Happy Birthday to Hall of Fame First and Second Baseman Rod Carew. In a career that lasted 19 seasons, twelve with the Minnesota Twins and seven with the California Angels, Carew established himself as one of the greatest contact-hitters in all of baseball history.

Career Statistics/Accolades (1967-1985):

.328 BA 3,053 HITS 92 HR 1,015 RBI .393 OBP 1,424 RUNS

  • 18x All-Star
  •   7x Batting Champion
  •  1977 A.L. MVP
  •  1967 A.L. Rookie of the Year
  •  1977 Roberto Clemente Awards

“He has no weakness as a hitter. Anything you can throw, he can handle.”

Jim “Catfish” Hunter on Rod Carew

Despite only playing in the playoffs four times in 19 seasons, it didn’t prevent Carew from being a dominant contact hitter. In a long career all in the American League, Carew made the All-Star team in all but his final season. Only Tony Gwynn and Ty Cobb won more Batting Titles than Carew. He batted over .300 fifteen times, all consecutively. At the plate, Carew knew what pitches were good for him and was very disciplined; in 13 of his 19 seasons, he Walked more than he struck out. Career-wise, over a 162-game pace, Carew averaged 200 Hits, and they weren’t all Singles. Carew was always an above-average baserunner; five times in his career, he hit Triples in the double digits and 445 career Doubles. At his peak, he was known as a base stealer; he stole 49 bases in 1976. With all those hits and excellent plate discipline, Carew also led the league in OBP four times. In 1977, Carew made his forever mark on the game for most of the season. In late June that year, Carew was hitting .403, which got fans thinking he’d hit .400, being the first since Ted Williams to do it in a season. While he didn’t get to .400, he took home the A.L. MVP that year with an impressive stat line…

.388 BA 239 HITS 14 HR 100 RBI .449 OBP 128 RUNS

Defensively, he played both First and Second Base but spent 10,233 Innings at First and 9,463 Innings at Second Base. Carew spent most of his time at Second Base in Minnesota, with Harmon Killebrew at First Base. Carew had some struggles defensively at Second Base, so when Killebrew left, the Twins moved him to First Base, where he was better suited, and during his years with the Angels, they kept him at First Base. I view Carew as First Baseman, because he spent more Innings at First Base.

While he didn’t win a Batting Title, he had some good years with the Angels when he was healthy. He retired after 1985 when he reached the 3,000 Hit milestone. We all know when a player gets to 3,000 Hits, he’s getting into the Hall of Fame. Carew was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991 on his first ballot, wearing a Twins cap. The Twins and Angels have retired his #29 jersey and put them in their Hall of Fames. In 1999, he was ranked #61 on The Sporting News list of 100 Greatest Ballplayers.

References:

  1. Rod Carew via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Carew#
  2. Rod Carew Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/carewro01.shtml