Former Twins great Rod Carew: 'I almost lost it out there'

Just over six months ago, former Twins great Rod Carew had a massive heart attack. His heart stopped twice during that “widowmaker,” and he’s told he’s lucky to be alive.

A near-death experience can impact a person in a lot of ways. It has made Carew grateful and turned him into an advocate for preventative heart health. Those two sentiments collided Monday, with Carew throwing out the first pitch at the Twins’ home opener at Target Field. He used the opportunity as a platform to again urge people to get their hearts checked. But the occasion also brought a surge of emotion as he considered just what had transpired in the past year.

“I almost lost it out there,” Carew said, when asked about how he felt walking out onto the field. “This is home.”

The secondary thought: “Don’t bounce the darn thing,” he said. He took care of that, too, delivering a clean toss to the Twins’ Joe Mauer.

Turning to baseball, Carew offered optimism that the Twins will turn around their offensive struggles. “This is just a phase that they’re going through right now. … A lot of young players. A lot of talent. They’re going to break out of it.”

I asked him about all the strikeouts in the baseball these days — with the Twins at the forefront. Carew, who never struck out 100 times in a season and finished with almost as many career walks (1,018) as strikeouts), admitted that bothered him.

“That’s the only thing I’m not crazy about. They take a strikeout as if it’s nothing,” he said. “To me, when you walk up to home plate, it’s all about swinging the bat and getting a base hit. It’s not about taking a called third strike for a strikeout or walking back to the bench because that’s the longest walk on a baseball field.”