page_title: Rod Carew
section_title: California Angels
hierarchical_section_title: Rod Carew / Major league career / California Angels
caption_attribution_description: English: Rod Carew batting at Yankee Stadium. July 26, 1979.
context_page_description: Rodney Cline Carew is a Panamanian former Major League Baseball first baseman, second baseman and coach who played from 1967 to 1985 for the Minnesota Twins and the California Angels. The greatest 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 straight All-Star Games and led the AL in hits three times, with his 239 hits in 1977 being twelfth most at the time. 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 to the Rod Carew American League batting title.
  On August 4, 1985, Carew 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.
context_section_description: 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 controversial comments which Griffith made in 1978 suggesting support for the low African American population in Minnesota triggered his trade to the Angels, stating "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, hitting a routine groundball to Robin Yount at short, a pitch by Pete Ladd, who was a minor league journeyman replacing the injured Brewer Ace 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, but he received no offers from other teams. 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 on the Twins all-time franchise lists including: the highest career batting average (.334), the second highest on-base percentage (.393; tied with Buddy Myer), fourth highest in intentional walks (99), and fifth in hits (2,085) and stolen bases (271). He also holds many places in Angels franchise history including highest career on-base percentage (.393), the 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.
caption: Carew bats at Yankee Stadium in 1979.
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