What do Rod Carew and Ty Cobb have in common? They are the only two Major League players to lead, not just their respective league, but the entire major leagues in batting average for three consecutive seasons. Join Baseball Almanac as we take a look at some additional numbers of interest as they relate one of the most consistent contact hitters in Major League history:

0 - Rod Carew won his second of seven batting titles in 1972, hitting .318 to lead all American League hitters, and during that season he did not hit a single home run. The last batting championships without a homer was Zack Wheat , in 1918.

7 - Rod Carew won seven batting championships (1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978). When Carew won in 1977, his average was .388, the highest since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.

29 - Rod Carew played nineteen seasons in the major leagues, only wore uniform #29 with two different teams, and on July 19, 1987, the Minnesota Twins retired his #29 . In 1986, the California Angels retired his #29 and five years later, he was the fourth inductee into the Angels' Hall of Fame (August 6, 1991).

61 - Rod Carew was ranked sixty-first by The Sporting News when they released their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players in the history of baseball.

The Washington Senators (1901 through 1960) relocated to Minnesota in 1961 and the Twins franchise had four cycle hitters at that time. On May 20, 1970 , Rod Carew became the first player in a Minnesota Twins uniform to complete the cycle.

Rod Carew | National Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque | Class of 1991 ( HOF )
The Panama Canal Zone was a 553-square-mile formerly unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending five miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colon. Rod Carew is a " Zonian ", one of four in Major League history ( Mike Eden , Tom Hughes , Pat Scantlebury ), and was born to a Panamanian mother on a train in the town of Gatun, which, at that time in world history, was in the Panama Canal Zone . When Carew's mother went into labor, the conductor Charles Williams stopped the train to find a physician. Traveling on board was Dr. Rodney Cline, who delivered young Rodney, and in appreciation for this, Mrs. Carew named the boy Rodney Cline Carew.