Gary Carter, the Hall of Fame catcher who built his career on clutch hits, gritty play and an infectious personality that earned him the nickname “The Kid,” died Thursday. He was 57.

Carter, who lived at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, had been battling brain cancer since May.

His daughter, Kimmy Bloemers, announced his death Thursday afternoon on the family’s online journal.

He died at 4:10 p.m. at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach. He had been admitted two days earlier.

“We’ve always been aware of how remarkable a human being he is. Forget the baseball part of it — we all know he’s a Hall of Fame baseball player. But he’s a Hall of Famer off the field, too,” Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said recently.

Carter won three Gold Gloves and five Silver Slugger awards and was runner-up in the National League MVP voting in 1980 while with the Montreal Expos, the team he played for during 12 of his 19 major-league seasons.

He played in 11 All-Star games and was named MVP in two of them, in 1981 and ’84.

But perhaps his biggest moment came in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series when he came to bat with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning and his New York Mets trailing the Boston Red Sox 5-3.

Determined to not make the last out of the series, Carter singled off reliever Calvin Schiraldi, sparking a three-run rally that ended when Mookie Wilson’s grounder bounced through Bill Buckner’s legs to give the Mets an epic 6-5 victory.

Two days later, the Mets won Game 7 to clinch their first World Series title since 1969.

More than 23 years later, Carter would use the story of his clutch hit as a teaching tool at Palm Beach Atlantic University, where he was hired in 2009 as the head baseball coach.

“Listening to him tell that story, you feel as though you’ve got resin on your hands and the grass at Shea [Stadium] is permeating your nostrils,” Palm Beach Atlantic interim president William Fleming said.

“Gary had an acute attention to detail. He could capture the vibe of the game and share it with you, even though the game might have happened a decade earlier.”

Original Marlins president Don Smiley, who employed Carter as the team’s first TV color analyst alongside play-by-play man Jay Randolph, said: “When Gary was first diagnosed, it was just a shock. It took my breath away. He battled so hard. Gary added a lot of stature and respect to an expansion franchise. Who knew the game better than Gary Carter? We were thrilled to have him. He was a fantastic person to be around, very caring, very understanding. He was [as] competitive as you could possibly be, but he was a very sensitive person.”

After he was diagnosed last year with an aggressive form of brain cancer, Carter told friends that he planned to fight the disease with the same determination he showed in Game 6 on Oct. 25, 1986.

The Expos held their spring training in West Palm Beach during part of Carter’s time with the team, and he was active in the South Florida community after retiring.

Carter always said he wanted to manage, and he excelled when he got the chance.

He was the Gulf Coast League’s Manager of the Year in 2005 and led the Class A St. Lucie Mets to the Florida State League championship in 2006. He was named Palm Beach Atlantic University’s baseball coach in October 2009.

Miami Herald sports writer Barry Jackson contributed to this report.