“I’m Rod Carew, but the bottom line is I’m still Black.” That event happened more than 40 years ago, but reads like it could have happened yesterday. There’s a lot of growth in this country.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - When Minnesota Twins great Rod Carew played baseball he left nothing to chance. He worked harder than anyone else from the first day he put on the uniform until his last.

Carew was put on the heart transplant list Nov. 18, at which point Rod and Rhonda began sleeping with their cell phones nestled between them, convinced the call would come in the middle of the night.

Carew — the Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and 18-time All-Star, who had always felt healthy — collapsed on the first hole at the Cresta Verde Golf Course in Corona in September 2015.

Devon Carew was by his father’s side the entire weekend in Cooperstown. As Rod renewed acquaintances with his fellow Hall of Famers, he would ask them what they thought about the state of the game.

Rhonda Carew and her husband Rod Carew adjacent to a Donate Life Float exhibit at Pasadena Hilton in Pasadena Friday December 29, 2017. Transplant recipient Carew will be among the floatÕs 17 riders.

Rod Carew holds Konrad Reuland's portrait as he stands for a photograph with Reuland's brother, Austin, left, their mother Mary and Carew's wife Rhonda in Encino, Calif. on April 18, 2017.

Rod Carew welcomed the Angels sale on Twitter; it’s a long, bitter story Angels’ Rod Carew acknowledges the cheers of the fans after his 3000th major league hit on Aug. 5, 1985 at Angel ...

With his 70th birthday approaching in October, Rod Carew compiled a “bucket list” last summer, “some things I’d like to do before I leave this Earth,” the former Angels and Minnesota ...

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Rod Carew and Ralf Reuland stood together in front of the mound, sharing a cause and a vision — and very much a heart. Four months after Carew received the heart and kidney ...

“Good morning,” said Rod Carew, the Hall of Famer and former Angel and Minnesota Twin who has been recovering from a massive heart attack on Sept. 20, just 11 days shy of his 70th birthday.