Carey Goins was born on the South Side of Chicago. Like so many young people before him, he started playing 16-inch softball in the vacant lots, alleys, and schoolyards of his neighborhood. He graduated from Calumet High School in 1971 (where he was a drummer in the band and played football) and then attended Eastern Illinois University. While at Eastern he learned that “softball” meant playing 12-inch, so he started a 16-inch tournament with his fraternity brothers.
He returned to Chicago in 1977 after graduation and created Deathwish with his frat brothers, family, and friends; he played catcher. They played at Avalon Park where they did not win a game but always played hard. The next year they competed in the Washington Park Sunday’s Best Softball League. They added veteran coach Ted Gothard and never finished below fourth place for the next four years. In 1985 they won the league championship. In 1985 they also entered the Saturday Budweiser League, won the regular season title and took second in the “AA” division playoffs. In 1985 Cary took his young team to the Blue Island “A” League where they finished third and realized that they could compete in competitive tournament softball. With this attitude, they entered the Blue Island Major League in 1988.
The team got better and the young players progressed. In 1993 they took third in the USSSA “A” State Tournament out of eighty-four teams, sixth in the USSSA “A” Nationals, and eighth in the ASA “A” Nationals. The team disbanded in 1993 as they were reaching their full potential after the death of Caery’s mother and the death of his wife a year later.
After three years out of softball, his friends convinced him to put a team back together, so Double Diamonds was formed in 1996, becoming Deathwish 2 in 1999. They combined with Rolling Dice in 2006. They won several Blue Island “A” league championships and played in two ASA Major Nationals and many “A” nationals over the years.
Carey retired after the 2006 season, but in 2010 Clifford “Pete Nice” Brown convinced him to manage the 10 Deep softball team. In 2012 he became the manager of the Dog Pound softball team.