Classic card of the week

Joe Carter, 1992 Score

Textbook weight shift.

When Joe Carter wasn’t breaking both kneecaps by being awkwardly out in front of a changeup, he could often be found at the ballpark, NOT being a World Series hero, or just generally whacking some balls around:



Joe returned to the American League in ’91 and whacked the ball around as if he had never been away.

Joe Carter: whackerer of American League balls. Nothing wrong with that. I also enjoy the “as if he had never been away” statement, as if Joe Carter had interrupted his major league career by spending several summers interning at a law firm, thus forcing many to believe he had lost his innate ability to whack around some balls. He was in San Diego! He whacked 24 dingers!

But when we speak of Joe Carter, let us never forget to ultimately judge him by how his teammates felt about him. Because that is what’s important here. Not what I think about him. Or what you think about him. (Unless you were his teammate, in which case, email me.) No. We need to know what somebody like…oh, I don’t know… Roberto Alomar thinks about him:

“Joe is the kind of guy you want on the team,” said teammate Roberto Alomar.

Whoa, slow down with the hyperbole, Roberto! Let’s update our Joe Carter definition.

Joe Carter: 1) whackerer of American League balls; 2) guy who is on a team, and whose teammates don’t mind that he’s there, on the team. When asked what would happen to the Toronto Blue Jays if Joe Carter was no longer on the team, Alomar said: “I don’t know. Probably someone else would play instead of him.” This made Roberto Alomar sad, but not that sad. He added:

“If you’re going bad, he’ll really push you.”

Ah, so that’s what happened here!

Did you know?
In 2005 Joe Carter's "Happy Fun Time Ball-Whacking Camp 4 Kidz" was shut down due to health code violations.