Backstreet Boys and tearful Nick Carter honor ‘little brother’ Aaron Carter in London
LOS ANGELES — For the second day in a row Aaron Carter is a full-on hero for the Los Angeles Dodgers — only he has been a more serious hero than the men who have honored him.
After Thursday, when Carter’s teary eyes and full expression of joy were seen by thousands at Dodger Stadium, Carter’s little brother Aaron Carter Jr. will be honored by both the Dodgers and the New York Yankees in London in a moment that has come to symbolize both his triumph and the emotional state of the Carter family.
On Thursday, the Carter family, along with the L.A. Dodgers, took in Los Angeles’ epic come-from-behind win against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium. And the next night, in a similar scene at Yankee Stadium, Carter’s younger brother Nick Carter — who was born one day after Carter went on the Dodgers’ major league roster — went out before the Yankee left-handed ace Masahiro Tanaka and raised a glass of champagne to his brother.
“I’m a huge fan of him, too, so it made me feel really good that he was wearing the jersey and waving the ball around,” Nick Carter said of his younger brother. “But to be able to watch him and see him go from being a kid to becoming a man, I was blessed to see that.”
Carter Sr., father of Aaron Carter Jr., said he had tears in his eyes as he watched his son run up to the Yankees’ dugout, and that his son had shown him the same thing he showed Carter Sr. when it came time to raise the glass to his boy.
“That was the best memory I have of Aaron Jr.,” Carter Sr. said with a sad smile. “Now that it’s over, I look at him as a young man. But you know, he’s been growing up ever since he left us.”
A teary-eyed Aaron Carter Jr. said it has been hard not being around baseball, particularly this past couple of days.