By DANA WAKIJI
FOXSportsDetroit.com
Feb. 17, 2010
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland was talking Wednesday morning about how things were a lot more settled entering spring training this year and how he had less to worry about.
Leyland's peace ended abruptly Wednesday night, however, when All-Star first baseman Miguel Cabrera was arrested in St. Lucie County, Fla., on charges of DUI and resisting arrest without violence.
According to a police report, St. Lucie County sheriffs investigators
saw Cabrera's car on the side of the road with smoke coming from the
engine compartment.
The deputy who initiated contact with Cabrera
said he "detected a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath
when he spoke, his eyes were bloodshot and watery and his speech was
accented and heavily slurred."
Asked by the officer who was with him,
Cabrera said, "I am going to (expletive) kill him." Police found no one else in the black 2005 Land Rover Cabrera was driving.
The deputy also said he observed Cabrera take a drink out of a bottle of James Buchanan Scotch.
After
the deputy asked for Cabrera's identification and received a passport,
Cabrera got out of the car and started walking toward the road while
putting his hands up. The deputy asked Cabrera multiple times to get
off the road and put his hands behind his back.
Another deputy responded to the scene and tried to help get Cabrera in the vehicle.
"Do you know who I am? You don't know anything about my problems," Cabrera said several times, according to the report.
Cabrera
was handcuffed because he did not comply. When the second deputy told
him to get in the car, Cabrera uttered an expletive and pushed off the
car into him. At that point the deputy "delivered 3-4 knee spikes into
his left thigh muscle and the defendant fell onto the vehicle."
Cabrera was released about 7:40 a.m. ET Thursday from the St. Lucie County jail on $1,350 bond, according to a jail official.
At the end of the 2009 season, Cabrera ended up in a Michigan jail after his wife called police because the two were arguing and he was inebriated. General manager Dave Dombrowski picked up Cabrera in the morning.
With the Tigers fighting for a playoff spot, Cabrera struggled in that weekend series.
Cabrera sought counseling for what he called "an alcohol problem."
He came to last year's TigerFest looking healthy and focused and spoke about how he had dealt with his problem, that he and his wife were back on track and how much better he felt.
Cabrera went on to hit .328 with 38 home runs and an AL-leading 126 RBI and finished second in MVP voting to Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton.
The Tigers were counting on similar production from Cabrera in 2011.
"Like I say, you have to be the same every day, not one year, not one day, not one week," the Tigers' Carlos Guillen said Thursday morning after hearing the news about Cabrera. "In this game, in life, you have to learn how to say no. It's not easy. That's one thing you need to learn. People we need to learn to say no.
"You've got to keep looking forward. Things happen. Now you've got to make adjustments to get better. Forget about the past, it already happened. Now you're trying to see what was the situation and go from there."
Position players are due to report to TigerTown in Lakeland on Friday, with the first full-squad workout set for Saturday.
Whether Cabrera will join the rest of the team on schedule remains up in the air at this point.
"He would love to be here tomorrow," Dombrowski said in a Thursday press conference. "But we still need to work through some of this."
