If you’ve endured pediatric leukemia and needed a special bone marrow transplant, you might know of Carew – or actually know the guy – because he’s spent much of the past few decades raising awareness and scrounging up money and finding transplant donations for people facing your often lethal battle. His daughter Michelle died of the disease at 18 years old.
If you were an aspiring big leaguer growing up in Panama; a Marine Reserve in Minnesota; a kid connected to a charity in Minneapolis in the mid-1970s; you might know Carew because he was held up as an example to you, or served next to you, or gave money to you.
And on Friday, Aug. 23, in an otherwise unremarkable assembly room at the bottom of the Federal Building in Santa Ana, you could’ve come to know Carew in an entirely different way – as a new member of what officials refer to as “the American family.”
“It took a lifetime, a great lifetime, but I’m in,” Carew said, smiling slyly as some bigwigs from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service scurried behind him in advance of making him repeat the “Oath of Allegiance.”
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, after taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, dons his Hall of Fame ring as he holds his certificate of naturalization after taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, takes the Oath of Allegiance from Immigration District Director Alanna Ow to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, takes a picture with friends and family after he took the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Rhonda Carew, left, wife of former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, reacts as he gets his certificate of naturalization after taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, celebrates after taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, dons his Hall of Fame ring as he holds his certificate of naturalization after taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, is handed a picture of himself when he U.S. Marine before taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, right, chats with teammate Bobby Grich, before Carew took the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, after taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, center, who was born in Panama, takes a picture with teammate Bobby Grich, left, sports agent John Boggs, center, and former Angels VP of communications Tim Mead after Carew took the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, takes a picture with friends and family after he took the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, right, listens as teammate Bobby Grich tells the story of how they met after Carew took the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, takes a picture with friends and family after he took the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Rod Carew acknowledges the cheers of the fans after he got his 3000th career big league hit August 5, 1985, in Anaheim. (AP File Photo/Mark Avery)
Retired Angels player and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, left, is introduced during the Angels opening day ceremonies in Anaheim on Thursday, April 4, 2019. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
Baseball Legend and organ recipient Rod Carew, who received a heart and kidney from former NFL tight end Konrad Reuland, waves toe crowd during a ceremony before the Angels’ game at Angel Stadium in 2017. At left is David Eckstein and on the right is Konrad’s Parents Ralf and Mary. (File Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
National Baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew arrives for an induction ceremony at the Clark Sports Center on Sunday, July 30, 2017 in Cooperstown, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
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Former Angels star and Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who was born in Panama, after taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. Citizen in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Minutes later – after he’d held his hand to his heart uttered the arcane but oddly moving passage required of all naturalized Americans and after the witnesses stood to say the Pledge of Allegiance and listen to a recording of the “Star-Spangled Banner” – Carew spread his arms wide and told the room:
“I AM an American citizen.”
About 50 people, friends, family and fellow Angels legend Bobby Grich cheered.
Turns out, at 78, Carew’s often surprising life had yet another plot twist.
Though he lived in New York City starting at age 13, and though he missed about 100 games early in his big league career to fulfill his summertime obligations as a member of the U.S. Marine Reserves, and though he’s even traveled back to his home country, Panama, (on a Panamanian passport) to visit family and play role model for young ballplayers, he did all of that as a Green Card holder. The guy who was born in a “colored” car on a train in Panama, who went on to be a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was not a U.S. citizen.
The path to changing that started about four months ago, during a lunch with former Angels vice president for communications Tim Mead. Carew – sharp and friendly but no sufferer of fools – mentioned to Mead that he wasn’t a citizen and that it kind of bugged him. Mead, himself born in Greece and an American since he was 6 years old, started doing what Mead is known to do – quietly helping his friend.
That soon led to Carew meeting with a local immigration attorney, getting his paperwork into the system, and, yes, getting the guidebook – with about 20 questions related to American history and civics – to prep him for the test required of everyone who formalizes their citizenship.
According to Carew and his family, he was nailing the prep questions prior to his meeting with officials and taking the oral exam.
“When I got to the actual test, the first question the guy asked wasn’t on the list. I was stumped,” Carew said, shaking his head to illustrate a bit of self-displeasure.
No, he can’t remember what question he missed. But, yes, he remembers passing all the others, including the one about California’s state capital that briefly looked like it might also stump him.
“They have a pro basketball team,” Carew said, his face reliving the puzzlement. “Oh, yeah, Sacramento.”
The other requirements – that he be of “good moral character” and that he speak passable English – he’d already aced.
Carew answered the “why now?” question directly. “Because this is my country, the greatest country in the world, and it’s given me so, so much.”
He added “a lot of people feel that way.”
Carew, who lives in Irvine with the help of a transplanted heart and transplanted kidneys and a new knee (“I’m the ‘Bionic man!’”) has some plans for his new status. Travel, he said, is first. “I want to go to Barbados. That’s where my grandparents were born,” he said. “And France,” he added, glancing at his family. “My wife says France is beautiful, so we’re going there.”
And then?
“Voting,” he said.
“This country is going through some hard times, but they’ll pass,” he said. “The idea that we’re immigrants, and that we have value, will come back. I believe it.”
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