He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher for six different teams from 1965 to 1988, most notably as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies with whom he won four Cy Young Awards as well as the 1980 World Series.

Carlton was born and raised in Miami, Florida, where he played Little League and American Legion Baseball during his youth.

Steve was the only son of Joe and Anne Carlton and was raised with his sisters Joanne and Christina on 144th Street in Miami.

[3][4] As a teenager, Carlton began reading and following the teachings of Eastern philosophy and Paramahansa Yogananda, who promoted greatness through meditation.

[3][5] After high school, Carlton played baseball at Miami Dade College North, where he pitched in relief on a strong team under coach Demie Mainieri.

[9] In 1966, Carlton started 19 games with the now Class AAA Tulsa Oilers of the Pacific Coast League, going 9–5 with a 3.59 ERA.

An imposing man (6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m)) with a hard fastball and slider, Carlton was soon known as an intimidating and dominant pitcher.

In the 1967 World Series, Carlton started Game 5 and pitched six strong innings, giving up only an unearned run, but taking a 3–1 loss.

[10] In Carlton's first season with Philadelphia, he led the league in wins (27), complete games (30), strikeouts (310), and ERA (1.97), despite playing for a team whose final record was 59–97.

His 1972 performance earned him his first Cy Young Award and the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year.

Carlton attributed his success to his grueling training regimen, which included Eastern martial arts techniques, the most famous of which was twisting his fist to the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket of rice.

From July 23, 1972, to August 13, 1972, he pitched five complete-game victories, allowed only one unearned run while only giving up 22 hits in 45 innings, and threw four shutouts.

In 1976, upon the advice of his lawyer Edward L. Wolf, he decided to sever all ties with the media, and refused to answer press questions for the rest of his career with the Phillies.

[24] When approached unbeknownst he was on live air in the early 1980s he hurled a sponsor's watch at the commentator's head in the pregame show.

Carlton was the first pitcher to win four Cy Young Awards, a mark later matched by Greg Maddux, and exceeded by Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson.

On September 13, 1982, for the fourth time in his career, Carlton hit a home run and tossed a complete-game shutout in the same game.

In the 1983 World Series, Carlton was matched up against Jim Palmer in Game 3, where he gave up 2 earned runs in 6+2⁄3 innings of a 3–2 loss.

[30] Over a three-year period between 1982–1984, Carlton was involved in an interesting pitching duel with Nolan Ryan and Gaylord Perry, in which they often traded places at the top of the all–time strikeout list.

On his longtime Phillies teammate Mike Schmidt, Carlton said, "Schmitty provided what pitchers need most, home runs and great defense.

Carlton pitched seven shutout innings in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, in which he also hit a three-run homer, for his only win as a Giant.

Carlton collected his 4,000th career strikeout, striking out Eric Davis in an 11–6 Giants loss to the Reds in San Francisco on August 5, 1986.

"I realize that the San Francisco Giants are committed to the younger players in their organization, specifically the talented young men on their pitching staff.

It was Carlton's only pitching appearance in Yankee Stadium, having spent the majority of his career in the National League before the inception of interleague play.

Carlton eventually fell to third and then fourth place on the all–time strikeout list after Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson passed him.

His 329 career wins are the eleventh most in baseball history, behind Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, and Warren Spahn among pitchers of the live-ball era (post 1920).

He is also second (behind Bob Gibson) in major league history for the most consecutive starts with at least six innings pitched (69), which was snapped in April 1982.

[40] Phillies announcer and Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn said of Carlton as a pitcher, "Lefty was a craftsman, an artist.

"[24] Carlton picked 144 runners off base, by far the most in Major League Baseball since pickoff records began being collected in 1957.

[48] The article was noted by Murray Chass of The New York Times as being the source of numerous claims about Carlton's political and social beliefs: According to Pat Jordan, the writer of the article, Carlton alternately said that the world is ruled or controlled by the Russian and United States Governments, which "fill the air with low-frequency sound waves," the Elders of Zion, British intelligence agencies, "12 Jewish bankers meeting in Switzerland" and "a committee of 300 which meets at a roundtable in Rome."

Not only that, but Carlton also charges, according to Jordan, that President Clinton has "a black son" he won't acknowledge and that the AIDS virus was created at a secret Maryland biological warfare laboratory to get rid of gays and blacks.The same article notes that former teammate Tim McCarver defended Carlton against charges of being a bigot and an Antisemite, though he acknowledged "If he's guilty of anything, it's believing some of the material he reads.