Major League Baseball (MLB) has produced elite hitters throughout its history. One of those hitters is Rod Carew, who played 19 seasons in MLB (Minnesota Twins, 1967-1978; California Angels, 1979-1985).
Rod Carew was born in Panama on October 1, 1945, but grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Suprisingly, he did not play baseball for his high school team, George Washington High School.
Rod Carew with his masterful stroke (photo, ESPN)
Carew made his MLB debut in 1967 with the Minnesota Twins, and immediately won the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year award.
Carew would become one of the premier hitters in MLB for the next decade-plus, winning his first AL batting title in 1969 with a .332 average. He then went on to win four consecutive AL batting titles from 1972 to 1975.
Carew had his best season in 1977, when he won the AL batting title, hitting .388. He also led the AL that year with runs scored (128), on-base percentage (.449), and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.019). Not surprisingly, given that performance, Carew won the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.
Carew led the AL three times in WAR (Wins Above Replacement), in 1974, 1975, and 1977. He led the AL in hits three times: 1973, 1974, and 1977. Carew led the AL in on-base percentage four times: 1974, 1975, 1977, and 1978. He won seven AL batting titles: 1969, 1972-1975, 1977, and 1978. Carew finished with over 3,000 career hits (3,053) and made 18 All-Star teams with a career batting average of .328.
He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.
Put simply, Rod Carew is one of the purest hitters of the 20th Century.
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The original version of this article was published on the author’s blog.
