Hall of Famer Rod Carew

Rod Carew was born on a train near the Panama Canal on October 1, 1945. Because the train was racially segregated, Carew's mother was forced to sit in the last car even though she was nine months pregnant. When she went into labor, a doctor named Rodney Cline, who was seated in the white section of the train, came back and helped deliver the new baby. Ms. Carew named the boy Rodney Cline Carew in the doctor's honor. It was a name that would someday become very well known.

Carew Moves to New York City

When he was fourteen years old, Carew and his mother moved from Panama to the Washington Heights section of New York City. For the next four years, Carew was a standout baseball player at George Washington High School, the same place where Manny Ramirez would star three decades later.

The day after he graduated, Carew signed a contract to play in the Minnesota Twins organization. He spent three seasons in the minors before joining the big league club for the 1967 season. That year, Carew hit .292 and won AL Rookie of the Year honors. The next season his average dipped to .273. It was the last time that he would hit below .300 for a decade and a half.

Playing second base for the Twins, Carew won his first batting title in 1969 with a .332 average, which was a full 24 points better than runner-up Reggie Smith. After being limited by injuries in 1970 and '71, Carew began a stretch in 1972 during which he won seven batting titles in eight seasons. The only year that he didn't capture the crown was 1976, when George Brett outhit him by just two percentage points (.333 to .331).

Carew Was Also a Great Baserunner

Although Carew is best known for his hitting, he was also one hell of a good baserunner. His specialty was stealing home, which he did seven times in 1969 to tie a Major League record. During his career, he swiped home seventeen times, which is the third highest total since 1900 (behind Ty Cobb and Jackie Robinson). Between 1973 and 1976, Carew averaged more than 40 steals a season.

His former manager, Frank Quilinci, described his baserunning as follows: "There's nobody alive, nobody, who could turn a single into a double, a double into a triple the way Rod could. He may have been the most complete player of his time."

Racist Statements by Twins Owner Prompts Carew to Seek Trade

Carew finished his twelfth season in Minnesota in 1978. A few weeks later, however, team owner Cal Griffith made some remarkably offensive racial statements while speaking to a local Lions Club. Griffith said: "I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota. It was when we found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don't go to ballgames, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. We came here because you've got good, hardworking white people here."

Carew was incensed. He had seen racism firsthand throughout his life and didn't want to play any longer for the twins once he discovered Griffith's racist attitudes. He told the Minneapolis Tribune that he wanted off the team because he "didn't want to be another nigger on Griffith's plantation."

He announced that after he played out the 1979 season, he would seek free agency. His statements prompted the team to trade the MVP to the California Angels on February 3, 1979.

Rod Carew Continues His Success With the Angels

In his first season with the Angels, Carew hit .318 and helped the team win its first division title. Three years later, he finished third in the AL batting race with a .319 mark, once again helping the Angels to a division title. In 1983, he finished second to Wade Boggs for the batting title, but began to slow down after that last great year.

The biggest day of his career came on August 4, 1985, when he collected his 3,000th career hit off Twins starter Frank Viola. It was the biggest hit of his life and it came against his old team.

Rod Carew's Remarkable All-Star Record

Carew was voted to the All-Star team every season for the first eighteen years of his career. In 1978, he won more than 4 million votes from the fans, setting a record that stood until the end of the 20th century.

Rod Carew's Career Statistics and Significant Achievements

Carew finished his career with a .328 batting average, which is the fifth highest lifetime mark since 1960.

His fifteen straight seasons of hitting .300 or higher has been matched or exceeded by only five players in history: Ty Cobb (23 straight seasons), Tony Gwynn (19 straight), Ted Williams (17), Wee Willie Keeler (15) and Honus Wagner (15).

His 3,053 hits rank 22nd best in baseball history.

Only Ty Cobb, with twelve, and Tony Gwynn, with eight, won more batting titles than the seven crowns won by Carew.

Although he never played in a World Series, Carew was an integral part of four teams that reached the American League Championship Series (Minnesota in '69 and '70; California in '79 and '82).

Rod Carew was elected to the hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1991.

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