote-receiver obviously remains a popular figure with baseball fans. Although his career average is .299, and he ripped NL pitchers for a .366 average in 1970, his career stats aren't as high as many 15 year hitters of his caliber, and he is not a serious candidate for Cooperstown. The big man from the Dominican (and the first star from San Pedro de Macoris) was a crowd pleaser with his big smile, husky build and strong bat---in his first 7 seasons, with Milwaukee-Atlanta, he hit .317 and in 1970 became the first player to make the All-Star team by virtue of a write-in campaign. So what happened?

Although he was under the shadow of various players (like Dick Allen, who bettered his tremendous rookie year with an even stronger one, and Hank Aaron, who not only got more press but didn't get along with Rico), Carty's health was the prime reason that he didn't live up to his early billing. As a rookie in 1964, he hit .330, with 22 homers and 88 rbis, finishing second in the league to Roberto Clemente, and second in Rookie of The Year voting to Allen (.318, 29, 92). While he battled injuries in his second year, he managed a .310 average, followed by .326, then .255. His average dipped so drastically in 1967 because he played that year with an undiagnosed case of tuberculosis. It was diagnosed that winter, and he spent the 1968 season recovering. There was talk of him being finished at age 29. Instead, he came back in 1969 with a .342 average.

The 1970 season belonged to Rico Carty. He led the NL with that scorching .366 average, the majors' highest since Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957. He hit 25 homers and a career high 101 rbis. Although the "Beeg" Boy" (his self-proclaimed nickname) was 6-3 and 200 pounds, he wasn't a big home run hitter because he was more of a line drive hitter and because, unlike most power hitters, he swung down on the ball rather than uppercutting it. Besides the fat average, 1970 was the peak of his career because of the rare honor of being a write-in starter. When the year ended, it seemed like he again was on the fast track for superstardom. Instead, 1970 would be the peak of a long, frustrating career.

It was a career identified with excesses--be it a year on the DL followed soon after by one of the better of any post-WWII seasons. The first clue to the largess of Rico was when he signed his first Norte Americano contract--and signed, and signed and... by the time he dropped the pen, the naif had signed with 10 different clubs! Fortunately for the Braves, they were the first and he was awarded to them. As soon as he started making decent money, he gained a well-deserved reputation as a clothes hound. It was not unusual from Carty to exit a store with a half dozen suits, 20 dress shirts and 20 pairs of shoes. He also played baseball year round. Like so many Latin players then and now, he felt he owed it to the fans back home to display his wares in winter ball. A nasty collision in the outfield crushed his kneecap, causing ligament and cartilage damage. For the second time in four years he was forced to sit out an entire season.

While he was recovering that year, he was arrested and beaten badly by undercover Atlanta police, in what the mayor of Atlanta called "blatant brutality" and caused the cops involved a suspension. One of his eyes was damaged in the fray.

'72 wasn't much of an improvement. He continued to battle injuries, allowing him only 271 at bats, with which he managed a .277 average and a big drop off in production. Worse, he got into a fistfight with Hank Aaron on a plane. The press sided with Aaron, already an Atlanta icon, and closing in on Ruth's record. The hombre who had been the talk of the town only two years earlier spent 1973 in three different towns, ending up with the Cubs, who released him. Despite the imbroglios and the injuries, Carty was not ready to quit at 35, and indeed he had six seasons remaining. But first he had to go down Mexico way in 1974, where he was hitting .350 when the Indians brought him back to the majors. In the final few weeks he hit well enough (.366) from Cleveland to bring him back for '75. Of course he was mostly a DH by now, and hit .308 on part time duty. In 1976 he hit .308, the Indians named him man of the Year, and he finished 2nd to Hal McRae among DHers. At that point, only Pete Rose had a higher career average among 10 year veterans than Carty's .308. Expansion Toronto drafted him in '77, but the Indians traded back for him and he hit .280 with 80 ribbies. Then in 1978, splitting his time between the Jays and A's, he hit a career high 31 homers and drove in 99 runs, with a decent .282 average. At age 40 he had one season left, and he spent it in Toronto, where he hit .256,12,55. The career-low batting average cost him a career average--by one point.

No one knows how Rico Carty would have done had he not been hindered by TB, bum knees, three separated shoulders, and been under the shadow of the Allen's, Clemente's and Aaron's. As it was, he had a .366 season, was the first write-in All Star, was written off at least three times and still lasted 15 years--and kept a smile on his face. Inconsistent, troubled, ill-starred, yes, but there is no doubt that Rico Carty was a star. According to TDA subscriber Rob Ruck, in his excellent The Tropic of Baseball, about Dominican baseball, Carty is still treated as a star today back home in the autumn of his life. In fact, he is an honorary general in the Dominican army.