He had knocked five times already when he returned to the doorstep of history. He had taken a peak inside. This time, Miguel Cabrera blew through the door with a single to right field -- where else? -- against the Rockies on Saturday at Comerica Park for the 3,000th hit of his Hall of Fame career. For the fans, who stood and cheered as one as fireworks exploded in center field and Cabrera's teammates streamed out of the dugout, the wait was worth it.
Miguel Cabrera waits for no one. He has been plowing through baseball’s record books for the last 20 years. There are legends in the dust of his path to Cooperstown. Last August, Cabrera became the 28th player in MLB history with 500 home runs. On Saturday afternoon, in front of his mother, his wife and their two children and a spellbound crowd that chanted his name -- "Miggy! Miggy!!" -- he became the 33rd player with 3,000 hits, making him one of just seven with both.
You’ve heard of the others: Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Eddie Murray, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.
“When you’re talking about something that only six other people have done in the history of the game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said this week, “we’ll be lucky if we ever get to see it again, in our careers or in our lifetimes.”
The tighter you pinch the numbers, the brighter Cabrera shines. 500, 3,000 and a .300 lifetime average? Try Cabrera, Aaron and Mays. 500, 3,000 and multiple batting titles? Try Cabrera and Aaron. 500, 3,000 and a freaking Triple Crown? Among the more than 20,000 players in MLB history, try one.
Try Miggy.
“It’s incredible when you look back,” said Hinch. “I think as coaches and me as the manager, the older we all are, the more we can appreciate things that happened (before us). The names that are up on the board that he’s passing, the rarity of what you’re actually seeing in the flesh, watching him handle it with such joy, there’s so many lessons to take away from it.”
In the visitors clubhouse at Comerica Park on Tuesday, Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu shook his head. A Michigander and a product of Brother Rice High, he grew up watching Cabrera in this stadium, admiring the glow of a star from $5 dollar seats in the outfield. He remembers Cabrera arriving in 2008 as "the guy that kind of put it all together" for the Tigers ahead of the club's long run of contention. 14 years later, the Big Man's still going.
“Everyone knows he’s one of the best hitters ever," said LeMahieu, a two-time batting champ. "But if you look at the numbers, like, how do you even do that?”
Cabrera entered this week needing five hits for 3,000. He got the first off four-time All-Star Gerrit Cole on Tuesday, and the next two off two-time All-Star Luis Severino on Wednesday, plus a fourth off Chad Green. The history-maker came off his countryman Antonio Senzatela on 1-0 fastball in the first inning and sent roars from Michigan to Maracay, the Venezuelan city where Cabrera learned to hit when he was seven years old.
“We’re here," said Hinch, "with a living legend."