There was snow in the first and sun in the ninth, the end of a long winter for baseball fans in Detroit. Second baseman Jonathan Schoop caught a pop fly for the final out of the Tigers’ 3-2 win over the Indians and Thin Lizzy crackled through Comerica Park: The boys are back in town.
This was an opener that felt like a throwback, the start of something new that revealed something old. There were fans in the stands, hot dogs and beer in the concourse, and there was a big man at first base playing the hits. Guess who just got back today?
On a team with stars on the way, no one can light up a crowd like Miguel Cabrera. He drew the loudest cheers when the Tigers were introduced. And like a forgotten tradition, he made the two biggest plays of he game. The fans yelled his name so eagerly, so lovingly and so darn persistently that Cabrera could barely focus.
“I heard a lot of, ‘Miggy, Miggy, throw me a ball! Miggy, Miggy!!’ I said, ‘C’mon, calm down, man! I know you’ve been almost two years out of the ballpark, but let me a play a little bit. Let me focus!’” Cabrera said between big bursts of laughter. “Every pitch, ‘Miggy, Miggy, throw me a ball!’”
In the bottom of the first, Shane Bieber threw Cabrera one he liked. It was a fastball up and away, and Cabrera launched it into the snowflakes swirling through the stadium. It disappeared in the white sky and came down over the right field fence, or so Cabrera thought. Just to be safe, he picked up his speed and slid into second.
“Then the umpire said, ‘Home run.’ I said, ‘OK, thank you,’” said Cabrera, and that was that.
And if Cabrera is what he is, so be it. A fading star still shines. But Thursday was a sign he might be something more, not only because he beat the wind and the snow and the reigning Cy Young winner to stake the Tigers to a lead. A few innings later, back at the position he lost in 2020, the position he wanted so badly to reclaim entering his 19th big league season, Cabrera made a diving stop on a liner between first and second to snuff out an Indians rally.
By now, a fan in the lower bowl behind home plate must have visited the concourse once or twice. He must have rediscovered his love for a ballpark beer. I don’t think he ever lost his love for Cabrera. Like one of them wild-eyed boys that’d been away, he threw back his head and let the whole place know:
“Miggy, you’re young and beautiful, baby!!”
It was that kind of afternoon at Comerica, cold but invigorating, a mostly empty stadium that almost felt full. Last year was hollow, for the fans, for the team, and certainly for Cabrera, whose body forced him into being a full-time DH. Resigned to the bench in vacant ballparks, that boyish love for baseball felt bottled up within.
It poured back out on Thursday. Like the leather-lunged fan in the stands, A.J. Hinch called Cabrera an “energy creator in the dugout and on the field.” Cabrera created this moment by getting his body right in the winter, which makes you wonder, ever so cautiously, what he can re-create this season.
“It’s fun to watch Miggy play the game,” said Hinch. “That’s the thing, he plays the game in its entirety, and I can’t thank him enough for being into what we’re trying to do.”
What the Tigers are trying to do is start a new era. What they’re trying to do, in essence, is leave Cabrera’s era behind. But it can happen more quickly if Cabrera comes with them, if he stays on the stage and keeps the fans on their feet.