This Day in Twins History – February 3, 1979

Rod Carew

The Twins traded 7-time batting champion 2B Rod Carew to the California Angels for outfielder Ken Landreaux, catcher Dave Engle, and pitchers Paul Hartzell and Brad Havens. A trade was demanded by Carew after team owner Calvin Griffith made his infamous speech to the Lions Club in Waseca, Minnesota back in September of 1978. According to some reports, Griffith first agreed to trade Carew to the San Francisco Giants but Carew had veto power and nixed that deal. At the time of the trade to California, Carew had been a fixture in the Twins line-up for 12 seasons hitting .334 with 2,085 hits and being named an All-Star each of those 12 seasons. Carew went on to play for the Angels for seven more seasons making post season play in 1979 and 1982  but Rodney never won a batting title as an Angel.

Outfielder Ken Landreaux only played in Minnesota for two years before the Twins traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 30, 1981 for Mickey Hatcher and minor leaguers Kelly Snider and Matt Reeves, neither of whom ever played in a big league game. Landreaux hit .294 with 22 home runs and 145 RBI’s and had 19 stolen bases but what Ken Landreaux is best remembered for is his 31 game hitting streak early in 1980 which is still a Minnesota Twins record. Landreaux was an All-Star in 1980 while a Minnesota Twin. Landreaux played for the Dodgers from 1981-1987 and won a World Series ring there in 1981.

Dave Engle began his career with the Twins as an outfielder but was converted to a catcher in 1982 when his hitting was not considered up to par for an outfielder. Engle played for the Twins from 1981 through 1985 making the All-Star team in 1984 but he did not get a chance to appear in the game at Candlestick Park. In 1985 Engle started having throwing issues and his troubles appeared to have begun during batting practice one day when one of his throws glanced off the top of the protective screen and broke his pitcher’s nose. Engle then began lobbing his throws with a pronounced arc. Engle had the misfortune of having a base runner (Alfredo Griffin) stealing a base on one of his tosses back to the mound. Engle caught jst 17 games for Minnesota in 1985 and the Twins traded him to the Detroit Tigers in January of 1986. Dave went on to play for the Montreal Expos in 1987-1988 and closed out his big league career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1989 but he only caught 18 games after he left Minnesota. Dave is the brother-in-law of another former Minnesota Twin, Tom Brunansky.

Right-handed pitcher Paul Hartzell only pitched in Minnesota during the 1979 season putting up a 6-10 record with a 5.36 ERA in 26 starts. The 6’5″ Hartzell was one of those pitch-to-contact pitchers who gave up 193 hits in 163 innings while striking out just 44 batters which was also the number of batters he walked that season. The Twins released Hartzell in April of 1980. Hartzell appeared in a handful of games with the Orioles in 1980 and the Brewers in 1984.

 

Lefty Brad Havens pitched for the Twins from 1981-1983 posting an 18-28 mark with a 5.00 ERA in 58 starts. The Twins sent Havens to Toledo in 1984 and he spent the entire season there before the team traded him to Baltimore in the spring of 1985 for pitcher Mark Brown. Havens pitched for the Orioles in 1985-1986 before moving on to the Dodgers in 1987-1988, the Indians in 1988-1989 and Havens closed out his big league career with the Tigers in 1989. Havens put in the big leagues for all or parts of eight seasons and finished his career with a 4.81 ERA and a 24-37 record.

The same day, the Twins make another deal when the Red Sox shipped outfielder Dave Coleman to Minnesota and the Twins give up 3B Larry Wolfe. Coleman spent the 1979 in AAA Toledo and never put on a Minnesota Twins uniform. In 1980-1981 Coleman played for the Yankees AAA team in Columbus but there is no information on how he ended up there.

This Day in Twins History – January 8, 1991

Hall of Famer Rod Carew

Rodney Cline Carew, who was born in Gatun in the Panama Canal Zone on October 1, 1945 becomes only the 22nd player in MLB history to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, garnering 90.5% of the votes.

The left-handed hitting Carew made the Twins team as the starting 2B in the spring of 1967 and went on to win the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and was selected to his first All-Star game that season. Who would know at the time that Carew would be an All-Star for 18 consecutive years, missing out on the All-Star team in only his last season (1985) as an active player. Although Rodney started out as a 2B, a serious knee injury in 1970 started the process of Carew moving to 1B. By the time Carew’s 19 year big league career was over, Carew actually played at more games at 1B than he did at 2B. Carew had a magical season for the Twins in 1977 making a serious run at hitting .400 but finished the season at .388 and won the AL MVP award.

Rod Carew and owner Calvin Griffith frequently disagreed about the salary that Carew was earning with Griffith arguing that Carew was nothing but a singles hitter and Carew arguing that if he wanted to hit for power he could. But it was the ill-fated Lion’s Club speech in Waseca, Minnesota that Griffith made on September 28, 1978 that was the final nail in the coffin as far as Carew was concerned and owner Griffith had no choice but to trade his best player. According to some reports, Griffith first had a trade worked out with the San Francisco Giants but Carew had veto power and nixed that deal so on February 3, 1979 the Twins owner and GM sent Carew to the California Angels for catcher Dave Engle, outfielder Ken Landreaux, and pitchers Paul Hartzell and Brad Havens. Carew finished his career as an Angel playing there from 1979 to 1985.

Rod Carew played in the big leagues for 19 season appearing in 2,469 games finishing with 3,053 hits (2,085 as a Minnesota Twin) and putting up a lifetime .328 average to go along with his 353 stolen bases. Carew stole home seven times in the 1969 season to lead the majors, just missing Ty Cobb’s Major League record of eight and the most in the major leagues since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. His seven batting titles are surpassed only by Ty Cobb, Tony Gwynn and Honus Wagner, and equaled only by Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial.

Carew’s number is retired by both the Minnesota Twins and the California Angels and he is a member of the Twins and Angels Hall of Fame. Today Carew is a part of the Twins organization making special appearances and taking part in the Twins Spring training as a coach each season.

Another look at Griffith’s Waseca speech can be found here in the Waseca County News.

Make sure you check out my Today in Twins History page to see all the Twins news for this day in history because I only blog about some of the items you can find there.