Carew Collects 3,000th Hit in Angel Win

Rod and Marilynn Carew held a party for the Angels at their Peralta Hills home Sunday night.

Champagne was the official drink.

Carew turned the previously planned affair into a celebration by delivering the 3,000th hit of his 19-year career in the third inning of the Angels’ 6-5 victory over Minnesota Sunday.

An Anaheim Stadium crowd of 41,630 responded with a standing ovation when Carew, who had grounded out in the first, characteristically looped a one-and-one slider thrown by left-hander Frank Viola down the left-field line for a single, becoming only the 16th player in baseball history to attain 3,000 hits.

He is now tied with Roberto Clemente for 15th place on the all-time list. He could pass Al Kaline (3,007) and Lou Brock (3,023) before this season ends, providing it doesn’t end Tuesday, when a strike by the players’ association is scheduled to begin.

“This is a great feeling, but I’m glad it’s over,” Carew said.

“I haven’t slept well for the last week and I didn’t want to take it into tomorrow night, with the strike so close.”

The Angels open a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners tonight, but the final two games may not be played.

Carew, hoping now to fulfill his one lingering goal of playing in a World Series, expressed the concern that a long layoff would damage his team’s re-acquired momentum.

The Angels extended their American League West lead over Kansas City to four games by sweeping three from Minnesota after losing six of the last eight on the recent trip.

“We were flat after the All-Star break and a strike would hurt this club with all of its older players,” Carew said. “It takes us longer to get in a groove.”

The 39-year-old Carew’s groove began on April 11, 1967, when he collected his first major league hit off Baltimore left-hander Dave McNally. He went on to hit .292, becoming the American League’s Rookie of the Year, the same year that Tom Seaver, who collected his 300th victory Sunday, was National League Rookie of the Year.

Carew reflected and said that first hit was more emotional than No. 3,000, but:

“When you get in the class with Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby and Pete Rose, it means a lot.

“This is something I thought I’d never accomplish, but I’ve been around for 19 years, and if you stay around for 19 years, good things happen to you.”

Carew collected 2,085 hits in 12 seasons with the Twins, winning seven batting titles while initiating a string of .300 seasons that reached 15 before it was snapped last year when Carew, battling a nerve irritation in his neck and a loss of strength in his left arm, batted .295.

He entered the current season with an average of .330, the highest among active players, and is now at .264, having been sidelined in May and June by a stress fracture in his left foot.

“Three thousand is a brand they can’t take away,” Reggie Jackson said of Carew’s accomplishment. “It’s like winning an Oscar or graduating from college with a doctorate. The critics can write what they want, that Rod Carew couldn’t drive in runs or couldn’t do this or that. Somewhere in the same paragraph they’ll also have to write that he got 3,000 hits. People reading it will know the truth, that with 3,000 hits he had to drive in runs, that there were a lot of things he could do.”

Carew said he was happy that No. 3,000 came at home and that it could be shared by the Twins. He was even happier, he said, that two former Twins, Harmon Killebrew, now an analyst on the Minnesota telecasts, and Tony Oliva, the team’s first-base coach, were on hand for the occasion because both were influential in his development.

Of the hit itself, Carew said Viola had gotten him out with a similar slider or cut fastball in the first inning and he was thinking of that overanxious swing--and more--when he went to bat in the third.

“Reggie had wanted me to hit a line drive,” Carew said of No. 3,000. “Some of the guys wanted me to bunt, but Bob Boone said it should be a typical Rod Carew hit down the third-base line. I thought about Boone when I got to first base.”

The crowd was on its feet, of course, and Carew waved his batting helmet. His teammates came out of the dugout to exchange high fives in the middle of the infield, and Manager Gene Mauch then helped Carew extricate the first-base bag as a souvenir, which Carew plans to have his teammates autograph.

At the end of the inning, owner Gene Autry went to a microphone near the Angel dugout and publicly expressed congratulations. Carew then said that he was thankful the sleepless nights would be over, that it had been an emotional experience and that he was “happy to do it here so you fans could enjoy it.”

Mauch, of course, also enjoyed it. The man who managed Carew for three seasons in Minnesota said Sunday’s moment was a highlight of his career, that managing Carew had always been more privilege than pleasure, that a hitter of his caliber comes along only once in a lifetime. Pressure? Mauch said there was more in 1977 when Carew made a serious bid to hit .400.

“This is a beautiful thing to go along with his seven silver bats,” Mauch said. “If I told you my emotions (when Carew got the hit), people would know that the way I (normally) look is a facade.”

Carew had only the one hit in five at bats, but it was what the crowd came to see, though there was plenty more in a seesaw game that the Angels led, 4-1, then trailed, 5-4.

The Angels got a respectable starting debut by John Candelaria, acquired last week from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Dick Schofield hit a solo homer and sacrifice fly and was a vacuum cleaner at shortstop. Gary Pettis and Bob Boone hit RBI singles in a three-run fourth, Juan Beniquez a game-tying triple in the sixth, and Brian Downing a wickedly hit single that produced an unearned run and broke a 5-5 tie in the eighth.

They also got three strong relief innings from Stewart Cliburn, who emerged with his sixth win against two defeats, and a 21st save from Donnie Moore, who had a rare control battle in the ninth but ultimately got Roy Smalley to ground out with the bases loaded and two outs.

“It was a struggle but a great day,” Mauch said.

A future Hall of Fame member, Carew enhanced his place among the great hitters Sunday, then looked ahead and said he hopes the Angels will invite him back for a 20th major league season.

“I don’t know where I’m going from here,” he said, “but I don’t want to stop at 3,000 hits.”

Angel Notes John Candelaria, who had not started since Sept. 15, 1984, and had not pitched more than three innings in any of his 37 relief stints with Pittsburgh this year, worked five innings, allowing four runs on three hits and three walks. He struck out four. Two of the walks hurt Candy in a three-run fifth. . . . “I stretched him some,” Manager Gene Mauch said of that fifth inning. “His stuff was good. He was throwing with the same velocity when he came out of the game as when he went in, but even minor fatigue can affect your control. It was still a step in the right direction, as far as building up his stamina.” . . . Candelaria agreed, saying it was the beginning of his readjustment to starting, an assignment he is thrilled with and, he said, expects to handle, given his previous success with it. “I was tired, hot and not accustomed to pitching that long,” he said of the three-run fifth. “I really shouldn’t have gone out (for it), but when you’re accustomed to pitching for a team that’s 28 to 30 games out, you tend to forget that you’re now with an excellent team and don’t have to be a hero.” . . . Rod Carew received the following telegram from Commissioner Peter Ueberroth: “Congratulations on your 3,000th hit. It’s a great milestone for a great ballplayer. I wish I could have been there to see you hit it and I look forward to congratulating you personally.” . . . The Angels have won seven in a row from Minnesota and are 7-2 in the season’s series. They are also now 24-8 in games decided by one run and have won 14 of their last 16 games at home, including six straight. The Sunday home record is 9-0. . . . Geoff Zahn, who went 4 innings Saturday in his first start since April 26, said his shoulder felt fine Sunday and that he expects to start Thursday, as scheduled. If there is a game played.