When the Tigers returned home this week after a six-game road trip, there was a new decoration mounted above the bricks in left-center field at Comerica Park: a tracker for Miggy Milestones. It will tally each hit and each homer for Miguel Cabrera until he joins the 500-3,000 club. Cabrera can't hide that he likes it.
"It’s kind of awesome," he said with a smile Friday afternoon, after putting it to work Thursday night to kick off a seven-game homestand. "I come from a little neighborhood in Maracay. I never think that this is going to happen to me, so it’s really special."
It's also, if Cabrera's being honest, a little stressful. The tracker itself, which will look him in the eye in the right-hand batter's box until he renders it immaterial, and his chase of history at large. When Cabrera overtook Omar Vizquel earlier this season as Venezuela's hit king, he said he was more relieved than excited. The pressure was beginning to weigh on him.
It's only mounting. Entering the weekend, Cabrera is three homers and 61 hits shy of joining a club to which only six players belong. Almost every night, he's looking up at another all-time name on baseball's list of all-time greats. In the hits lane, he passed Barry Bonds on Tuesday and could pass Frank Robinson this weekend. Al Kaline is up there in the distance.
Asked how mentally challenging the chase has been, Cabrera said, "Really tough." Then he brought up "Simone," referencing Simone Biles and her recent decision to withdraw from the Olympics amid mental health concerns.
"I understand what she’s going through because that mental part is a big part of the game," Cabrera said. "You try to do something to prove who you are or to prove what you’ve done your whole career, and you lose your focus. You don’t play like that. You just go out there and do it. You don’t try to do it, you go out there and play hard and try to make something happen.
"It’s something that's been bothering me the last two, three years, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse. I need to do a better job when I hit, and that’s it. That's the bottom line. Forget about the milestones, forget about the numbers and try to play better."
Cabrera admitted the last few years have been hard. The Tigers are trudging through an arduous rebuild, and their Hall of Fame hitter has fallen into a rapid decline. Only the club will come out stronger on the other side. Cabrera hit more homers in 2016 than he has over the last four years. His body is battered beyond repair. It's why Miggy said a night like Thursday, when he turned back time with two bombs in a Tigers win, "felt really emotional."
"The last three years (hasn’t been like it) used to be," he said. "So every time I do something, it’s really special to me and for the team and that keeps me going."
As his bat has faded and the Tigers have taken their lumps, Cabrera said he's "heard so much sh*t talking about me," before adding, "I don't even care about that." He quickly changed his tune, looked out at the milestone tracker and said, "When I see people realize what I’m doing right now, it makes me happy that they know what’s going on."
History is in view for Cabrera, and so is a future for the Tigers. The club just clinched its third straight winning month for the first time since 2016. Cabrera is their bridge between yesterday and tomorrow, and he likes what he sees on the other side. If his body and mind will allow it, he'd like to chase a few more wins in the distance after taking care of the numbers in front of him.
"I think there’s something special in this ballclub," he said. "I feel proud to play next to these guys. We got a great manager and great coaches pushing you every day to play your best baseball and I'm excited to see what we can do these two months and next year."