On August 11, 1988, Mets’ catcher, Gary Carter achieved a career milestone by hitting his 300th career home run in a game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Carter stepped to the plate the top of the second inning against Al Nipper of the Cubs, whom the Mets had gotten to know two years earlier in the World Series when Nipper pitched for Red Sox. Darryl Strawberry had hit a home run off Nipper in Game Seven and took quite a long time to circle the bases, earning the ire of the right-hander from San Diego.

Carter was on the downside of his career in the 1988 season. That year, he slashed just .242/.301/.358 with 11 home runs and 46 RBIs in 130 games. He hit home run number 299 on May 16 against the Padres, then waited for 255 at-bats and nearly three months to hit the historic round tripper.

After the game, Carter expressed his relief at finally swatting number 300. In an article by Susan Kuczka of UPI, the veteran backstop was quoted as saying:

“It’s wonderful,’ Carter said after the second-inning solo blast, his ninth of the season. ‘If I (had) a dream back when I was a little leaguer, the first one was to make it to the major leagues, and then to be among some elite players. It’s something I’m very proud of. Now that’s out of the way, the monkey’s off my back, we can go on and win this thing”.

You can see Carter’s blast in the video below.

Cater, who was inducted to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2003 as a Montreal Expo, played 19 years in the major leagues. He finished his playing career in 1992 where it started, in Montreal. The native of Culver City, CA hit 324 career home runs and had a career slash line of .262/.335/.439. His best season by bWAR was 1982 when he was with Montreal, in that year he posted a mark of 8.6.

Carter came to the Mets in a trade before the 1985 season and donned the orange and blue for five seasons. He belted 89 home runs as a Met and slashed .249/.319/.412. His best season as a Met was 1985 when he hit 32 home runs and drove in 100 runs, good for a bWAR of 6.9.

He passed away on February 12, 2012, of brain cancer. The Mets wore a patch on their uniform sleeves in 2012 in memory of Carter.

Here’s a Metsmerized hat tip to the late Gary Carter.