Gary Carter, the hard-hitting Major League Baseball catcher who helped the New York Mets make an amazing rally to beat Boston in the 1986 World Series, died on Thursday of brain cancer. He was 57.

Carter, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003, singled in the 10th inning in game six of the 1986 World Series to start a comeback that saw the Mets take game six and then win game seven to capture the crown.

An 11-time All-Star in his playing days, Carter had been taking radiation treatments and chemotherapy to combat the cancer but new tumours were discovered last month.

Carter played 19 seasons for four major league clubs, spending 12 years with the Montreal Expos, including his first 11 Major League Baseball seasons and his last, in 1992.

After leaving Montreal, Carter played for the Mets for five seasons, starting in 1985, then played one season each for the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers before finishing his career where it began in Canada.

Carter was a career .262 batter who smacked 324 home runs and batted in 1,225 runs.