CARR FOLLOWS HEART, NOT FAME NOR FORTUNE; MAJOR-LEAGUE PROSPECT HAS SECOND THOUGHTS.

Byline: Eric Sondheimer Daily News Deputy Sports Editor 

Two months ago, despite clear signs that he was a major-league pitching prospect, former Westlake High School right-hander Tim Carr walked away from the New York Mets' minor-league camp in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and retired from the sport at the age of 19.

``The Mets still say I can come back next year, but I haven't missed it one bit,'' Carr said earlier this week from his home in Westlake Village.

It's hard to understand how Carr could just retire from baseball when he was healthy and doing well. Last summer, he was a 35th-round draft choice of the Mets and signed for $30,000, turning down a scholarship to Arizona State.

In his first season, he had a 3.86 ERA, six saves and 34 strikeouts in 39-2/3 innings for the Mets' rookie team in the Florida Gulf Coast League.

During extended spring training this year, he threw 16 innings without giving up an earned run. ``He was outstanding,'' said Tom Hutchison, the Mets' assistant director for minor-league operations. ``He was lights out.''

But Carr said he didn't like the experience, didn't like living out of a hotel, didn't like the food and no longer appreciated the game.

``It was the best I had ever pitched,'' Carr said. ``I was on a roll, but I didn't care. I wasn't having the time of my life like I used to. That should have made me feel happy and motivated. But it didn't matter to me that I was doing so well.''

On May 16, Carr called it quits. It came after long phone conversations with his parents and friends back home. It came after talking with Mets minor-league administrators, coaches and teammates.

``It was just a lot of different problems leading up to one big decision,'' Carr said. ``I wasn't having fun and wasn't dedicated to the game and didn't feel I could love it and didn't feel I was giving it a chance. My first season, I had a good time. In the offseason, I didn't want to go back. I dreaded getting up in the morning going to the field.

``It's hard for anyone to understand. Nobody was there going through what I went through, seeing how I felt. All the situations and emotions I was feeling added up. All the displeasure added up.''

Carr isn't the first local player suddenly to have second thoughts about a baseball career. Former Faith Baptist star Judd Granzow, a 1995 fourth-round draft pick of the Dodgers, gave up the sport last year after just one season. He signed for $75,000 but an injury apparently influenced his decision to quit.

Carr, though, was on the fast track to success.

``We're disappointed because he's a good person,'' Hutchison said. ``I thought I could see him in a big-league uniform some day, but I guess he didn't have that ambition. I thought he'd go home and recognize he'd miss competing. For a guy to quit when he's doing well and is a promising young player is unusual. He was adamant about wanting to leave and not enjoying baseball.''

Looking back, Carr said he believes he made a mistake not going to Arizona State. He has concluded he wasn't ready to go off on his own and begin a pro career.

``I don't like to regret anything, but I think maybe college would have been the best thing to do,'' he said. ``I don't think I was mature enough.

``I was a homebody. The most I'd ever been away from home was five or six days. I was 18 years old, just out of high school. They offered me $30,000 to play pro baseball. I think there should be more thought given to it. Three thousand miles is a long way from home.''

Carr said he plans to enroll at a junior college, then perhaps pursue a teaching career like his father, Bernie, an elementary-school principal. He said he has thrown a baseball just once in two months - playing catch with his 13-year-old brother, Tyler.

Asked what he has learned from his experience, Carr said, ``I think the biggest thing is to take more time in the decision you make. It's a big decision to sign or go to college. I think I rushed into it. I think it's going to make me more careful in what I choose to do or not to do.''

CARR'S 1996 MINOR LEAGUE STATS

G: 16

IP: 39-2/3

H: 34

R: 20

ER: 17

BB: 13

SO: 34

S: 6

ERA: 0-3

W-L: 3.86

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

PHOTO (color) ``For a guy to quit when he's doing well and is a promising young player is unusual. (But he was) not enjoying baseball.''

-- Tom Hutchison, the Mets' assistant director for minor-league operations, on former prospect Tim Carr

Tina Gerson / Daily News

BOX: CARR`S 1996 MINOR-LEAGUE STATS (see text)