David Andrew McCarty (November 23, 1969 – April 19, 2024) was an American

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. From 1993 through 2005, McCarty played with the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

(1993–1995),

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

(1995–1996),

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

(1998),

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

(2000–2002), Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2002),

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

(2003) and

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

(2003–2005). He batted right-handed and threw left-handed.

Career

Born in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas, McCarty graduated from

Sharpstown High School Sharpstown High School is a secondary school at 7504 Bissonnet Street in Greater Sharpstown, Houston, Texas, United States with a zip code of 77074. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is a part of the Houston Independent School District. The sc ...

in 1988. He attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

. In 1989, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the Cotuit Kettleers of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

. The

(MLB) selected McCarty in the first round, with the third overall selection, of the

1991 MLB draft First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1991 Major League Baseball draft. Supplemental first round selections Compensation picks Other notable players *Kevin Stocker, 2nd round, 54th overall by the Philadel ...

. He made his MLB debut on May 17, 1993. In 1995, the Twins traded McCarty to the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

for John Courtright. On July 21, 1995, the Reds traded McCarty,

Deion Sanders Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. (born August 9, 1967) is an American football coach and former player who is the head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder. Nicknamed "Prime Time", he played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons ...

Ricky Pickett Cecil Lee Pickett (born January 19, 1970) is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. Drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 28th round of the 1992 MLB amateur draft, Pickett made his Major League Baseball debut with the Arizona Diamond ...

, John Roper, and Scott Service to the

for

Dave Burba David Allen Burba (born July 7, 1966) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for the Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, and Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball ...

Darren Lewis Darren Joel Lewis (born August 28, 1967) is an American former professional baseball player who played center field in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics (1990), San Francisco Giants (1991–1995), Cincinnati Reds (1995), Chic ...

, and

Mark Portugal Mark Steven Portugal (born October 30, 1962) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played in the major leagues from 1985 to 1999. Career Portugal attended Norwalk High School in Norwalk, California. He was signed by the Minnesota Twins ...

. Before the 1998 season, the

acquired McCarty from the Giants for

Jalal Leach Jalal Donnell Leach (born March 14, 1969), is an American former Major League Baseball player who played for the San Francisco Giants in . He was primarily used as a pinch hitter, but was also used as an outfielder. He threw and batted left-hande ...

and Scott Smith. On August 5, 2003, McCarty was claimed off waivers by the

from the

2004 highlights

On May 11, 2004, in the bottom of the eighth inning, original pinch-hitter

Brian Daubach Brian Michael Daubach (born February 11, 1972) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and current hitting coach for the Rochester Red Wings. During his playing career Daubach served as a first baseman, outfielder, and designated ...

was called back to the bench after the

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

made a pitching change and decided to go to lefty Scott Stewart. McCarty, due to hitting well against lefties, was sent up to hit by manager Terry Francona. On an 0-1 pitch, McCarty lined a two-run triple to right field that gave the Red Sox a 5-3 lead. They went on to win by that score. On May 30, 2004, McCarty, who had entered the game in the eighth inning, hit a walk-off two-run home run against Mariners pitcher

J. J. Putz Joseph Jason Putz (; born February 22, 1977) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks. High school an ...

in the bottom of the twelfth inning to give the Red Sox a 9-7 victory. McCarty also made three pitching appearances in 2004. The first one was in the home opener on April 9 vs the Blue Jays, the second one was on June 12 vs the Dodgers, in which he struck out

Jayson Werth Jayson Richard Gowan Werth (born May 20, 1979) is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2002 to 2017. His 15-season career was split among the Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, P ...

and the final one was in the final game of the regular season against the Orioles, in which he struck out

Rafael Palmeiro Rafael Palmeiro Corrales (born September 24, 1964) is a Cuban-American former Major League Baseball first baseman and left fielder. Palmeiro was an All-American at Mississippi State University before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1985. H ...

Larry Bigbie Larry Robert Bigbie (born November 4, 1977) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball from 2001 through 2006 for the Baltimore Orioles, Colorado Rockies, and St. Louis Cardinals. ...

and

David Newhan David Matthew Newhan (born September 7, 1973) is an American former professional baseball utility player who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for five teams during eight seasons. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. After serving ...

Release and retirement

The Red Sox released McCarty in May 2005 after the team signed first baseman

John Olerud John Garrett Olerud, Jr. (; born August 5, 1968), nicknamed "Johnny O", is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from through , most notably as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays te ...

. He retired and was a Red Sox analyst on

NESN New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports network, regional sports cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which ow ...

from July 1, 2005, until the end of the 2008 season.

Personal life and death

McCarty lived in Piedmont, California, with his wife, novelist Monica McCarty, and their two children. McCarty died following a cardiac event in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, on April 19, 2024, at the age of 54.

References

External links

McCarty expands repertoire - Jayson Stark, ESPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarty, David 1969 births 2024 deaths Boston Red Sox players Kansas City Royals players Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball outfielders Minnesota Twins players Oakland Athletics players Baseball players from Houston San Francisco Giants players Seattle Mariners players Stanford Cardinal baseball players Cotuit Kettleers players Tampa Bay Devil Rays players People from Piedmont, California Baseball players from Alameda County, California Orlando Sun Rays players Visalia Oaks players Portland Beavers players Salt Lake Buzz players Indianapolis Indians players Phoenix Firebirds players Tacoma Rainiers players Toledo Mud Hens players Durham Bulls players Sacramento River Cats players Lowell Spinners players Pawtucket Red Sox players All-American college baseball players