Free Republic

All baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew needed was a new heart and a little hope — what he didn’t know was that a young boy he met almost 20 years ago would be the one to give it to him. The kid was Konrad Reuland, a former Jets and Ravens tight end whose unexpected death from a brain aneurysm shocked friends and teammates last year. He was just 11-years-old when him and the Twins legend first crossed paths.

---snip--- Reuland died of a brain aneurysm Dec. 12 and his organs were donated, as per his wishes. The family knew only that Konrad’s kidney went to a Southern California woman in her 60s, his liver went to a male in his 50s and, most notably, his heart and other kidney went to a 71-year-old man in south Orange County. By the time of the funeral, friends who had read about Rod Carew’s recent heart transplant in Los Angeles were putting two and two together. They pulled Mary aside and asked if it was possible: Do you think Konrad saved...