Nicknamed "the Kid" for his youthful exuberance, Carter was named an All-Star 11 times and was a member of the 1986 World Series champion Mets.

[2] Athletic at a young age, Carter, along with four other boys, won the seven-year-old category of the first national Punt, Pass, and Kick skills competition in 1961.

[3] Carter attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, where he played football as a quarterback and baseball as an infielder, graduating in 1972.

[10][11] Carter split time between right field and catching during his rookie season (1975), and was selected for the National League All-Star team as a right fielder.

He did not have a plate appearance in the game but played as a defensive replacement for Pete Rose in the ninth inning, when he caught Rod Carew's fly ball for the final out of the NL's 6–3 victory.

In the NL MVP balloting, he finished second to third baseman Mike Schmidt of the Phillies, who won the National League East by one game over the Expos.

MLB split the fractured 1981 season into two halves, with the first-place teams from each half in each division meeting in a best-of-five divisional playoff series.

Carter's average improved to .438 in the NLCS, with no home runs or RBIs, and his Expos lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.

Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau once remarked: "I am certainly happy that I don't have to run for election against Gary Carter."

Carter's 106 RBIs (an NL lead), 159 games played, .294 batting average, 175 hits and 290 total bases were personal highs.

[19] At the end of the season, the rebuilding Expos chafed at Carter's salary demands and traded him in December to the Mets for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham and Floyd Youmans.

[18][20][21][22] In his first game with New York on April 9, 1985, Carter hit a tenth-inning walk-off home run to give the Mets a 6–5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Mets had three players finish in the top ten in NL MVP balloting that season (Dwight Gooden fourth, Carter sixth and Hernandez eighth).

Carter batted .276 with nine RBIs in his first World Series and hit two home runs over Fenway Park's Green Monster in Game Four.

In his last career at-bat on September 27, 1992, he hit a game-winning RBI double over the head of Chicago Cubs right-fielder and former Expos teammate Andre Dawson.

[28] When he broke the 100-assist barrier in 1977, he joined Johnny Bench and Jim Sundberg as the only major-league catchers to have more than 100 assists in a season since the end of World War II.

"[41] At the induction ceremony, Carter spoke some words in French, thanking fans in Montreal, while noting that the Mets' 1986 championship was the highlight of his career.

Carter was criticized, most notably by former teammate Keith Hernandez, for twice openly campaigning for the Mets' managerial position while it was still occupied by incumbents Art Howe in 2004 and Willie Randolph in 2008.

In 2008, Carter managed the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League, guiding his team to the GBL championship.

For the following season, Carter was named manager of the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

[45] In October 2009, Carter was named head baseball coach for the NCAA Division II Palm Beach Atlantic University Sailfish.

[46] Carter met his future wife Sandy when they were students at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California.

Since its inception, the Gary Carter Foundation has placed more than $622,000 toward charitable purposes, including $366,000 to elementary schools for reading programs.

[53][54][55] On January 20, 2012, Carter's daughter Kimmy posted on her blog that an MRI had revealed additional tumors on her father's brain.

Even as he battled an aggressive form of brain cancer, Carter did not miss opening day for the college baseball team he coached.

[57] On the Mets' 2012 opening day, the Carter family unveiled a banner with a similar design on the centerfield wall of Citi Field.

and hung retired numbers in its arena after the Expos' relocation to Washington, paid tribute to Carter by presenting a video montage and observing a moment of silence before a game against the New Jersey Devils on February 20, 2012.

wore a patch on his Canadiens jersey featuring a white circle with a blue number 8 inside it for the remainder of the season.

[61] On March 28, 2014, during an exhibition game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Mets at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, a banner was unveiled in honor of Carter in a special ceremony before the first pitch.

Carter's widow Sandy and daughter Kimmy were present on the field for an emotional video tribute and the unveiling of the banner on the outfield wall, which reads "Merci!