| Post-Season:
1969 ALCS, 1970 ALCS, 1979 ALCS, and 1982 ALCS
Awards: Rookie of the Year 1967; American League Most
Valuable Player 1977; All-Star (18) 1967-1984
Quotes:
"He has an uncanny ability to move the ball around
as if the bat were some kind of magic wand."
--Ken Holtzman
Biography:
Rod Carew lined, chopped and bunted his way to 3,053
career hits. His seven batting titles are surpassed
only by Ty Cobb, Tony Gwynn and Honus Wagner. He used
a variety of relaxed, crouched batting stances to hit
over .300 in 15 consecutive seasons with the Twins and
Angels, achieving a .328 lifetime average. He was honored
as American League Rookie of the Year in 1967, won the
league MVP 10 years later and was named to 18 straight
All-Star teams.
Rod Carew was born in Gatun, Panama. He was named after
Dr. Rodney Cline, who delivered baby Rod while on a
train in the Panama Canal Zone, on October 1, 1945.
At an early age, Rod learned to hit tennis balls and
wads of paper taped into a ball. When he was 16 years
old, his mother took the family to New York City to
live with Rod’s godmother. Rod grew up not far
from the old Polo Grounds, and near Yankee Stadium.
He was signed in 1964 by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur
free agent.
He began his career as a second baseman,
but he was never much of a fielder. He won the AL Rookie
of the Year award in 1967 and was an All-Star for the
first of 18 consecutive seasons. He garnered his first
batting title in 1969, despite missing two-weeks and
several weekends for military commitments. He made a
record of seven steals of home, a single-season record
surpassed only by Ty Cobb. In 1970 he missed three months
with torn cartilage after a runner collided with him
at the keystone on June 22nd.
Rod Carew was a left-hander with the picture-perfect
stroke. In 1972 he won the first of four straight batting
titles, joining Ty Cobb as the only players to do so
in the American League. By that time he was also an
accomplished bunter – beating out 27 of 35 bunt
attempts for hits in 1972. In both 1973 and 1974 he
topped the loop in hits. He batted .400 as late as June
in 1974, but ultimately finishing the season at .364
with 218 hits.
In 1976 his string of four straight batting
titles was halted when he lost the crown on the final
day of the season to George Brett. It was one of the
most controversial batting races in history. Rod was
never considered a great defensive second baseman, so
that season he was moved from second to play first base,
a position he held the rest of his career.
Rod Carew had his best year in 1977 with
the Twins. Despite falling eight hits shy of .400, he
had a phenomenal season. He won the AL batting title
by a whopping 52 points over teammate Lyman Bostock.
He reached the century mark in RBI’s for the first
time, quite a feat for a singles hitter on a mediocre
Twins team. He scored 128 runs, leading the league.
He also paced the AL in triples, with 16. Rod’s
239 hits were the most by an AL hitter since Heinie
Manush. In addition, Rod set the Minnesota single-season
records for runs, hits, batting average, and triples.
For his stellar 1977 season, Rod Carew
was named AL MVP. The Sporting News named him Player
of the Year, an honor voted by his peers. Perhaps the
most amazing fact about the 1977 season came after the
playing was over. Faced with the overwhelming evidence
that his six-time batting champ was the best hitter
in baseball, notorious cheapskate Twins' owner Calvin
Griffith voluntarily gave Rod a $100,000 bonus!
Rod followed his 1977 masterpiece with
his final batting title in 1978, hitting .333. But during
the season he entered a war of words with Twins owner
Calvin Griffith. The two debated his salary for 1979,
and Rod hinted he would like to be traded to a contending
team, and soon the Yankees, Giants, and Angels were
making offers.
Rod was eventually dealt to the California
Angels in spring training of 1979. That season he helped
the team to the playoffs, his first taste of post-season
since 1970.
In the following seasons he continued to top the .300
mark and fit nicely in the middle of the Angels star-studded
lineup. In 1982 the Halos returned to the ALCS, losing
in heartbreaking fashion. Carew managed just a .176
batting average. For his career, Carew batted .220 (11-for-50)
with one RBI in 14 playoff games.
In 1982, Rod Carew suffered three hairline
fractures in his right hand after punching Twins pitcher
Darrell Jackson. Jackson had triggered a brawl when
he knocked down several Angel batters, including the
normally mild-mannered Rod. Despite the injury, Rod
put together his longest hitting streak – 25 games.
The 1983 season held great promise for
the California Angels – winners of the AL West
the previous year. They had blown a 2-0 lead in the
playoffs, but their team seemed loaded for another post-season
run. Rod Carew, Fred Lynn, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Grich,
Brian Downing, Doug DeCinces, Bob Boone, and Tommy John
formed an All-Star cast, albeit a veteran one.
As the 1983 season began Rod was facing
his doubters. Some experts predicted that his magical
bat would age, pointing to his decreasing extra-base
numbers in recent years. But the ageless batting champ
had some tricks up his sleeve. The man who Alan Bannister
called "the only player who can go 4-for-3,"
started the season as hot as any batter in baseball
history. Over his first 23 games, he had 48 hits in
96 at-bats for a blistering .500 average. Unfortunately
for the Angels and Rod Carew, the rest of the season
was not as kind. The Angels finished 29 games behind
the White Sox and Rod batted .306 the rest of the season
after his amazing getaway.
Two seasons later, in 1985, he collected
his 3,000th hit off Twins left-hander Frank Viola on
August 4th. That season, after batting a respectable.280,
he retired with 3,053 base hits after no team showed
interest in his free agency.
Both the Twins and the Angels retired
his uniform #29. He was a first ballot Hall of Famer
in 1991.
Appearing to almost catch the ball with
his bat, Panamanian-born Rod Carew carefully placed
base hits all over the diamond, winning seven batting
titles. He was the best bunter of his generation, and
he stole home 17 times. Toiling for poor Twins teams
and the hard-luck Angels, Rod Carew collected more hits
than any player who never played in a World Series.
He was known for his soft, sweet stroke
and used as many as twelve different batting stances
throughout his career. He was rare in that he used thin
handled bats. His 11 years with the Twins were filled
with beautiful swings and his Hall of Fame status definitely
makes him a Minnesota Twin “great.”
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