Miguel Cabrera seemed to especially enjoy his first-inning homer in the Tigers' 7-2 win over the Angels Monday night.
After sending a drive over the center field fence in Angel Stadium, Cabrera shouted at his good friend Albert Pujols rounding first base, then shared words with Angels catcher Dustin Garneau as he crossed home plate.
Cabrera wanted them both to know, apparently, that his 407-foot bomb would have been a lazy fly ball at Comerica Park, where center field is 420 feet from home plate. The homer, just the sixth of the season for Cabrera, cleared the wall just to the right of the 396-foot sign.
Nicholas Castellanos relayed Cabrera's message after the game.
"If this was his home field, he'd easily have close to 15 home runs," Castellanos told YouTube. "It’s just his bat path. I don’t know how many times he’s flown out around the warning track from left center to right center and he kind of walks in (the dugout), like, 'What are you gonna do?' The first thing he said to the catcher, and to me, was, 'Hey, that’s a popup in Detroit.' And I said, 'Yeah, you’re right.'"
Cabrera wasn't the only one to point that out. Asked about the homer during an in-game interview, Ron Gardenhire said, "He's just a strong, young man. And the ball flies out here, which is a good thing. In Detroit, you know that's probably a routine fly ball, but out here it's a big one."
They're not wrong. A 407-foot fly ball to center field would almost certainly be tracked down in Comerica -- and it surely wouldn't clear the fence. And Cabrera has been the victim of the park's dimensions a handful of times this season, to say nothing about the rest of his career.
“If he got to play at some of the other parks that these guys play in, imagine what his numbers would look like,” Castellanos said last week. “I think that just speaks to how special that man is.”
Asked what he's learned from Cabrera as a teammate, Castellanos said, "As a hitter, nothing. But as a person and how to be successful at this game, everything. He’s a kid in the backyard playing wiffleball, man. That's as good as I can put it. He has fun, he never gets too down on himself, he never allows really anything to hinder him from enjoying this baseball game.
"And look at what he’s done. That’s what I take from Miggy and being his teammate."