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Gil Carter was a professional baseball player from 1958-1960. On August 11, 1959, the Carlsbad Potashers were playing the Odessa Dodgers of the Class D Sophomore League with about 1,000 fans in attendance. The Potashers were trailing 6-0 in the bottom of the 9th when pitcher Wayne Schaper delivered a pitch to Carter which Carter connected with and drove out of the park.  Image credit: Carlsbad Current-Argus, 1959 The homer would prove to be the longest recorded home run in recorded baseball at 733 feet. The Major League Baseball record is held by Mickey Mantle at 634 feet with a blast in September of 1960 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. Some research questions that and shows the record to be a 575 foot bomb by Babe Ruth on July 18, 1921, but neither surpasses Carter's drive that day. This was Carter's twenty-eighth homer of the season, a new club and league record in the Sophomore League's second season, with a few weeks remaining. Carter would hit six more before the season ended, closing the year with 34. Gil Carter was a stoutly built former boxer from Topeka, Kansas. He had been a football star in high school and was drafted by the Cubs. By then he had moved to Kansas City. The Carlsbad Potashers were linked to the Cubs and and Carter was assigned to them beginning with the 1958 season. As a boxer, he had won 61 of his previous 68 fights and was 23 years old when he began playing with the Carlsbad club. The Sophomore League, was designed to develop players for the big leagues. Gil would go on to play one more season in the minors, playing for the St. Cloud Rox of the Northern League before retiring from baseball, but his record still stands today. Carter played in a total of 296 games and had 283 hits in 1972 at bats. He hit a total of 72 home runs, but the one on August 11, 1959 would remain in the record book. The ball came to rest under a peach tree in the yard of a Carlsbad resident who returned the ball to him after the game. It became a treasured family trophy. Gil passed away on May 31, 2015 from brain cancer. On June 3, 2015 he is to be honored at a game between the Topeka Senators and Topeka Golden Giants of the Great Plains League at a game in Lake Shawnee and his family will receive the Pride of Kansas Award in his honor. His family is in contact with the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame in Kansas City to have the home run ball displayed there.
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Terry Landrum is from Albuquerque, New Mexico and graduated from Highland High School. He was a good high school athlete with a desire to play professional baseball, despite not playing the sport in high school. Landrum wanted to attend junior college rather than a four year college, but he caught the eye of the baseball coach of a small school, Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilbarton. However, only a couple of months into his freshman year, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club. Despite the quick start, his professional career was a long time developing as he slowly worked his way up from A ball in 1973 to AAA before breaking into the big leagues in 1980. His minor league stops included Orangeburg (A) in the Western Carolina League, St. Petersburg (A+) in the Florida State League, Arkansas (AA) in the Texas League, and Tulsa and Springfield (AAA) in the American Association.  He began his nine year career as an outfielder in Major League Baseball with the Cardinals on July 23, 1980 at age 25, playing with them from 1980 to 1983 before being traded to the Baltimore Orioles late in the season. He rejoined the Cardinals from 1984 to 1987. Late in the 1987 season, he was released by the Cardinals and picked up as a free agent by the Los Angeles Dodgers for the remainder of the 1987 season. His final year in the big leagues was 1988 when he returned to the Orioles. Landrum played his final game in the majors on May 9, 1988 at age 33.
Landrum relates that he tried to get a job in baseball upon retiring as a player but none were forthcoming. That door being closed, he resumed his college education at New York University, where he obtained a B.S. degree in Physical Therapy. He was honored by being selected to make the valedictory address to his graduating class, though others had a higher grade point average. He commented that this honor exceeded the thrill of appearing in three World Series in baseball. Terry believes that he learned valuable life lessons in his baseball career. He never gave up, despite it taking him eight years to reach the major leagues. And once he achieved that, he said "I was not an everyday player. I would stay late and listen to everybody. I accepted criticism. That was the only way to learn." [New York Times Archive, November 22, 1998] Applying these lessons to his education, he then engaged his work ethic to learning, devoted the time to his education that it required and remained teachable and inquisitive, giving him a life after baseball. In recognition of the upcoming start of the New Mexico high school baseball season, we profile MLB pitcher Steve Ontiveros. Steve was born and raised in Tularosa (Otero County), New Mexico. He graduated from University of Michigan, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education. Steve was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the second round of the 1982 Major League Baseball June Amateur Draft. For the next three seasons, he played for minor league teams in the Oakland organization, working his way up from A- to Oakland's AAA affiliate in Tacoma Washington in the Pacific Coast League, notching a record of 25-12. Along the way, he was part of a very strong A's farm system, playing along side many players who eventually enjoyed long careers in major league baseball.  He began his major league career with the Oakland Athletics, making his major league debut on June 14, 1985. He was initially used as a reliever on a squad that included Don Sutton and Tommy John as pitchers and other notable players like Dave Kingman and Dusty Baker. Steve played a total of 10 seasons in the league, appearing with Oakland from 1985 to 1988 and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1989 and 1990. He was sidelined in 1991 and 1992 with an injury. Ontiveros was signed in early 1993 with the Minnesota Twins but before the season began, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners where he played the 1993 season. He rejoined the Oakland club in 1994 and 1995, signing as a free agent. Steve returned to the minors before signing with the Boston Red Sox for one final season in 2000, playing his final game on October 1, 2000.
Ontiveros was a right handed starting and relief pitcher. His lifetime career record was 34-31 with an ERA of 3.67. He appeared in 207 games, starting 73 of them. Steve also appeared in one feature film, Talent of the Game in 1991. Steve currently trains and mentors gifted pitching prospects in Scottsdale, AZ in his own business, Spin Doctor. |
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