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Rodney Cline "Rod" Carew (born October 1, 1945), is a former Major League Baseball player for the Minnesota Twins and California Angels from 1967 to 1985. more...

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He was born to a Panamanian mother on a train in the town of Gatun, which at that time was in the Panama Canal Zone . As the train was segregated, Carew's black mother was forced to ride in a rear car. When his mother went into labor, a doctor named Rodney Cline delivered her baby. In appreciation, the baby was named after the doctor. He emigrated to Washington Heights, New York City at the age of 14. One day after graduating high school, Carew signed a contract with the Minnesota Twins.

Major League Career

Rod Carew earned the American League Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and was an All-Star in every year but his final one, 1985. In his career, Rod Carew won seven batting titles. In 1972, Carew led the American League in batting, without hitting a single home run. During the 1977 season he hit .388, which was, at the time, the highest since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. (In 1980, the Kansas City Royals' George Brett hit .390. Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres hit .394 in 1994. To date, that is the closest anyone has come to hitting .400 in 500 or more at bats.) For his efforts, Carew won the American League's Most Valuable Player award. 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. Carew was famous for his ability to steal home, doing so 17 times during his career. This was especially rare in the era he played making the statistic especially noteworthy.

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 and racist comments made by team owner Calvin Griffith, Carew announced his intention to leave the team in 1979. He was traded to the-then California Angels for outfielder Ken Landreaux, catcher/first baseman Dave Engle, right-handed pitcher Paul Hartzell, and left-handed pitcher Brad Havens.

On August 4, 1985, Rod Carew joined the 3,000 hit club. The 3,000th hit was struck against Minnesota Twins left-hander Frank Viola at Anaheim Stadium. Coinsidentally, Tom Seaver won his 300th game on the same day.

A free agent in 1986, Carew did not receive any competitive contract offers. On Jan 10, 1995, arbitrator Thomas Roberts awarded collusion damages of $782,036 to Carew for 1986 as part of the second collusion award.

For his career, Carew finished with 3,053 hits and a lifetime batting average of .328.

Carew was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, his first year of eligibility. He was the 22nd player so elected. In 1999, he ranked #61 on The Sporting News'' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for Major League Baseball's All-Century Team.

Read more at Wikipedia.org