Before the 1977 season, Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins had already established himself as one of the greatest contact hitters in the game’s history, being a five-time Batting champion. In 1977, Rod Carew made the pursuit of hitting for a .400 average. On June 26th of that season, Rod Carew had four hits for six RBIs. At the game’s end, his average stood at .403, which caught the attention of the entire baseball world and put him on the cover of Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated with the last guy to hit for .400, Ted Williams. In an interview with Fox Sports North in 2017,
Rod Carew said this to Ted Williams.
“Ted was kind of disappointed in me because he knew I had power, and he thought I should swing harder and go for it more.” Then finally told Ted, “You say that if you swing at that pitch that’s down and away, that’s your 220-230 average, but I take that pitch and I could hit .500 off of it to the opposite field.”
Now Carew was never a player who put up slugger-like numbers, but that’s not to take anything away from Carew. At the same time, Carew didn’t end the season with a .400 average. He was only 7 Hits shy of reaching .400. In the final 31 games of that season, Carew hit for .441, which shows you how hard it is to accomplish that. The only other two guys to have gotten closer were George Brett three years later at .390 and Tony Gwynn in the 1994 strike season at .394.
Rod Carew 1977 MVP Season *Bold means led league
.388 AVG, 239 HITS, 14 HR, 100 RBI, .449 OBP, 128 RUNS (155 Games)
Rod Carew Year-to-Year Stats *Bold means led league
1969 .332 AVG, 152 HITS, 8 HR, 56 RBI, .386 OBP, 79 RUNS (123 Games)
1971 .307 AVG, 177 HITS, 2 HR, 48 RBI, .356 OBP, 88 RUNS (147 Games)
1972 .318 AVG, 170 HITS, 0 HR, 51 RBI, .369 OBP, 61 RUNS (142 Games)
1973 .350 AVG, 203 HITS, 6 HR, 62 RBI, .411 OBP, 98 RUNS (149 Games)
1974 .364 AVG, 218 HITS, 3 HR, 55 RBI, .433 OBP, 86 RUNS (153 Games)
1975 .359 AVG, 192 HITS, 14 HR, 80 RBI, .421 OBP, 89 RUNS (143 Games)
1976 .331 AVG, 200 HITS, 9 HR, 90 RBI, .395 OBP, 97 RUNS (156 Games)
It may have taken until 1977 for the entire baseball world to notice Rod Carew’s excellence. But before then, he put up unreal numbers. I can name only Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Pete Rose, and Ichiro Suzuki, that hit at the same level as Carew, off the top of my head. Oh, Rod Carew took home the 1977 AL MVP award.
Sources
- Bally Sports North: A look back at Rod Carew’s incredible summer of 1977 https://youtu.be/1B2Gkb5qKwo
- Rod Carew Statistics via Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/carewro01.shtml
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