Rod Carew held a high school audience in rapt attention as he discussed making the right choices in life:

He was a boy of 11 in his native Panama when his father erupted in a spasm of violence, then fell into an intoxicated stupor. Carew found a machete and stood above the older man, ready — as Carew put it — “to chop him up.” Overwhelmed by rage and hurt, murder seemed like the only answer.

The teens in the auditorium gasped or laughed uneasily, but they leaned forward as Carew recalled how one thing held him back:

Baseball.

“I knew what I wanted to do,” Carew explained, “and I didn’t want it to slip away.”

The article will give you a new respect for the Hall of Famer.