I was a freshman in college the night the Mets traded for Gary Carter. The news so excited me that I goaded one of my roommates to stay up all night and celebrate, which for us meant wandering aimlessly around campus all night until stealing a fresh morning newspaper from a bundle left outside a store on Main Street at first light just to read about it. There was never any doubt that his arrival would transform a promising team into an excellent one, and helpme realize a dream I’d harbored all my life until then. That was the power of Gary Carter.

When I presented Gary Carter with a copy of the Mets by the Numbers book at an event in 2008 his thank-you and his handshake were so warm and sincere I could barely believe he meant them. What an impression he made. Marty Noble writing on MLB.com today presents an obituary as forceful and oddly offputting as the Kid himself. What a character.