MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: Fort White High grad Willie Carter finally gets shot at lifelong dream

Willie Carter walked in his grandfather’s living room phone in hand.

June’s Major League Baseball Draft was winding down and Carter’s phone still hadn’t rung. In Round 34 of 40, he started to come to the realization he wouldn’t be drafted.

Again.

“He said, ‘Papa, it doesn’t look good,’” Carter’s grandfather Charles Anson recalls.

As optimism turned to pessimism, Carter, 22, began preparing himself for a return trip to Webber International for his senior season. But just then, his phone lit up. It was John Bunnell, a former player at Lake City Community College and now a scout for the Atlanta Braves. 

They were selecting Carter with the 1,027th pick.

“He went from the lowest low and so sad to the highest,” said Anson, 73. “He was so happy, oh my God, he could hardly speak.”

Carter, who was passed over in the draft three times before — once out of Fort White High School and twice in junior college at Pensacola State — didn’t hesitate. He wasn’t going back to school again.

It was finally his shot at the big leagues and he wasn’t turning it down.

“I was like, ‘When do I sign?’ I didn’t even let them finish talking,” Carter said.

A DARK PLACE

Being drafted is a dream come true for Carter, but his story is a long and winding one, full of some incredible highs but also some dark lows. 

When Carter was just a toddler, Anson and his now deceased wife, Myra, took custody of him because his father, Willie Lee Carter, couldn’t stay away from selling drugs. His mother, Wendy, also fell into drug abuse.

Anson even remembers Carter’s father behind the dugout of Carter’s t-ball games, ignoring his son while taking drug orders on the phone. 

“It was obvious what he was doing,” Anson said. “He was the biggest drug dealer in Lake City.”

His father eventually landed in jail and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2006 for 13 drug related offenses dating back to 2004, which included selling cocaine and fleeing from authorities. That left Carter with his mother, the Ansons’ daughter, and Anson knew his grandson would be headed down the wrong path if he didn’t act.

Anson says Wendy was a former 4.0 student at Lake City Community College before she met Carter’s father. But her relationship with him led to a heroin addiction, and despite several trips to rehab, she couldn’t kick the habit.

There was only one solution to save their grandson — ask for custody of Carter. Wendy didn’t even fight them over her son and she signed right off.

The Ansons were already taking care of Carter most of the time between his father’s prison sentence and his mother’s drug addiction. Now they had him for good.

“If his father hadn’t been in jail for 15 years, Willie would have been in his footsteps,” Anson said. “We saved him.”

Carter never had a relationship with his parents after that. His mother passed away three years ago due to a drug overdose and his father wasn’t released from prison until last November.

Willie Lee Carter even tried to rekindle a relationship with his son when he got out. But Carter told him to get lost.

In Carter’s eyes, he already had a set of parents — his grandparents. 

“Sometimes I wish I had a relationship with my parents, but at the same time, I’m blessed to have the two grandparents I did,” Carter said. “That’s all I could ask for. I couldn’t have asked for a better set of parents than I had right there. They’ve done everything possible for me and some.”

RAISING CARTER

Carter’s love for baseball can be traced all the way back to a trip to Wal-Mart when he was just three years old. Anson was just looking to buy Carter a toy to play with and came across a plastic bat and rubber ball.

When they got home, Anson took Carter into the back yard and softly tossed him the ball overhand. Carter knocked it over the house.

“‘Pow!’ He was hitting one right after another over the house and I said ‘gee I think there’s something here’ and there certainly has been,” Anson said. “All through the years we would go out and practice and he would say, ‘Come on papa, let’s go.’ I didn’t have to ask him, he asked me. He just has a lot of ambition and loves the game.” 

Anson and his wife immediately put Carter in t-ball and he never put down a bat after that. But it wasn’t all fun and games for Carter in the Anson household.

Myra, who passed away this past year at age 76, homeschooled Carter from sixth grade through high school, waking him up at 6:45 every morning to get him ready to start school at 7:15. Carter only went to Fort White for electives and to play baseball after a long morning of working with his grandmother.

“It was almost tougher being homeschooled than going to school,” Carter said. “She was really tough. We were on a schedule like I was in the classroom.”

While Myra took care of his schooling, Charles took care of all of Carter’s baseball needs, from training equipment to workouts to taking him to practice.

“He’s my rock. That’s just kind of how it was growing up,” Carter said. “They’re like my mom and dad to me and grandparents at the same time.”

HIGH SCHOOL PHENOM 

When Carter was done hitting the books with his grandmother, he was out at Fort White High School crushing baseballs.

Fort White coach Rick Julius had the pleasure of coaching Carter’s final two seasons in high school. Julius remembers Carter standing out right away at practice with his ability to hit the ball the other way with power and a work ethic quite unlike any he had seen at the high school level.

“He would take 500 cuts more than any kid out there every single day,” Julius said. “When practice was over, he would stay there for an hour or two hours and just wear out the batting cage. I just knew with that work ethic and his determination that he had what it took to make it to where he’s at today.”

Carter’s hard work paid off. He hit .515 as a junior with five home runs and 20 RBIs, with one of those dingers coming in a 6-4 eight-inning win over Bradford in the district championship. It was an enormous increase from his sophomore campaign when he hit .343, and plenty of colleges took notice.

Florida State, South Alabama and Chipola all had interest in Carter, but the junior college route interested him more. Going to a four-year school meant Carter would’ve had to play college baseball for at least three years before declaring for the MLB Draft, but Carter had plans to make the majors quicker than that. 

Attending a junior college allowed him to be drafted by a team after any season, regardless of how many years he’d completed. Carter ultimately signed with Pensacola State College ahead of his senior season, which turned out to be another stellar year where he hit .409 with four homers and 15 RBIs all while drawing 18 walks as team after team pitched around him.

Now MLB scouts took notice and there was a chance he could be drafted straight out of high school, to little surprise from Julius.

“About the first day I saw him I knew he could one day play professional baseball,” Julius said.

LEFT AT THE ALTER

The New York Mets showed interest in Carter throughout his senior season. They even sent a scout to his last two games and gave Carter a questionnaire to fill out.

Two months later, they were at his house telling him they were going to put him in left field. They told him he could be taken in the fifth round or even as high as the 39th overall pick.

“I said, ‘Well that’s it. He’s going to get drafted,’” Anson said.

Instead, neither happened. All 40 rounds passed without a phone call.

But Carter didn’t let it get him down. He admitted he was a little disappointed but didn’t view it as a big deal. He was set to go to Pensacola State and he’d have a great freshman season.

Then, he’d definitely get drafted. Or so he thought.

This time it was the Texas Rangers who had their eyes on Carter. But despite hitting .355 with six homers and 34 RBIs as a freshman, his phone never rang during the 2016 draft.

His sophomore season then saw him hit .338 with four homers and 30 RBIs. But again, all 30 teams passed.

“It definitely broke me down a little bit, but it just made me work even harder,” Carter said. “It just made me realize these guys were sleeping on me. I knew I was better than a bunch of those guys. I watched every draft and I saw guys I knew I’d run circles around. Not to be cocky or anything but I played with them before and I knew I was a better ball player. I just had to put my name out there somehow and wait for somebody to take a chance on me.”

STUCK IN GEORGIA

Carter put the drafts behind him as his time in junior college came to an end after two years. He needed a new school, so Georgia Gwinnett was his next stop.

He was excited to start a new chapter in his life, but once he enrolled, his baseball career hit a big roadblock. When Carter arrived on campus, he found out a lot of his credits didn’t transfer over from PSC.

That meant he’d have to redshirt his junior season. Someone dropped the ball.

“I was like, ‘Wow, wish I would’ve known ahead of time,” Carter said.

Carter felt like his life was going downhill. He couldn’t play the sport he loved and he was stuck in another state while his grandmother’s long battle with dementia worsened.

There were days and nights he’d stay on the phone with his grandfather, who could hear the constant frustration in his grandson’s voice.

“I told Willie to just give it up,” Anson said. “He said, ‘Papa, no. I’m not giving up.’ He was very determined and said, ‘I’m going to make it.’ I’d be the last one to give up on him but he said, ‘No Papa, I’m going to hang in there and make it and I’m going to work harder.’”

So Carter prepared himself as if he was playing every day for Georgia Gwinnett. He went through all the workouts with his teammates and every practice despite not being able to suit up.

Carter kept a simple mindset — be ready when your number is called next year.

But then there was more bad news. 

Carter was told he’d have to then sit out fall ball too. That wasn’t going to fly and then Georgia Gwinnett coach Brad Stromdahl knew it. Stromdahl was going to help Carter find a new school where he could actually play baseball again.

Memphis, Faulkner and Southeastern were possibilities for Carter but so was Webber International, which would allow him to return to Florida.

“He gave me some options and said he could send me back to Florida and he sent me to Webber,” Carter said. “He accepted me in and treated me like family.”

THE BREAKOUT

Carter headed to Webber International with an even bigger chip on his shoulder. His grandmother also passed away before the season started and everything he had been through just fueled him in 2019.

“It definitely motivated me a lot and I felt she was my angel in the outfield,” Carter said.

His redshirt junior season was his best yet, leading the Warriors in several offensive categories with a .382 batting average, .706 slugging percentage, .482 on-base percentage, 161 total bases, 87 hits and 19 home runs. Carter also finished second on the team with 62 RBIs, 58 runs scored, 39 walks, 13 doubles and two triples. 

Several of Webber International’s offensive records were broken in the process as well. Carter is now the school’s new single-season record holder in home runs, hits and RBIs.

All of it was also good enough for Carter to be named an NAIA All-American. 

And that redshirt season at Georgia Gwinnett? It ended up being more of a blessing than a curse.

“It really helped me a lot,” Carter said. “I got to grow and prosper as a player. I learned a lot of new things, especially becoming an outfielder. It was my first year in the outfield and Webber just let me do my thing. I think I had one of the best seasons I’ve ever had in baseball period with 19 home runs. I’ve never done such a thing before.”

The MLB scouts were back too. Carter says he filled out about 18 questionnaires during the season, with the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres showing the most interest in him. 

But Carter wasn’t going to get too excited this time around. He knew better, but he also felt he was ready for the majors more than he ever was before.

“I had times where I was like, ‘If it doesn’t happen then that’s what it’s meant to be, but I’m going to keep going for it. I’m not going to hang the cleats up myself. I’ll make them hang them up for me,” Carter said.

HERE COME THE BRAVES

Anson sat in his living room watching TV while Carter listened to the 2019 draft in his bedroom. But this draft was starting to feel like a repeat. 

Thirty-three rounds passed and he hadn’t heard from the Yankees or the Padres.

“Day 3 came around and as Round 30 hit I was like, ‘It might not happen. I might have to get ready to go back to Webber.’ Then the next thing you know, I got a phone call,” Carter said.

All the waiting. All the hard work. It all had finally paid off.

Carter was finally being drafted by the Braves.

“He couldn’t get on the phone quick enough to tell his friends. He was so happy,” Anson said.

Carter says the phone call came as a surprise. He didn’t expect the Braves to be the team to draft him. In fact, he said he only spoke with them once and only saw Bunnell one time, a game where he just happened to hit a home run with four walks on a 1 for 1 day.

Some players may have gone back to school to try and improve their draft stock in their senior seasons. But not Carter. He had waited his whole life for this. He was ready.

“The way I see it is, if I go back another year I’ll end up being a summer signee,” Carter said. “I’ll sign for maybe $1,000 more, but I’ll just be getting older. I think now I’m mentally and physically ready to go now.”

Carter bet on himself and he hasn’t been wrong. Since joining the Danville Braves, Atlanta’s Advanced Rookie-level affiliate, he’s been an everyday player who is second on the team with 17 RBIs and two home runs while hitting .255.

Although the Braves are only 15-22 in the Appalachian League Standings, there’s no where else Carter would rather be.

“It’s finally hit me,” Carter said. “I’ve played a good amount of games already and I’ve been swinging it really well lately. My bat’s been heating up. I’m just enjoying the moment. I sign every autograph I can, sign every bat I can — anything. It’s a great feeling.”

Finally, and well deserved.