Even when it was obvious to everyone that he was one of the most seasoned, experienced, and successful players in the National League, catcher Gary Carter still seemed to deserve the nickname “Kid.” His youthful grin, his endless enthusiasm for baseball, and his relentless drive to win kept him young where it counts: in the heart. And Carter stayed young for a long, long, time.

Carter, who passed away Thursday, was a fierce competitor and a natural leader. His greatest joy in life was winning a baseball game. I remember watching him play during his prime and thinking that he was the toughest guy on either side of the field, both mentally and physically. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Davey Johnson, the manager of the ’86 Mets team that came back from the brink of disaster to win a miraculous World Series, said, “We’d be lost without him.”

Johnson was right. It was Carter’s gut-check two-out, two-strike single to left field in the bottom of the tenth inning of Game 6 that kept the Mets alive … and set the stage for that fateful Mookie Wilson ground ball to first that won the game, forced Game 7, and launched a million video replays.

After retiring, Carter told a reporter, “I never cheated anybody, but I always played the game hard. And I always respected the game for what it meant.”

We should all live that way. Whether you know, or even care, about what got Gary Carter into the Baseball Hall of Fame, you should care about this: we should all be playing the game of life the way he did: fair, hard, and with full respect for what the contest means. It means summoning the very best from yourself and others, day after day. And it means staying young where it counts … no matter how old you are.