DETROIT – Miguel Cabrera, an accomplished amateur baseball player in Venezuela, taught his son how to play and love the game.
He stood in the dugout prior to Saturday night’s game, watching Jose Miguel Cabrera, who goes by his middle name, take batting practice before the Detroit Tigers played the Texas Rangers. The proud father talked about the magnificent season his son is having.
“His numbers are very different this year – much better than at this time last year,” said the elder Cabrera, through translator and family friend Hector Sanchez.
Last year, after 92 games, Cabrera was hitting .327 with 20 homers and 75 RBI.
Cabrera is batting .367 with 30 home runs and 95 RBI through 92 games this season.
“Miguel is quicker to the ball this year,” said his father, “and he is not missing anything in his zone. I know he sees less pitches to hit, and he is not missing any of them.”
He’s been watching Detroit’s games on a satellite dish from his home in Maracay.
“In Venezuela, this year, everybody is following Miguel every day,” said his father. “They do not miss a single game. The Twitter is going crazy there about him. And everyone is asking the question: ‘Will he win the Triple Crown again?’ ”
I asked his father if he thought Miguel would become the first to ever win back-to-back Triple Crowns.
“I think so,” he said without hesitation.
Nobody has ever had both 30 homers and 90 RBI before the All-Star Game. And while Cabrera is well ahead in batting average -- Mike Trout and David Ortiz both are next at .323 – there is the matter of Chris Davis. The Baltimore Orioles’ first baseman has 35 homers and 88 RBI.
Davis is all that stands in the way of Cabrera’s Triple Crown quest.
Cabrera is on pace for 53 homers and 167 RBI through Detroit’s first 92 games. Nobody has knocked in more runs than that projection since 1938, when Boston Red Sox slugger Jimmie Foxx had 175. Nobody has hit more than that homer projection since Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays had 54 in 2010.
Cabrera – whom Tigers manager Jim Leyland calls “the greatest opposite-field power hitter” he’s seen in 50 years around baseball – learned to use the whole field from his father as a young boy. That basic principle has been the key to Cabrera being much more than just a power hitter.
“I helped him as any father would their son,” said Miguel. “I showed him the basics, and taught him to love the game. Then, it was all him.
“He is a very smart guy, who wants to learn every day.”
His mother, Gregoria, was a shortstop on the Venezuelan national softball team and also had baseball lessons for her son.
Cabrera’s father arrived Thursday and will watch three games against the Rangers before joining his son in New York, where he will start for the first time in the All-Star Game at third base. He is considering following his son on the road trip that begins Friday before returning to Venezuela.
His father squinted into the sun setting behind the Comerica Park roof, smiled and said, “I am really enjoying this.”
