Rico Carty, Exceptional Hitter Who Was Stymied by Injuries, Dies at 85

Rico Carty, a Dominican baseball star whose early exceptional promise was thwarted by untimely injuries, died on Saturday. He was 85.

His death was reported by Major League Baseball and the Atlanta Braves, one of his former teams. They did not specify the cause or say where he died.

After a blazing hot start in the major leagues that included a dazzling rookie year, Carty’s progress was impeded by broken bones, hamstring problems and even tuberculosis. Carty, who was 6-foot-3 and called himself the Beeg Boy, nevertheless played until he was 40, amassing 1,677 hits and 204 home runs. Ricardo Adolfo Jacobo Carty was born on Sept. 1, 1939, in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. His father, Leopoldo, worked in a sugar mill, and his mother, Olivia, was a midwife. He had 15 brothers and sisters.

After dabbling in boxing, Carty turned his focus to baseball and soon attracted the attention of major league scouts as a catcher.

“I had no idea how serious those offers really were,” he said in a 2008 interview with Baseball Prospectus. “I said yes to everyone that gave me one, just in case the others didn’t work out. In the end I signed with nine major league and three winter ball teams.”

His rights were eventually awarded to the Milwaukee Braves organization, in 1959, and the team (now the Atlanta Braves) converted him to an outfielder.