Lost in Left Field

Lost in Left Field

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Lost in Left Field
Lost in Left Field
Baseball Remembers: Rico Carty

Baseball Remembers: Rico Carty

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Paul White
Nov 27, 2024
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Lost in Left Field
Lost in Left Field
Baseball Remembers: Rico Carty
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He couldn’t run. Like, at all. For his career he only stole 21 bases and was thrown out trying 26 times. Metrics show that he took extra bases on the base paths just 36% of the time, fully 10% less than the league average.

He also couldn’t field. He started as a catcher, was pretty quickly moved to the outfield, and for a couple of years when he was young he was passably good in left field, but for the most part he was a hazard to himself and others. Eventually he became a full-time designated hitter, a position he wasn’t moved to sooner only because it didn’t exist before then.

He also had a miraculous inability to stay healthy. In 15 big league seasons he managed to stay on the field over 150 times in just two of them. The injuries ranged from a horrific broken knee with ligament damage, suffered during an outfield collision with Matty Alou, to a bout with tuberculosis. In between were chipped bones and pulled muscles and an assortment of other ailments.

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