CATCHING UP WITH CARTER

I read this article recently on mets.com (kind of out of nowhere - not sure why the topic came up), and it got me thinking that I really should update everyone on everyone's favorite Hall of Famer, Gary Carter, and his Orange County Flyers.

All Carter has done this year is once again lead a team he has managed to the playoffs. The Orange County Flyers won the first half division title, meaning they've already clinched a playoff berth. Still, they're leading the second half as well - by three-and-a-half games -with less than a month to go in the season. They've been the best team, record-wise, all year long.

The playoffs start out with what appears to be a best 3-of-5 series in the first week of September, so we'll keep an eye out for that.

Lest you forgot, this is Carter's third year managing in the minors (or independent leagues, I guess), and he has yet to field a losing team. Here's his brief history:

2005 (Gulf Coast Mets): 37-16, but 0-2 in the post-season
2006 (St. Lucie Mets): 40-30 (1st Half), 37-32 (2nd Half), 5-0 post-season, Champions
2008 (Orange County Flyers): 28-15 (1st Half), 27-15 (so far in the 2nd Half)

According to Wikipedia, the Flyers lost in the championship two years ago, and were very average last year (37-39)...so this appears to be another pretty good managing job by Carter. If he continues to get his teams to perform like this, major league teams can't possibly continue to overlook him....can they?