A young boxing enthusiast, Vladimir Nabokov, writing for a Russian émigré newspaper, called the Frenchman “the wonderful Carpentier,” a “modest, fair-haired young man.”
“He's the best player the Mets have ever had — the best ballplayer New York has had since Mickey Mantle. But, like the Mets, he seems to have jumped from a confident future to a disappointing past without ever basking in the present. He's not having fun, and neither are we.”
