Unlucky and Unjustly Treated, Rico Carty Nonetheless Flashed His Hitting Ferocity During a Brief Stay in Milwaukee

Sadly, the game does not remember Rico Carty as one of its all-time greats. He would have needed a much longer period of uninterrupted success to garner even semi-serious consideration for the Hall of Fame, and his sometimes stormy relations with teammates, media and fans made him a controversial figure. Yet, when you think of the ferocious slugger, Carty deserves to be one of those you picture. A big Dominican outfielder with a big personality, he came up to a team run by Henry Aaron and Eddie Mathews and asserted himself as an equally dangerous (if much more mercurial) hitter.

One of the first stars to emerge from the Dominican Republic and establish himself in the majors, Carty debuted in 1963, but only got substantial playing time for the 1964 and 1965 Milwaukee Braves, before the team relocated to Atlanta. In those two seasons, though, he batted a magnificent .322/.376/.532, with 32 home runs in 798 plate appearances. He had more doubles and triples power than home-run power, but that was common even among sluggers at that time. Nothing about his game was truly common even then, though, and it would be almost unrecognizable today. We don't see players take that kind of aggressive approach, that kind of violent swing, and still make contact at a strong enough rate to avail themselves of great line-drive power. For Carty, though, that was no fluke. He sustained that style of hitting over a career that ultimately spanned over 15 years—despite some devastating setbacks.

A Black man, Carty struggled to fit in from the moment he signed with Milwaukee and came to the States to play in the minor leagues. He was heckled with a special, ruthless, vile vehemence fans still reserved, then, for dark-skinned players who also didn't speak perfect English or share their American culture. Carty didn't always handle those situations gracefully. He assaulted one racist harasser while in the minors, and had run-ins with more fans, police officers, and Aaron himself throughout his career. In a perfect world, perhaps, a player would handle the abuse that was then commonplace with the stone-faced nonviolence of Jackie Robinson or Roberto Clemente, but while those players' restraint was admirable, we have to admit that Carty's fury (something that also defined and occasionally sidetracked the careers of others during that era, like Dick Allen and George Scott) was no less just or moral.

Adversities heaped one on another for Carty, especially after he left Milwaukee. He actually found wider acceptance from the fan base in Atlanta than he had in Milwaukee, according to many reports, but he lost one season to tuberculosis, and another to a massive knee injury caused by an outfield collision while playing winter ball. He often played in those Caribbean leagues, especially in his native Dominican, and when he was healthy enough even to take the field, he was a force of nature. He had six seasons (including both of those Milwaukee campaigns) in which he was at least 40% better than an average hitter in substantial playing time, the last of which came at the ripe age of 38, in 1978. Yet, his teams habitually complained and expressed concern over his conditioning. Surely, some of that was justified, but most of it was probably another form of soft racism and of salary suppression. Carty was a career .299/.369/.464 career hitter, despite those major injury problems; once having to spend a year in the Mexican League to prove to MLB he could still rake; and all that off-field resistance.

Carty died at age 85 Sunday. He should be remembered as one of the great hitters of his era, even if his star was dimmed slightly by injuries, a dearth of defensive value, and occasional turbulence. During the brief stay of the first big-league team to call Milwaukee home, multiple Black and Latino stars made their first impressions in the majors for them. Carty, while hardly the best and far from the best-remembered, was very much one of that group.

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