Word: rods
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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They dated for a while-Marilynn ducking to the floorboards every time she saw a red car that resembled her father's. "It was humiliating for Rod and finally I said, 'Listen, this has got to stop. It's been nice but let's call it a day.' " They stayed apart for several months, but when spring training began, Carew placed long long-distance calls, reaffirming his affection. "It was nice before," says Marilynn, "but by now it was love, already." When the season started, they confronted her family at Passover Seder. Her nieces...
...Rod grew up playing with rag balls wound in tape; his prize possession was a Ted Williams bat won for his superior play in local Little Leagues. He even slept with the bat and was brokenhearted when it was stolen after a pickup game. His mother recalls: "He was still, quiet and alone as a child. He was always walking around with a bat and ball in his hand." His two childhood dreams: Go to the U.S. Become a big league baseball player...
When Carew was 15, his mother immigrated to New York City and, after finding a home and a job, sent for Rod and his older brother Eric. Flying into New York at night, Rod stared down on the city. "It was so big from the air," he recalls, "I couldn't believe it." He entered Manhattan's George Washington High School (Henry Kissinger's alma mater), but did not go out for school sports; his afternoons were taken up by a part-time job in a grocery store to help support the family...
...balls for batting-practice pitchers-a job usually left to utility players and aging coaches. Once when he failed to run out a long foul ball that the wind suddenly blew fair, he fined himself for not hustling. Says Twins Manager Gene Mauch: "As impressed as I am with Rod Carew the hitter, Rod Carew the baseball player, I am more impressed with Rod Carew...
...hitting some shots. I mean really hitting the ball." He blasted so many balls into the bleachers, in fact, that Twins Manager Sam Mele-fearing spying Yankee eyes-ordered him out of the batting cage: "Get him out of here before somebody sees the kid!" One month later, Rod signed with the Twins for a $5,000 bonus...