Catcher is by far the most physically demanding position in baseball (imagine crouching behind the plate for nine innings for well over 100 games annually), which makes it rare for teams to have backstops who can produce at a high level both offensively and defensively over an extended period of time. This fact set makes players like Gary Carter and Carlton Fisk somewhat of “unicorns” – each Hall of Fame catcher played well into his late 30s (and in Fisk’s case, well into his 40s), catching over 2,000 games apiece and hitting over 300 career home runs. As only a handful of catchers in MLB history can match this unparalleled combination of greatness and longevity, it is therefore apt to draw a comparison between these two legends of the 1970s and 1980s and ask:
Who was better – Gary Carter or Carlton Fisk?
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