Two years earlier, the retired All-Star that had actually tallied 3,000 hits with the Minnesota Twins and California Angels, lived simply up the road from the UCLA medical center where an NFL football player got on his deathbed proclaiming that God had a prepare for his life-- yet the young Baltimore Ravens tight end, Konrad Reuland, passed away from an aneurysm.
A couple of hours later, nonetheless, a serendipitous plan did unfold, when Konrad's heart would end up conserving the very male that motivated him to become a professional athlete.
Rod Carew had invested a lot of his time with children when he wasn't striking over.300 each year on the baseball field. One of those youngsters was Konrad, that was so taken by the star's winning methods, that he determined right there at age 11 that he wished to mature to be a sports hero much like Carew.
Quick ahead to a year prior to Konrad's aneurysm. Rod endured a substantial cardiovascular disease and medical professionals notified him that he would need a brand-new one if he wished to life to see any more innings.
As destiny would certainly have it, the contributor who wound up conserving the life of Carew-- # 29-- was the 29-year-old Reuland, whose enthusiasm for sports was forged by Carew's generosity.
It was the initial well-known occurrence of a pro professional athlete came to be a benefactor to another player.
Carew, currently 72, uses Konrad's heart to advocate for the American Heart Association to recognize the memory of his own individual Angel.
