Injury Spawned Carter’s Career : Baseball: Damaged knee forced him to abandon dream of playing football at UCLA. Now he holds NL record.

SAN FRANCISCO —  Gary Carter has caught more games than any player in National League history, which is quite a feat for someone who planned a football career. As an All-America quarterback at Sunny Hills High in Fullerton, Carter’s ambition was to run the option for UCLA.

He might have been the second coming of Gary Beban, but a scrimmage before his senior year in 1971 completely altered his life and vaulted him to baseball prominence.

During that scrimmage against Lynwood High, Carter was hit low and hard, the impact snapping the medial collateral ligament in his knee. Not realizing how seriously he was hurt, Carter continued to play. When the injury was diagnosed, the aspiring quarterback was crushed.

It was a temporary setback. His dreams of football stardom at UCLA were shattered, but Tuesday he set a National League record by playing in his 1,862nd game at catcher. He is enjoying a rebirth with the San Francisco Giants and appears headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“A blessing in disguise,” Carter says of the injury that forced him to place an emphasis on baseball. “Football was by far my best sport in high school. I was going to run the UCLA wishbone for Pepper Rodgers.”

Although Carter’s football plans took a turn for the worse, the Montreal Expos never lost faith in the effervescent youngster.

“As a Little Leaguer, I pitched and played all the infield positions,” Carter said. “I started catching my senior year in high school because my coach and the scouts thought I would be a good one. I was drafted in the third round, the 53rd player selected, and (the Expos) gave me $35,000.”

Carter commanded attention with 23 homers and 83 RBI for Triple-A Memphis in 1974. He reached Montreal later that season and was used frequently as an outfielder because the Expos were grooming Barry Foote as their catcher.

Dick Williams took over at Montreal in 1977 and declared that Carter and Foote would battle for the catching job. Carter won, of course, and immediately was labeled as the next Johnny Bench.

“That was very flattering,” Carter says, “because he always was a hero of mine. When I went to my first major-league camp in 1975, I wanted to emulate Bench. I asked for his No. 5. It wasn’t available, so they gave me No. 8. I don’t mind. It’s become my lucky number.”

Little did Carter realize that he would catch more games than Bench. The broken-down football player is now behind only Bob Boone, Carlton Fisk, Al Lopez and Jim Sundberg on the major-league list. Sundberg and Lopez will be passed next year if Carter’s sudden revival is any indication.

Only a bum knee last year prevented him from tying Bench and Bill Dickey for the all-time record of 13 consecutive years catching 100 or more games. Carter was limited to 50 games in 1989. This year he has already played in 42 and has exceeded his hit and homer totals of last season.

“I really haven’t given the record much thought, but it does show a degree of durability,” said Carter, who began the week with a .283 average and was batting .455 (10 for 22) in a six-game hitting streak.