Rod Carew
From BR Bullpen
Rodney Cline Carew
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 6' 0", Weight 182 lb.
Inducted into Hall of Fame in 1991
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[edit] Bio
"I get a kick out of watching a team defense me. A player moves two steps in one direction and I hit it two steps in the other direction. It goes right by his glove and I laugh." - Rod Carew
Rod Carew was born in a train in the Panama Canal Zone to Panamanian parents, who named him after the delivering doctor - Rodney Cline. He moved to the United States as a teenager.
Rod Carew lined, chopped and bunted his way to 3,053 career hits. 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. He remains a national hero in Panamá.
His #29 is retired by the Minnesota Twins and by the California Angels.
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on January 8, 1991 by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Rodney Cline Carew (born October 1, 1945 in Gatun, Panama Canal Zone, now in Panama) was an infielder for the Minnesota Twins and California Angels in the 1970s and 1980s, and one of the most prolific hitters of his generation.
An immigrant to New York City at the age of 17, Carew was an All-Star in all but his final 1985 season and the American League Rookie of the Year in 1967. In 1972, amazingly enough, Carew led the American League in batting, without hitting a single home run. He won seven batting titles, including his best overall season, 1977 in which his .388 batting average was the highest in baseball since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. Though it by far was the closest anyone other than Williams had come to hitting .400 or more since the actual 1941 feat, it did not get the media attention that George Brett's attempt did three years later because unlike Brett's run he was "only" hitting about .350 or so most of the season until he hit a "hot streak" in September and his average started inching towards .400 during the last two weeks of the season. He also won the AL's Most Valuable Player award that year. In addition, he is one of only two players (the other being Ty Cobb) to lead Major League Baseball in batting average in three consecutive years, doing so from 1973 through 1975.
Originally a second baseman, Carew moved to first base in 1975 to lengthen his career. Frustrated by the Twins' inability to keep its young stars, Carew announced his intention to leave the team in 1979. He was then traded to the Angels for four players.
Carew stole home 17 times in his career. He completed the feat 7 times in 1969, second to only Ty Cobb.
Sometimes a target of racism, Carew received death threats when he announced his intention to marry a Jewish woman. Many sources have long claimed that he converted to Judaism when he married his wife and in this sense he is sometimes compared to Sammy Davis Jr. as a famous "Jewish convert of color"; however, this is incorrect. He has never undergone a formal conversion ceremony nor publicly identified himself as an adherent of Judaism, however, his children were raised Jewish and it is assumed that as such he partakes in some Jewish activities such as lighting Hanukkah candles or organizing Passover Seders with his family. Nonetheless, the story about him converting to Judaism is an urban myth. He is named in one of Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Songs as "Hall of Famer Rod Carew!" He is also referenced in the Beastie Boys 1994 single "Sure Shot" with the line "And I got mad hits like I was Rod Carew."
When Carew's 18-year-old daughter, Michelle, fell victim to leukemia, Carew made national headlines again. Her Panamanian-Jewish ethnic mix lowered the likelihood of finding a suitable donor for a bone marrow transplant; in spite of Carew's national pleas, she died in April 1996 before a donor could be located.
Following his retirement, Carew has worked as a hitting coach, including for the Angels and for the Milwaukee Brewers.
On January 19th, 2004, Panama City, Panama's National Stadium was renamed Rod Carew Stadium.[1] In 2005, Carew was named the second baseman on the Major League Baseball Latino Legends Team.
His number 29 has been retired by both the Minnesota Twins and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on January 8, 1991 by the Baseball Writers Association of America. In 1999, he ranked Number 61 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
- First Baseball Card appearance 1967 Topps
Some or all content from this article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rod Carew".
[edit] Notable Achievements
- 1967 AL Rookie of the Year Award
- 1967 Topps All-Star Rookie Team
- 18-time AL All-Star (1967-1984)
- AL MVP (1977)
- 7-time AL Batting Average Leader (1969, 1972-1975, 1977 & 1978)
- 4-time AL On-Base Percentage Leader (1974, 1975, 1977 & 1978)
- AL OPS Leader (1977)
- AL Runs Scored Leader (1977)
- 3-time AL Hits Leader (1973, 1974 & 1977)
- 4-time AL Singles Leader (1972-1974 & 1977)
- 2-time AL Triples Leader (1973 & 1977)
- 100 RBI Seasons: 1 (1977)
- 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 1 (1977)
- 200 Hits Seasons: 4 (1973, 1974, 1976 & 1977)
- Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 1991
| AL MVP | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 1977 | 1978 |
| Thurman Munson | Rod Carew | Jim Rice |
| AL Rookie of the Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1966 | 1967 | 1968 |
| Tommie Agee | Rod Carew | Stan Bahnsen |
[edit] Further Reading
- Thomas Boswell: "The Zen of Rod Carew", in How Life Imitates the World Series, Penguin Books, New York, 1982, pp. 174-177.
