Boston

August 5, 2023

     I woke up this morning thinking about a game…

     I’ve been watching this game since I was a kid, played it through high school, tried out for the community college team and even went to an open Cincinnati Reds tryout at Jaycee Park in Pontiac back in the day. I’ve met quite a few major leaguers throughout the years. Yet one I haven’t met is Detroit Tigers, Miguel Cabrera. 

       This won’t be a long blog. Hell, if I wrote about Miguel, it would go nonstop into next month. Maybe longer. The dude’s achievements in the sport are unbelievable. His childish antics on the field had won me over years ago. Afterall, it is a kid’s game. No, I’m not going to mention contracts or money either. But I thought he was deserving when the Ilitch family signed him to that blockbuster deal that would keep him here in Detroit until his retirement at the end of this season. 

     His name and coming from the Florida Marlins organization brings back memories for me. Not all playing memories but fond ones. He brings back one, in particular, to the opening of Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida. At the time, Miguel wasn’t even on any scout’s prospect list. He was a mere child in his native Venezuela, ten maybe eleven years old. It’s because he came from that organization, the same place where I was in late 1993 and early ’94. I was working in Florida at the teams new Spring Training site. Where on the eve of the official opening of the facilities, the water system was being tested.

     I was there re-writing some press releases for the local papers when it happened. It (the testing) was never announced as even going to occur. It, was kind of like the remake of Stephen King‘s ‘IT.’ But, IT, wasn’t a make belief clown in a horror movie. ‘IT’ was real. Very real. And I was going to be a witness of ‘IT.’

      I had found out later, the water system needed final testing and ‘IT‘ happened as I was walking out of the clubhouse offices and exiting through the team’s dugout. Every toilet, sink and possible water outlet was turned on for that final system check. To make a long story short, something broke and IT, the flooding, began. My feet were wet even before I cleared the office area. By the time I reached the dugout there stood a six-to-eight-inch pond of water that had filled the players bench area. All I could do is laugh as I waded through it to reach the playing field. So, when I think of Miguel, then still a decade away from even being a rookie in The Show, I remember that moment and how my hometown team Tigers plucked him from Florida for a song and a dance years later and continue laughing to this day.

     Miggy’s going to ‘The Hall,’ that’s a certainty, to be in the likes of former Greats: Cobb, Greenberg, Kaline, Kell and the rest of our Tigers, to be enshrined forever. Such an honor for the last player to win the Triple Crown Award and have the career numbers he has. 

     He’s been a pure joy watching play and deserves much gratitude from baseball fans around the world. Especially those from Michigan.

     Stay tuned for Boston 2023

Personal Script: To longtime friends Denise Ilitch and Mari Montes, how about hooking me up for a selfie with the big guy at Fenway next weekend?  

     …and how fortunate I’ll be to see Miguel Cabrera’s ‘Farewell Tour’ go through Boston.

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