Baseball was abuzz about Miguel Cabrera's Triple Crown heroics Wednesday. Many people chimed in on Twitter, but here's a sampling of what sports writers around the country were feeling:
-- Christina Kahrl, espn.com: "Celebrate this, because it's really sort
of cool. They say journalism is the first draft of history, but it isn't:
History is what happens, and we live in it. If you're Miguel Cabrera, you make
it. Let's plug Miggy's feat for what it is: Amazing, improbable and fun. The
last Triple Crown happened before many of you were born. Hell, it happened
before I was born. Enjoy it. Argue about it if you please, but enjoy it -- no,
relish it. Because 45 years later, you might very well be telling your
grandkids you were around to see the last time it happened."
-- Phil Rogers, Chicago Tribune: "Now I've seen it all. Miguel Cabrera
just completed my collection of baseball memories, and probably yours too,
unless you were watching closely in 1967."
-- Ted Keith, si.com: "In a season that will be remembered for its
surprises, we probably should have seen the last and most long-awaited piece
of history coming long before Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera left
Wednesday night's game in Kansas City with insurmountable leads in the
American League for batting average (.330), home runs (44) and RBIs (139), the
first Triple Crown winner in 45 years. Cabrera has been so good for so long --
he entered this season having already led his league in each individual Triple
Crown category at one time or another and had posted six .300 seasons, seven
30-home run campaigns and eight 100-RBI years -- that it should have been just
a matter of time before he did something truly unforgettable."
-- Sam McDowell, Kansas City Star: "A soft-spoken Miguel Cabrera joked
Tuesday night that he prefers to stay out of the national spotlight. Good luck
with that."
-- Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times: "Another reason why Yastrzemski's
feat inspired yawns while Cabrera's is recognized as historic is because Yaz's
Triple Crown came only a year after Frank Robinson won one with the Baltimore
Orioles. And 10 years before that, the New York Yankees' Mickey Mantle had
become the third player to do it in 14 years."
-- Matt Snyder, cbssports.com: "Winning the triple crown hasn't always
guaranteed winning the league MVP. Ted Williams, for example, won two triple
crowns (1942, 1947) and finished second in MVP voting both times. Cabrera
won't find out until the first week of November if he's won the AL MVP or not.
Again, though, for now the triple crown is what is important. But not for
long. Cabrera and his Tigers now head to the postseason."
-- Eric Adelson, yahoo.com: "Miguel Cabrera became a baseball legend this
year because of how magnificently he swung a bat. But one of the most heroic
things he did all year came Wednesday night when he simply picked one up.
Cabrera became the first major leaguer in 45 years to win baseball's hallowed
Triple Crown, leading the sport in home runs (44), runs batted in (139) and
batting average (.330). That feat will go down in history. But those of us
alive to see this achievement will remember how he could have sat out the
final game and won the Crown. He chose not to. He chose to play."
-- Dave Skretta, Associated Press: "Miguel Cabrera had just achieved
baseball immortality, and everyone around him knew it. Tigers manager Jim
Leyland had tears welling in his eyes. General manager Dave Dombrowski kept
trying to remind people to stop and enjoy the moment. Prince Fielder simply
shook his head in disbelief at the history that had unfolded. Less than an
hour earlier, in the midst of Detroit's otherwise meaningless 1-0 victory over
Kansas City, it had finally become official: Cabrera had won the Triple
Crown."
