G.C. IN THE O.C.

I'm about a month late with this news, but Hall of Famer Gary Carter will be managing again. Carter was named manager of the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League. I won't get into why this took so long, or why he isn't with a major league team (I've already done that), but I'm happy that at least we'll be able to follow his managing progress again. (Bummer here, though, is that we won't be able to do it nightly, assuming these are night games on the west coast.)

A couple of things worth mentioning here. First of all, the Orange County Flyers play their home games in Fullerton, California, which any Gary Carter fan worth their salt knows is his hometown....or, at least, a half-hour drive from his hometown. (The facts on the back of the Gary Carter baseball cards should stick in your head: Gary Edmund Carter, born: April 8, 1954, Culver City, California). Carter played his high school ball in Fullerton. So he's going back home - although he has lived in Florida for years.

Secondly, the facts on the Orange County Flyers are: they are 3 years old, they play an 88-game schedule, and one of their part-owners is James Denton, who is on 'Desperate Housewives'. Carter is replacing Garry Templeton as manager, and of note is the fact that Charlie Hough was pitching coach under Templeton. So it will be interesting to see who Carter tabs as his hiting and pitching coach, because it looks like he doesn't have anyone yet.

I would be remiss if I didn't also repeat Carter's stellar numbers managing in the Mets' minor-league system in recent years:

2005 (Gulf Coast League): 37-16, first round playoff exit (0-2)
2006 (St. Lucie Mets)
1st Half: 40-30
2nd Half: 37-32
Postseason: 5-0 and won the championship

One last thing - January 26th, the Orange County Flyers will be holding open tryouts. Though it is tempting for me to fly out there for the day, I will not do so for two reasons:

1) That will be the weekend where the Southern Bureau, Justin From NYC, and Dave in Brighton are all gathered at the House Sponsored by DirecTV for our annual BU Reunion/Fantasy Baseball Draft. So I don't want to leave those guys flat.

2) I want the day I finally meet Hall of Famer Gary Carter to be a positive experience, not a situation where he has to explain to me why I just wasted his valuable time, don't I know he has a team to build, and just where exactly did I get off thinking I could try to play professional baseball?! So that opportunity will have to wait.

COMMENT ON THE COMMENTS: A 'Thanks for Reading and Commenting' goes out to 'Zooomabooma', who commented about Citi Field Tuesday. I looked it up, and he's right - Citi Field is two words. I never really considered it. First of all, I thought it would be like Citibank, I guess. Secondly, in my humble opinion, CitiField just looks better than Citi Field. But I guess when the corporate sponsorship gets changed, after Citi goes bankrupt or everyone involved gets arrested or whatever, it will be easier to change all of the signs if they are two separate words instead of one word. Too bad.