June 2, 1986
Officially ending his Hall of Fame career about six months after MLB owners did it for him, Rod Carew announced his retirement. A victim of collusion after the 1985 season, Carew failed to get any suitable offers for what would have been his age-40 campaign. Nine years later, he’d be awarded $782,000 in damages for his lost wages.
Carew finished his career hitting .280/.371/.345 in 127 games for the Angels in 1985. It was the only one of his 19 seasons in which he wasn’t named to the AL All-Star team. On Aug. 4, 1985, he became the 16th player in major league history to reach 3,000 hits. He ended his career at 3,053.
Carew hit .328/.393/.429 with 92 homers and 1,015 RBI in 12 seasons with the Twins and seven with the Angels. He was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1967 and its MVP in 1977, when he hit .388/.449/.570 and drove in 100 runs for the only time in his career. He ended up winning seven batting titles and finishing first in the AL in the OBP four times. Both the Twins and the Angels retired his number 29.