Lest we forget: Rico Carty and Al Ferrara

Two players from my youth recently passed away.

I can’t explain it, but for some reason Rico Carty was the first non-Mets player I took a liking to. Looking at his baseball card from my first serious go at collecting in 1967, I remember being impressed with his stats and surprised he wasn’t mentioned in the same breath as some of the era’s stars. Seems that the celestial stars were aligned against him in the form of various injuries as well as a bout with tuberculosis that cost him the entire 1968 campaign.

Carty — one of 12 children in his family — spent most of his career with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves before moving on to the Cubs, Indians, Blue Jays, Rangers, and A’s (not necessarily in that order). He finished second in the voting for NL Rookie of the Year in 1964 and led the league in batting in 1970. Surprisingly, he was only an All-Star once, finishing with a career mark of .299 with 204 home runs and 890 RBI over fifteen seasons.

Here’s his obit from The New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (paywall). News of his death was even picked up in Korea.

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Al Ferrara‘s claim to fame — aside from his eight years in the bigs, split between the Dodgers, Padres, and Reds — was his appearance as a tropical native in a season three episode of Gilligan’s Island (“High Man on the Totem Pole”) along with teammate Jim Lefebvre. From centerfieldmaz.com: “Ferrara would also make an uncredited guest spot as a musician in the great sixties rock film, Riot on the Sunset Strip. In the 1970’s he would appear in the TV show Baretta (1975), as a contestant on Match Game, as well as the films Mansion of the Doomed & Dracula’s Blood.”

The Brooklyn-born Ferrara did pretty well on the diamond when given the chance; he appeared in more than 120 games only three times, but contributed double-digit home runs and 50-plus RBI in each of those seasons.

Here’s the obit put out by MLB.com.

Ferrara was a key ingredient in Buzzie and the Bull: A GM, a Clubhouse Favorite, and the Dodgers’ 1965 Championship Season, by Ken LaZebnik, published in 2020.