Rod Carew - Major League Career

Major League Career

Carew won the American League's Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and was elected to the first of 18 consecutive All-Star game appearances. Carew stole home seven times in the 1969 season to lead the majors, just missing Ty Cobb's Major League record of eight and the most in the major leagues since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. Carew's career total of 17 steals of home currently puts him tied for 17th on the list with former New York Giant MVP Larry Doyle and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Collins. In 1972, Carew led the American League in batting, hitting .318, and remarkably, without hitting a single home run for the only time in his career. Carew is to date the only player in the American League or in the modern era to win the batting title with no home runs. In 1975, Carew joined Ty Cobb as the only players to lead both the American and National Leagues in batting average for three consecutive seasons. In the 1977 season, Carew batted .388, which was the highest since Boston's Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, and won the American League's Most Valuable Player award.

Seeing time predominantly at second base early in his career, Carew moved to first base in September 1975 and stayed there for the rest of his career. In 1979, frustrated by the Twins' inability to keep young talent, and after considerable conflict with team owner Calvin Griffith, Carew announced his intention to leave the Twins. On February 3, Carew was traded to the Angels for outfielder Ken Landreaux, catcher/first baseman Dave Engle, right-handed pitcher Paul Hartzell, and left-handed pitcher Brad Havens. Although representing a considerable infusion of talent, the Twins had been unable to complete a possibly better deal with the New York Yankees in January in which Carew would have moved to New York in exchange for Chris Chambliss, Juan Beníquez, Dámaso García, and Dave Righetti.

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. The 1985 season would be his last. After the season, Rod Carew was granted free agency, after the Angels declined to offer him new contract, but he received no offers from other teams. Carew suspected that baseball owners were deliberately colluding to keep him (and other players) from signing. The suspicion was justified; on January 10, 1995, nearly a decade after his forced retirement, arbitrator Thomas Roberts ruled that the owners had indeed violated the rules of baseball's second collusion agreement, which they had previously agreed to abide by. Rod Carew was awarded damages equivalent to what he would have likely received in 1986: $782,036. Carew finished his career with 3,053 hits and a lifetime batting average of .328.

Carew was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, his first year of eligibility, the 22nd player so elected. In 1999, he ranked #61 on The Sporting News'' list of 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for Major League Baseball's All-Century Team. Carew has also been inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.

Through 2011, Carew had the best all-time career batting average of all Twins (.334), the second best on-base percentage (.393; tied with Buddy Myer), was fourth in intentional walks (99), and was fifth in hits (2,085) and stolen bases (271; while second in caught stealing, at 123). He also had the best all-time career on base percentage of all Angels (.393), the second-best batting average (.314), and was sixth in both intentional walks (45) and sacrifice hits (60).