Happy 75th birthday to former MLB star second baseman/first baseman, hitting coach and Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Rod Carew.
Carew played for the Minnesota Twins from 1967 to 1978 and then for the California Angels from 1979 to 1985. Carew won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 1967. 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.
Carew became the 16th member of the 3,000 hit club with a single to left field against the Twins on August 4, 1985. His 3,053 hits are 27th all time and his career batting average of .328 is 34th all time. Carew's uniform number 29 is retired by both the Twins and Angels.