He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991 in his first year of eligibility;[6] he appeared on upwards of 90 percent of the ballots.

[6] Carew is a Zonian and was born to a Panamanian mother on a train in the town of Gatún, which, at that time, was in the Panama Canal Zone.

[10] At age 14, Carew and his siblings immigrated to the United States to join his mother in the Washington Heights section of the borough of Manhattan, New York City.

[13] Herb Stein along with Katz signed Carew to an amateur free agent contract (at the Stella D'Oro Restaurant in the Bronx) on June 24, 1964[14][15] for a monthly salary of $400 (equivalent to $3,930 in 2023).

[18] He was elected to the first of his 18 consecutive All-Star game appearances, and won the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year award[6][8][19] receiving 19 of 20 first place votes.

[21][22] Carew stole home seven times in 1969, leading the major leagues in this category and just missing Ty Cobb's record of eight.

Manager Billy Martin had worked with Carew throughout the 1969 season to learn how to steal home,[23] and teammate Sandy Valdespino had taught Carew how to bunt more effectively,[23] at the end of the season he led the AL with a .332 batting average, the second-place finisher, Reggie Smith, had a .309 average.

[6] Later that year, on June 22, he was injured at second base attempting to convert a double play, he had surgery to repair ligaments in his left leg, and missed 92 games.

[19] He joined Ty Cobb as the only players to lead the major leagues in batting average for three consecutive seasons.

[19] In the 1977 season, Carew batted .388, which was the highest since Boston's Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957; he won the 1977 AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.

[36] In 2020, Carew denied the longtime allegations that the controversial comments which Griffith made in 1978 suggesting support for Minnesota having a low African-American population and the idea that blacks preferred wrestling to baseball was what triggered his trade to the Angels when he stated, "When he traded me prior to the 1979 season, Calvin told me he wanted me to be paid what I was worth.

[19] Carew grounded out to end the fifth and final game by hitting a routine groundball to shortstop Robin Yount off a pitch from Pete Ladd, a minor-league journeyman who replaced the injured Brewers closer Rollie Fingers.

On August 4, 1985, Carew joined an elite group of ballplayers when he got his 3,000th base hit against Minnesota Twins left-hander Frank Viola at the former Anaheim Stadium.

[41] Through 2017, Carew still holds many places in the Twins record books, including: highest career batting average (.334), second-highest on-base percentage (.393, tied with Buddy Myer), fourth-highest in intentional walks (99), fifth in hits (2,085), and fifth in stolen bases (271).

[42] He also holds many spots in the Angels record books, including: highest career on-base percentage (.393), second-highest batting average (.314), and sixth-highest in both intentional walks (45) and sacrifice hits (60).

[43] Carew's career total of 17 steals of home ties him for 17th on the all-time MLB list with former New York Giant MVP Larry Doyle and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Collins.

[44] Carew was also an effective pinch hitter in his career, recording a .315 batting average (40-for-127) with 3 home runs and 33 RBI in that role.

[45] During the 1960s, Carew served a six-year commitment in the United States Marine Corps Reserve as a combat engineer.

His first wife, Marilynn Levy, is Jewish,[35] and he was a member of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Ana, California.

(Sandler dropped Carew from later versions of the song, but Neil Diamond mentions the ballplayer in his rendition, recorded in 2009.

[53] Carew was hired as the Angels' hitting coach on November 5, 1991, and served in a similar capacity with the Milwaukee Brewers.

He is credited with helping develop young hitters like Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds, and Tim Salmon.

Doctors wanted to perform a bone marrow transplant, but Michelle's rare ethnic heritage complicated the search for a matching donor; her father was black with West Indian and Panamanian roots and her mother was of Russian-Jewish ancestry.

When no matching bone marrow donor was found, an umbilical cord blood transplant was performed in March 1996.

[62] Carew began using chewing tobacco in 1964 and was a regular user up to 1992, when a cancerous growth in his mouth was discovered and removed.

The years of use had severely damaged his teeth and gums, and Carew has spent a reported $100,000 in restorative dental work.

[64] He was hospitalized for more than six weeks, and had several surgical procedures, which culminated with implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD).

[65] Carew recovered sufficiently to take part in the Twins' 2016 spring training as an instructor, coach, and launch the Heart of 29 Campaign.

[68][69] Carew participated in the 2018 Rose Parade aboard the Donate Life float on New Year's Day, in honor of Reuland.