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Pastimes : Major League Baseball (MLB) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jrhana who wrote (14748)	2/18/2011 12:49:49 AM
From: stockman_scott	1 Recommendation Respond to of 29239

Tigers' Miguel Cabrera must come to grips with his alcoholism freep.com By Michael Rosenberg Columnist The Detroit Free Press Feb. 17, 2011 Miguel Cabrera never really said he was an alcoholic. He said he hadn’t had a drink in several months. He said he was a “new man.” He said he would be a better father, husband and teammate. He said his infamous drinking-and-domestic-violence incident during the biggest series of his Detroit Tigers career “is not going to happen again. I feel positive of that.” But he did not publicly say he was an alcoholic and could never drink again. In other words: Miguel Cabrera is like a lot of alcoholics. He struggles with the concept of “never.” And until he fully comes to grips with that, we probably will see him in more mug shots. This is what we know about Cabrera: On the last weekend of the 2009 season, he drank almost until dawn with some friends on the Chicago White Sox, then had a domestic-violence incident with his wife, Rosangel. The Tigers put him in the lineup that night anyway. He went through some sort of treatment program in the off-season, came back with his “new man” promise, then had the best season of his career. Then, Wednesday night, he was arrested in Florida on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. What happened in between? I don’t know. I do think he was honest last winter, when he said he had stopped drinking. He was a much nicer, calmer, more down-to-earth person in 2010 than he was in 2009, and he was the best hitter in the American League. At some point — maybe this week, maybe last season — he apparently had a relapse. Perhaps he told himself he had righted himself personally and revived his career, so it was OK to start drinking again. He would not be the first alcoholic to lie to himself that way. The police report from Florida says a lot about Miguel Cabrera, alcoholic. It says he picked up a bottle of James Buchanan’s Scotch whiskey and started drinking at the wheel, after the cops pulled up to his car. Remember: When he was arrested in 2009, he had an incredibly high 0.26 blood-alcohol content. A picture has emerged of a man who drinks to excess — who drinks just to drink, so he can keep drinking. The report also described him as “cocky,” “combative,” “argumentative” and “belligerent.” This is certainly not the only Miguel Cabrera we’ve seen around here. But it is the Miguel Cabrera who drinks. Cabrera and the Tigers are now fighting a battle on two fronts: personally and professionally. You would like to think they go hand-in-hand, but it’s not that simple. Cabrera is such a freakish talent that even at his thirstiest, he is one of the best hitters in baseball. In 2009, the year that ended with him in a treatment program, he hit .324 with 34 home runs. It would be easy for Cabrera and the Tigers to fall into a trap here: If he hits, he is fine. Tigers manager Jim Leyland cares deeply about his players, but he is also a results-first, everything-else-second kind of guy. Hours after Cabrera had that 0.26 blood-alcohol level, Leyland put him in the lineup against the White Sox. Leyland later dismissed the media’s interest in the Cabrera story as “gossip.” Since then, the Tigers have been very good about helping Cabrera deal with his issues. But now he needs to take the next step, the one he never really took before. He needs to say, “My name is Miguel, and I’m an alcoholic.” That would be best for the Tigers, of course. But mostly, it would be best for Cabrera. He allegedly told the police in Florida: “Do you know who I am? You don’t know anything about my problems.” This made him sound like the epitome of an arrogant, entitled athlete. That’s unfortunate. In a sober state, Cabrera hates talking about himself, and he really hates talking about his baseball achievements. Still, I saw those comments, and they made me wonder ... Miguel, do you know who you are? Do you know everything about your problems? The answer to those questions will shape the rest of Miguel Cabrera’s career — and his life.