Let's get back on track for a moment with what I thought was a pretty good NYT artcle:
By JOHN ELIGON
Published: October 3, 2012
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Miguel Cabrera burst on the baseball scene as a 20-year-old slugging prodigy. He hit a home run in his first major league game and, while still a rookie, helped lead the Florida Marlins to a World Series title in 2003.
Miguel Cabrera finished the regular season with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 R.B.I.
Over the years, Cabrera struggled with alcohol and his weight; fought to find an established position in the field; and was traded, at age 24, from the Marlins to the Detroit Tigers. But Cabrera never lost what everyone agreed he possessed like few others: a discriminating eye at the plate and a sweet, timely and fluidly powerful swing.
On Wednesday night, Cabrera, whose father was a professional baseball player in Venezuela and whose mother was the star shortstop for that country’s national softball team, found his way into the history books of America’s national pastime as the first player in nearly half a century to win the triple crown, leading the American League in home runs (44), batting average (.330) and runs batted in (139).
Ruth never did it. Neither did DiMaggio, Aaron, Musial, Clemente or Mays. Ted Williams did it twice, and Mickey Mantle once. The last player to accomplish the feat was Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox in 1967, when Lyndon Johnson was president, free agency was a pipe dream and the Boston left fielder known as Yaz chain smoked cigarettes in the dugout.
Cabrera had been pulled from the game and was in the Tigers’ clubhouse by the time the sixth inning rolled around and his achievement became official. He saw it on the television and exchanged hugs with teammates.
In his soft-spoken way, Cabrera stood before his locker with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, not sure how to describe his feelings. “Right now, it’s an unbelievable feeling,” he said, then sighed. “Wow.”
Before the game, his teammates were more expressive in describing the impending feat. “It’s definitely foreign to guys my age or younger, and even guys older than myself,” said Alex Avila, the 25-year-old catcher for the Tigers. “That’ll probably be the greatest thing that I’ll ever see in my career.”
As he swung his way to history, Cabrera has been a reluctant star. He shied away from discussing the feat. In the clubhouse here, his locker was positioned out of view of the television. Before the game, while his teammates lounged on black leather couches clinging to every at-bat by Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, who entered the day trailing Cabrera by one home run, Cabrera kept his distance.
Hamilton was the only truly serious threat to Cabrera on Wednesday. But with the Rangers playing a day game, Cabrera had the luxury of knowing, by the opening pitch here, that he would probably not be caught. Hamilton failed to homer in five at-bats, finishing with 43. The Yankees’ Curtis Granderson mounted a final-day charge at the home run title, slamming two home runs, but he also finished with 43.
Going into the final game, the rookie Angels phenom Mike Trout had a mathematical shot of taking the batting title. But Jim Leyland, the Tigers’ manager, had said he would pull Cabrera to protect his average and keep him out of Trout’s even theoretical reach. (Trout finished at .326.)
“This is a huge story, and I want everybody to enjoy it,” said Leyland, his feet kicked up on his desk as he addressed reporters before the game. “They should enjoy it.”
Leyland could also enjoy it since his team had clinched the A.L. Central title and a spot in the best-of-five division series. He pulled Cabrera in the middle innings after he went 0 for 2.
After the game, Leyland said a member of his staff was monitoring a computer to see what other hitters were doing and whether they were closing in on Cabrera.
“This is the toughest game I’ve ever had to manage in my career,” Leyland said. “It was more nerve racking than the seventh game of the World Series in 1997.”
Leyland managed the Marlins to their first title that year.
Cabrera’s triple crown achievement became official in the middle of the sixth inning, and a message was put on the big screen saying, “Congratulations from the Royals and our fans.” The players paused as Cabrera received a standing ovation.
The most difficult category for Cabrera to win should have been home runs, given the distant outfield fences at his home ballpark, Comerica Park.
But the Tigers acquired Prince Fielder, a power-hitting first baseman, over the winter, providing crucial hitting support to the already dominant Cabrera, who won the batting title last season with a .344 average. With Fielder batting fourth, right behind Cabrera, it meant that Cabrera would get more pitches to hit.
And, as it turned out, hit far.
Cabrera’s customary brilliance and Fielder’s added bat did not equate to team success early on. The Tigers were mediocre through the first half of the season, barely eclipsing .500 by the midway point. But they started rattling off victories in July, and in that same month Cabrera got his batting average over .320 and kept it there for good. In August, the winning continued as Cabrera began his quick and steep climb toward the home run title. In 26 games, he hit eight home runs (about one every series) and drove in 24 runs.
But it was not until the final week of the season that Cabrera seemed capable of solidifying his crown. He tied Hamilton with 43 home runs by hitting one in a victory over the Twins last Friday. He took sole possession of the lead on Monday night here, looping a shot over the right-field fence on the same night the Tigers clinched their second straight A.L. Central title.
Yastrzemski, long retired to a life of fishing, golfing and some duty tutoring young hitters for the Red Sox, has been sought out in recent weeks. He has been his usual taciturn, modest self.
“In ’67, the triple crown was never even mentioned once,” Yastrzemski told The Boston Herald last week. “We were so involved in the pennant race, I didn’t know I won the triple crown until the next day, when I read it in the paper.”
Every year since, Yastrzemski intimated, he half expected the feat to be done again. “I thought somebody would win it a long time ago,” Yastrzemski said.
That long time ended Wednesday night, with Miguel Cabrera, a round-faced 29-year-old, leaving the field in an opposing ballpark and hearing the crowd roar, not for its team but for history.
