Miguel Cabrera on trajectory to projected superstar
detnews.com
Toronto - After the ball exploded from Miguel Cabrera's bat Wednesday, it tore through the Rogers Centre air and headed for a distant, undetermined destination in the general vicinity of center field.
A customer sitting in the lower-deck stands thought for a fraction of a second the ball was coming his way. He held up his hands, but the ball already had climbed to higher altitude and zoomed over his head the way a meteor flashes in the firmament and disappears.
And then the ball smashed into glass panes of a restaurant on Rogers Centre's second deck, set at the back of those lower-deck seats. It bounced back into the seats and the only question was:
How far did this amazing man for the Tigers just hit a baseball?
It was Cabrera's second home run of the evening, and the most dramatic moment from a game that the Tigers won, 5-1, over the Toronto Blue Jays for their first victory .
A quick check with Blue Jays officials led to only general estimates of Cabrera's bomb: 440 feet, minimally. Based on the trajectory, Cabrera's homer looked as if it went farther and higher than that North Korean rocket did Sunday -- it could have been even more distant because of its speed and seeming ascent.
"You don't see many like that," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who wasn't into estimates as he and his team savored victory number 1.
But whether it was 440, 450, or something closer to 500 feet, it is those other numbers that have everyone suspecting that Cabrera might be about to unleash hitting force and production on a spectacular scale.
He is batting .700 after three games and has reached base nine times in 12 plate appearances. He hit two home runs Wednesday and added a single that might have carried Blue Jays shortstop Marco Scutaro against that same restaurant glass had he snared it.
Cabrera does not turn 26 until later this month. But he is already deep enough into baseball's ethic to know that you don't pay attention to where your home runs land. After he swung in launching his fifth-inning blast, he took one long look at where the ball was headed, then dropped his head and broke into a trot.
"Sometimes you look," he said, in an admonishing tone, "and you're showing up the other pitchers."
Cabrera had been a marvel this spring even before the Tigers got to Toronto to open their 2009 regular season. He came back from the World Baseball Classic and looked as if he needed no part of spring camp at Tigertown.
He scorched everything. Pitchers tried to work him up, and in, and down, and out. They threw four-seam fastballs at him, and cutters away, and runners in on his hands, and every imaginable form of off-speed junk and change-up.
And he tattooed everything they tossed his way.
What the Tigers have is what they dreamed they were getting when they made the whopping trade for Cabrera 16 months ago. They knew they had a superstar hitter. All of baseball had dubbed him just that at the age of 24.
But how good could he be?
The thought heading into this season is that Cabrera could roll up Triple Crown numbers in 2009. The thought remains. |
