Cabrera eyes history
The 1967 American League pennant race was one of the most remarkable in history. A pulsating four-team race went down to the final weekend, but ultimately the Boston Red Sox, who had finished ninth the year before, went to the World Series.
Oh, and by the way, Red Sox left fielder Carl Yastrzemski was the league’s batting champion, home run champion and RBI champion. In short , he won the triple crown.
O f course, only one year earlier Frank Robinson of the Reds had won the triple crown in the National League. Ten years before that Mickey Mantle of the Yankees had done it in the American League. Many Boston fans remembered another left fielder, Ted Williams, had done it twice during the 1940s.
In 1967 the triple crown was noteworthy, but it wasn’t stop-the-presses amazing. No one at the time. I’m sure, thought that 45 years could pass without another player winning a triple crown, but that’s what has happened. Yastrzemski, who is now 73 years old, remains the last major leaguer to lead his league in the three most conspicuous batting categories in the same season.
Whenever it happens again, it will be much bigger news than it ever was before.
In fact, even the chance that it might happen has become big news.
Last Saturday, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers clouted a fourth-inning homer that happened to be his 42nd — tying him with Josh Hamilton of the Rangers for the American League lead. The RBI was his 131st, which also led the league. He went 1 for 4 in the game but still emerged with a leaguehigh .332 batting average. There he was, with a dozen games remaining, and he held the lead outright in two categories and shared the top spot in the third.
Suddenly Cabrera’s at-bats seemed to be as newsworthy as the playoff races themselves.
Then on Monday night Hamilton, the killjoy, smacked his 43rd home run to re-take the lead in that department and remind us that despite the hype, Cabrera might not get it done.
But the fact that he even has a chance is a cause for excitement.
There was more than one M. Cabrera making baseball news last week, but Melky Cabrera (no relation to Miguel) was hardly the toast of the town.
The one thing the two M. Cabreras seem to have in common is that they lead their respective leagues in batting average. Melky’s .346 is the best in National League and will not change between now and the final day of the season. That’s because Melky is serving a 50-game suspension for the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Last Wednesday Commissioner Bud Selig said that numbers can’t be changed and Melky would probably be recognized as the batting champion if he finished with the highest average. Two days later Melky stepped forward and declared that he didn’t want to win a “tainted” batting title and would prefer that whoever places second be recognized as the batting champion. The Players Association supported Melky’s position and the commissioner’s office appeared ready to go along with the request.
Under his breath I suspect Selig was saying, “Thank you, Melky. You gave me an easy way out.”
The only problem with that is, he didn’t. The commissioner was right the first time. Numbers can’t be changed.
Unless someone passes Melky’s .346 — which doesn’t seem likely — the NL batting championship will be tainted no matter who is recognized as the winner.
Darin “Babe” Ruf made a big splash Tuesday night when he homered and singled in his first major league start. Phillies fans and media, of course, expected nothing less from the player who had been named the Most Valuable Player in the Eastern League, where he hit 38 home runs and drove in 104 runs in 139 games. Twenty of those homers were smoked during the month of August.
However, I suggest everybody take a deep breath and count to 10. Better yet, count to 18, because that’s the number of homers Ruf hit during the months of April, May, June and July. Perhaps 47 would be a better number, since that’s the number he hit in nearly four seasons of minor league baseball before August 1, 2012. By the way, that’s one season of Double-A and the rest was lower than that.
He is now 26 years old and as of yesterday had six plate appearances above the Double-A level.
I saw him play three minor league games this year and it appeared to me that curveballs give him a lot of trouble. Everything I think I know about baseball tells me he is probably a passing fancy. Except for one thing.
I’ve covered baseball long enough to know I don’t know everything and neither does anybody else.
MAJOR LEAGUE BESTS AND WORSTS
Runs: Rangers 771, Astros 552; Runs allowed: Athletics 585, Rockies 856; Hits: Cardinals 1465, Mariners 1217; Hits allowed: Rays 1191, Rockies 1559; Errors: Mariners 65, Rockies 121; Doubles: Red Sox 331, White Sox 221; Triples: Giants 54, Yankees 12; Home Runs: Yankees 232, Giants 95; Home runs allowed: Dodgers 119, Blue Jays 192; Walks: Rays 541, Royals 381; Intentional walks: Reds 53, Astros 19; Walks issued: Phillies 386, Blue Jays 549: Intentional walks issued: Rangers 14, Dodgers 60; Strikeouts (pitchers): Brewers 1325, Twins 898; Strikeouts (batters): Royals 978, Athletics 1322; Stolen bases: Brewers 150, Tigers 53; Caught stealing: Phillies and Tigers 22, Pirates and Diamondbacks 50; Double plays: Twins 181, Padres 92; Double plays grounded into: Tigers 150, Mariners 90; Hit batsmen (pitchers): Angels 37, White Sox 65; Hit batsmen (batters): Brewers 88, Mariners 27; Sacrifice bunts: Dodgers 78, Indians 16; Sacrifice flies: Giants 60, Orioles 29; Wild pitches: Phillies 27, Rockies 90; Passed balls: Mets 31, Giants and Brewers 5; Balks: Red Sox and Diamondbacks 10, Angels, Twins, Dodgers and Braves 2; Left on base: Cardinals 1153, Blue Jays 974