Watching Miguel Cabrera launch baseballs in batting practice is pure entertainment. And we're not just talking about how masterfully he can wield a bat and his technical approach. We're talking about how much fun he has and the frequent light shows that he puts on display...
... and thanks to Buster Olney's inside look at a Tigers practice earlier in Miggy's career, we also know about the expletive-laden outbursts he'd add on to his swings for emphasis (via Craig Calcaterra):
"When Cabrera took his turns in the box, he carved long liners to right field, over and over, shouting to the others to guess whether they would clear the fence.
'SI OR NO?' Cabrera yelled. 'SI OR NO? SI OR NO?'
When the ball would land on the other side of the chain-link fence, Cabrera punctuated the drive this way: 'SI, M———–.' "
Heck, there's such a high entertainment value with these BP sessions that we're lucky we can witness them for free through social media or by just arriving to Tigers games early. For fellow ballplayers, however, that may not always be the case.
On the latest episode of Jomboy Media's "The Chris Rose Rotation," Miguel Rojas and former Tiger Nick Castellanos told their funniest Miguel Cabrera stories, and Rojas focused on a moment that occurred in batting practice prior to the 2021 season.
"This offseason, so we're hitting together in (Ricardo) Sosa's facility, and Miggy's hitting. And you know when Miggy's hitting, everybody's watching," Rojas recalled (head to the 43:09 mark in the above link). "...So Freddy Galvis just got to the cages because he's hitting right after us, and Miggy stopped hitting and asked him, 'hey, did you bring your 50 dollars?' And he says, '50 dollars? 50 dollars for what?'
"'Oh, you think watching me is gonna be free?'"
Rojas went on to explain that Cabrera then proceeded to ask everyone who arrived at the cage for their $50 to watch him hit because, hey, that stuff shouldn't be free entertainment! That's some pay-per-view type stuff right there. Rojas even said that Galvis offered up not 50 bucks, but 100 in return for the legendary batting practice viewing session.
Castellanos' Miggy story differed but still featured a memorable quote from the long-time Marlins and Tigers great. Castellanos, now a star with the Reds, explained how he would keep a journal of notes and sketches as he was developing in the bigs and figuring out more and more trends and patterns that would lead to success. One such instance occurred on the team bus, where Miggy was sitting nearby.
"So I'm looking out the window, he looks at me, I'm sketching. He can obviously see that my wheels are starting to turn," Castellanos said. "And he looks at me, takes his headphones off, and he goes, 'hey, when you figured out how to walk, I was already running,' and put his headphones back on."
Spoken like a true veteran.
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