Rodney Cline Carew (born October 1, 1945) is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman, first baseman and designated hitter from 1967 to 1985 for the Minnesota Twins and the California Angels. The most accomplished contact hitter in Twins history, he won the 1977 AL Most Valuable Player Award, setting a Twins record with a .388 batting average. Carew appeared in 18 consecutive All-Star Games and led the AL in hits three times, with his 239 hits in ranking as the 12th most in a season at the time and the 16th most as of 2024, tied with Willie Keeler's 239 hits from . He won seven AL batting titles, the second most AL batting titles in history behind Ty Cobb, and on July 12, 2016, the AL batting title was renamed the Rod Carew American League batting title.
In 1977, Carew was named the recipient of the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award for his involvement in local community affairs. On August 4, 1985, he became the 16th member of the 3,000 hit club with a single to left field off Frank Viola. His 3,053 hits are 27th all time, and his career batting average of .328 is 34th all time. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991 in his first year of eligibility; he appeared on upwards of 90 percent of the ballots. He was also elected to the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame, Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame, and Angels Hall of Fame. After retiring as a player, Carew served as a coach for the Angels and the Milwaukee Brewers.
Early life Carew is the son of Olga Teoma and Eric Carew Sr., a painter. Carew is a Zonian and was born to a Panamanian mother on a train in the town of Gatún, which at that time was in the Panama Canal Zone.Goldman, Rob pp. 145 The train was racially segregated; white passengers were given the better forward cars, while non-whites, like Carew's mother, were forced to ride in the rearward cars. Traveling on the train was Dr. Rodney Cline, who delivered the baby. In appreciation for this, Mrs. Carew named the boy Rodney Cline Carew. Carew later acknowledged in 2020 that he and his father Eric had a very tumultuous relationship, even stating "Baseball was the one thing that kept me from killing my father." In his memoir One Tough Out, Carew stated that his father was a violent alcoholic who would often physically abuse him and his mother, and that Carew eventually came close to killing him with a machete.
At age 14, Carew and his siblings immigrated to the United States to join his mother in the Washington Heights section of the borough of Manhattan, New York City.Goldman, Rob pp. 147 Although Carew attended George Washington High School, he never played baseball for the high school team. According to Carew, his interest in baseball redeveloped at the age of 18; it had initially developed when he was younger and still in Panama, where his mother convinced him he could get away from his father if he played baseball. Carew later played semi-professional baseball for the Bronx Cavaliers,Goldman, Rob pp. 148 which is where he was discovered by Minnesota Twins scout Monroe Katz (whose son, Steve, played with Carew on the Cavaliers). Katz then recommended Carew to another Twins scout, Herb Stein, who arranged a tryout in April 1964,Goldman, Rob pp. 149 where Carew performed so well that manager Sam Mele finished the tryout early so that the Yankees would not see him. Herb Stein along with Katz signed Carew to an amateur free agent contract (at the Stella D'Oro Restaurant in the Bronx) on June 24, 1964 for a monthly salary of $400 ().
Starting his minor league career, Carew was assigned to play second base with the Melbourne Twins in the Cocoa Rookie League and hit .325 over the final 37 games of the season. Over the next two years he would end up hitting .302 in Class A playing second base for the Wilson Tobs and the Orlando Twins.
Major league career Minnesota Twins In the top of the second inning on April 11, 1967, at Memorial Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles, Carew hit a single for his first major league hit in his first plate appearance; he would finish the game going 2–4. A few weeks later, against the Washington Senators, Carew went 5–5 with a double and a stolen base for the first 5–hit game of his career. He was elected to the first of his 18 consecutive All-Star game appearances and won the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year award, receiving 19 of 20 first-place votes. In a game against the Detroit Tigers at Metropolitan Stadium on May 18, 1969, Cesar Tovar led off the bottom of the third with a single. With Carew at bat, pitcher Mickey Lolich balked and Tovar moved to second base, then stole third. Carew walked, then executed a double steal with Tovar as Tovar stole home and Carew stole second. Carew then stole third base, followed by a steal of home. This marked the 41st time in Major League history and the 20th time in AL history that a runner had stolen every base in an inning. Carew stole home seven times in 1969, leading the major leagues in this category and just missing Ty Cobb's record of eight. Carew's seven steals of home in 1969 was the most in the majors since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. Manager Billy Martin had worked with Carew throughout the 1969 season to learn how to steal home,Goldman, Rob pp. 150 and teammate Sandy Valdespino had taught Carew how to bunt more effectively. At the end of the season, he led the AL with a .332 batting average, while the second-place finisher, Reggie Smith, had a .309 average.
Carew hit for the cycle on May 20, 1970, against the Kansas City Royals, going 4–5 with a stolen base; this was the first cycle hit by a member of the Twins. On June 22, he was injured at second base attempting to convert a double play. He had surgery to repair ligaments in his left leg and missed 92 games. In 1972, Carew led the AL in batting, hitting .318; he had no home runs for the only time in his career. This was the first time since 1918, when Zack Wheat won the National League batting championship, that a player won the batting title with no home runs.
The start of the 1973 season was slow. Carew was hitting only .246 by the end of April. Carew performed well during the summer months, including a 5-hit performance on August 14. By the end of September, he was back in the major league lead with a .353 average. When the season concluded he won his third batting title with a major league-leading .350 batting average. His 203 hits and 11 triples also led the AL. The next season, Carew had his best year to date; from his first at bat on April 5 against the Kansas City Royals, his average was never below .300 the entire year. Through June 27, he was batting .400, but cooled off near the end of the season. His 213 hits were a career high and led the majors, and he collected his fourth career batting title with a .364 average.
In 1975, Carew won his fourth consecutive AL batting title. He joined Ty Cobb as the only players to lead the major leagues in batting average for three consecutive seasons. After seeing time predominantly at second base up to this point, Carew moved to first base in September 1975 and stayed there for the rest of his career. Carew missed out on winning another batting title in 1976 as his .331 average was only .002 behind league leader George Brett. Carew still collected career highs in games played (156) and stolen bases (49), and had 200 hits for the third time in his career. He became the first player to steal 40 bases while predominantly playing first base in a season since George Sisler in 1922.
In the 1977 season, Carew batted .388, which was the highest since Boston's Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957; he won the 1977 AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. He also set career highs with 239 hits (at that time the most by any player since 1930), 100 RBIs and 128 runs scored. In the summer of 1977, Carew appeared on the cover of Time with the caption "Baseball's Best Hitter". He won his seventh and final batting title in 1978 when he hit .333. He had finished in the top 15 in AL MVP voting in every season between 1972 and 1978.
California Angels
In 1979, allegedly frustrated by the Twins' inability to keep young talent, some racist comments by Calvin Griffith, and the Twins' overall penny-pinching negotiating style, 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 it would have represented an infusion of talent, the Twins were unable to complete a possibly better deal with the New York Yankees in January in which Carew would have moved to the Yankees in exchange for Chris Chambliss, Juan Beníquez, Dámaso García, and Dave Righetti. In 2020, Carew denied the longtime allegations that the controversial comments which Griffith made in 1978 suggesting support for Minnesota having a low African-American population and the idea that blacks preferred wrestling to baseball was what triggered his trade to the Angels when he stated, "When he traded me prior to the 1979 season, Calvin told me he wanted me to be paid what I was worth. Later that year the Angels made me the highest paid player in baseball. A racist wouldn't have done that."
Though Carew did not win a batting title after 1978, he hit between .305 and .339 from 1979 to 1983. In 1982, Carew broke his hand early in the season. Newspaper reports characterized him as swinging one-handed that season due to pain, but he put together a 25-game hitting streak at one point in the season. He played in 138 games that year and hit .319. The Angels went to the playoffs in 1982, which was Carew's fourth and final appearance in postseason play. The team lost a five-game series (three games to two) to the Milwaukee Brewers. Carew played in all five games, but he hit .176 (three hits in 17 at-bats). Carew grounded out to end the fifth and final game by hitting a routine groundball to shortstop Robin Yount off a pitch from Pete Ladd, a minor-league journeyman who replaced the injured Brewers closer Rollie Fingers.
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 was his last. After the season, Rod Carew was granted free agency, after the Angels declined to offer him a new contract. He received an offer from the Boston Red Sox to be their minor league hitting instructor. His only offer to continue his playing career in 1986 was from the San Francisco Giants. He declined the offer and opted to retire. Carew suspected that baseball owners were colluding to keep him (and other players) from signing. On January 10, 1995, nearly a decade after his forced retirement, arbitrator Thomas Roberts ruled that the owners had violated the rules of baseball's second collusion agreement. Carew was awarded damages equivalent to what he would have likely received in 1986: $782,035.71. Carew finished his career with 3,053 hits and a lifetime batting average of .328.
Through 2017, Carew still holds many places in the Twins record books, including: highest career batting average (.334), second-highest on-base percentage (.393, tied with Buddy Myer), fourth-highest in intentional walks (99), fifth in hits (2,085), and fifth in stolen bases (271). He also holds many spots in the Angels record books, including: highest career on-base percentage (.393), second-highest batting average (.314), and sixth-highest in both intentional walks (45) and sacrifice hits (60). Carew's career total of 17 steals of home ties him for 17th on the all-time MLB list with former New York Giant MVP Larry Doyle and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Collins.
Career statistics