![]() We stop being great in our chosen fields. He played his final game four days after his 40th birthday.Ĭarew was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1991, and more or less disappeared from public life until his recent health problems reminded us of how great he was and how human we all are. He did collect his 3000th Big League hit in 1985, though. Rod Carew only played two more seasons after that barrage of 1983 cards, and he never did hit. Sometimes, forever doesn’t last nearly as long as we thought it would, or as we had hoped. Of course, we’re all human, even our Wax Pack Gods. Judging by the backs of his baseball cards, Rod Carew had been playing baseball forever.Īnd judging by the fronts of his baseball cards, Rod Carew would go on playing baseball forever. To my 11-year-old eyes, nothing seemed more natural. ![]() “Can you believe I get to play baseball for a living?” he seemed to be asking the photographer. Through it all, there was an ease in his posture and a flame in his eyes that told me he loved what he was doing, that he didn’t want to be anywhere else.Īnd, every once in a while, as on that All-Star card or in profile as the Angels’ batting leader from 1982, Carew would flash his big, happy grin. This was a man clearly ready to battle age and pitchers with equal ferocity as he mounted his assault on 3000 hits and a Cooperstown plaque. There he is, rounding the bin toward 40 years old, wrapped up in a foil-lined sweatsuit with his Angels jersey overtop and armed with both his fielding cap and his batting helmet. It didn’t take me long to realize that the cardboard I held in my chubby little hands depicted a living legend who could bang out 200 hits a season like he was mowing the la wn.īut Carew’s Topps All-Star card told me it didn’t all come easy. The base Fleer card, Topps Glossy, and Donruss All-Star inset told me that he was a focused batsman.Īnd, holy cow, the Topps Angels Team Leaders card and the backs of all his base cards, showed me the result of that focus. I would later find out that he did, indeed, man the middle of the infield during his most productive years. ![]() The Donruss and Topps base issues told me t his was a man serious about fielding his position, even though his lithe body and in-the-dirt crouch made me think he was a second baseman.
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