DETROIT (AP) — Miguel Cabrera sat in a gray chair beside his two stalls in the Detroit Tigers’ clubhouse early in the final week of his career, sorting through stuff to get shipped.
Major League Baseball’s only Triple Crown winner since 1967 stuffed dozens of barely used cleats and a bunch of batting gloves in a cardboard box at his feet. Cabrera then put a slew of balls he had signed, each in a zip lock bag, in a tote.
The bottle of wine, in bubble wrap, that the Oakland Athletics gave him last week along with his personal belongings are being sent to his home in Miami.
Where’s he going to put it all?
“I don’t know,” the 40-year-old Cabrera said with a shrug and a grin.
For Cabrera — and baseball fans — there’s a lot to unpack from the career of one of the best hitters ever.
Cabrera’s career will end Sunday afternoon against Cleveland at Comerica Park, where a sold-out crowd will include a few thousands fans paying for standing-room only tickets to cheer him on one more time.
The 12-time All-Star leaves the game with an impressive legacy. The popular player has also provided a desperately needed jolt of joy in his native Venezuela during a crisis that has pushed millions into poverty and compelled 7.3 million people to migrate.
Cabrera, who made his major league debut at 20 with the Florida Marlins, has put himself in the conversation with all-time greats at the plate.
“Hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports, and he and Albert Pujols are the two best that I’ve seen do it my 60 years in baseball,” Jim Leyland, who managed Cabrera in Detroit, said in a telephone interview this week. “It’s on paper, and in the books.”
When Cabrera led the majors with a .330 batting average, 44 homers and 139 RBIs in 2012, he was the first to win a Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski did it in 1967 with the Boston Red Sox.
Last year, he joined Hank Aaron and Albert Pujols as the three players in baseball history with 3,000 hits, 500 homers and 600 doubles.
“One of the things that made Miggy really special is the way he could drive the ball to all fields,” said Philadelphia Phillies team president Dave Dombrowski, who ran the Marlins when they signed Cabrera as a teenager and later acquired him in a blockbuster trade. “He could hit to right field as if he was a left-handed pull hitter.
“Miggy also had so much grit, playing at times when he was hurt badly, and always had a smile on his face because he loves the game so much.”
Cabrera is from the Venezuelan city of Maracay, which is known for producing bullfighters and ballplayers, including Houston Astros star Jose Altuve. He grew up following fellow countrymen Davey Concepcion, Omar Vizquel and Andres Galarraga.
“I wanted to follow them to make it to the big leagues,” Cabrera said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I say to people from Venezuela, ‘I think our baseball is safe with Ronald Acuña.’”
The 25-year-old Acuña, an Atlanta Braves outfielder, became the first player in major league history on Wednesday night to have 40 homers and 70 stolen bases in the same season.
