That list included baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew, claiming he converted.
In Carew’s new book, “One Tough Out: Fighting Off Life’s Curveballs” (Triumph Books), the former Minnesota Twins and California Angels infielder finally sets the record straight. While embracing Judaism, Carew writes, “I never converted.”
That is one of the lighter moments in an autobiography that is often funny, sometimes sad and occasionally remarkable, just like Carew’s extraordinary life. Certain aspects of his story you can’t even make up.
Carew, who lives in Coto de Caza, California, talked with the News Tribune in a telephone interview last month, shortly after his book was released. He discussed an incredible journey bound by an unwavering faith in God.
“I’ve lived a blessed life, I really have,” Carew said. “He has given me a chance to live a second part, so I’m going to continue working and doing his work for him.”
Written with Jaime Aron, former Texas sports editor for the Associated Press and senior writer for the American Heart Association, the 336-page book details Carew’s rise to fame. It is a long but easy read. Baseball fans will recognize a who’s who of names and be surprised by some of the connections, while others might catch themselves saying, “I didn’t know that,” like the fact Carew grew up playing soccer.
Carew, 74, was born on a train in Panama and raised in poverty with an abusive father, but he somehow found his way to the majors. After an illustrious career where he made hitting a baseball look easy, the 18-time All-Star and lifetime .328 hitter was forced to retire, with 3,053 hits.
The love and support Carew received from his mother, Olga, who helped instill his faith in God, and the death of his daughter, Michelle, at age 18 to leukemia, are central to the story.
Years later, after Carew suffered a massive heart attack and received a transplant, he discovered his new heart and kidney came from NFL tight end Konrad Reuland, whom he had met before.
“As a kid growing up, my mom always used to tell me, ‘You don’t have anything to worry about. God’s going to take care of you. He’s always going to take care of you,’ and I believed her,” the soft-spoken Carew said. “With all the curves and bends in the road I’ve taken, it’s been tough, but when you know you have the big man in your corner, he’s going to handle you the right way.”
Rod Carew, baseball Hall of Famer and heart and kidney transplant recipient, embraces Mary Reuland, mother of Konrad Reuland, former NFL and Stanford player who died of a brain aneurysm at 29 in December 2016, before a news conference at the Encino Little League Baseball Park on Tuesday, April 18, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Through the donation process, Carew forged an unbreakable bond with Reuland’s family, something that set off a series of touching television specials, and something Carew called the most important part of his book.
“I’m hoping my story gets to people, once they sit down and read it,” Carew said. “They will understand where I’m coming from, and where they should be headed, to the doctor’s office to get checked out. We look and feel good on the outside, but it’s what’s on the inside we need to also take care of.”
Carew, who despite being a late bloomer in golf, as noted in his book, was up to six career aces by the time he teed up on Sept. 20, 2015.
Carew hit a drive down the middle of the fairway and felt his chest burn and his hands get cold and clammy on his way back to his cart. He recognized the signs and went to get help. A short time later, he had to be shocked back to life.
In his book Carew described how his daughter saw a guardian angel during her bout with leukemia, and he thought it may have been a drug-induced hallucination, but then he saw a guardian angel, too.
“Even when I had my heart attack and went through all these different procedures, I wasn’t afraid to die at all,” he said. “I wasn’t afraid.”
While most people slow down with age, Carew said he is speeding up. What a difference five years makes.
Carew said he has a world-class heart. He was asked how he was feeling.
“I’m doing good,” he said. “Having a new heart, it’s beating like a Maserati, not a Volkswagen anymore. There’s no slowing down, just picking up speed, and the kidney, everything, is doing good. I thank the young man and his family. They gave me a second chance on life by donating a heart and kidney. It saved my life.”
Reuland, 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, was an athlete, also excelling at basketball. He suffered a brain aneurysm while working out on November 28, 2016, and died two weeks later. He was 29. Carew said he met Reuland when the future NFL tight end was about 11.
“I think his mom got a hold of my wife somehow, and mentioned something about her son giving me his heart,” Carew said. “I was kind of dumbfounded. We hadn’t even known that her son had died. That’s the thing. We were surprised to hear that.”
Carew knew the value of giving back at a young age, earning the Roberto Clemente Award for community involvement in 1977, but he was often terse and even surly with some in the media. Introverted, he admits he was hot-headed when he was younger, part of a hardened mentality that came from years of being beaten by his father, but he mellowed with time.
“In the early years I was standoffish to the beat writers,” Carew said. “If you say something and they write the opposite, then you have a right to have a beef about it. That happened to me several times and I just said, ‘They’re not going to make me look bad anymore. I’m just going to keep my mouth shut (he laughed), so I just stopped talking.”
This went on more than 10 years.
Carew said he didn’t break his silence until 1996 when his daughter died. Those are the most touching aspects of "One Tough Out," and reading those pages will soften even the hardest of hearts.
Michelle was buried in Minnesota, the place where Carew said, “I did everything in Minnesota; people saw me come in as a young kid and leave as a man.” (His Cooperstown plaque, which describes the first-ballot Hall of Famer as “Batting Wizard,” is of Carew in a Twins uniform.)
Carew made a promise to Michelle to help people, and that reshaped his outlook on life. That’s the theme of Carew’s book from the Jackie Robinson quote at the start (“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives”) until the end.
“When she went to sleep, she woke up the world,” Carew writes. “Continuing my promise to Michelle to help save lives means everything to me.”
Carew has a platform, and he plans to use it through his promotion of the bone marrow registry, to raising money and awareness for pediatric cancers, heart disease, organ donation and child abuse.
“That’s the story of my life,” Carew said. “When my daughter asked me to start talking to the press when she was diagnosed with leukemia, that’s when I started to open up a lot more, because she felt that I could help the cause. I promised her that I will until I die, and that it would be something I would cherish and be compelled to do. Now, I talk to everyone because I know we have a voice, and we have to use it in the right way.”
One Tough Out: Fighting Off Life’s Curveballs
(Triumph Books, May 2020)
By Rod Carew, with Jaime Aron
Price: $26.95
To purchase: triumphbooks.com/rodcarew or (800) 888-4741
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