It takes something really special for me to focus on a sport that isn't football when we're just hours away from the first game of the NFL season. But that's the Miguel Cabrera effect, for you.
He did a number of impressive things on Wednesday night at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, one of which was hitting a double, a single, another single and another single in his four plate appearances. All but one of those base knocks drove in a run. And when going back to Tuesday's game in Pittsburgh, you can see that those four hits were the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh in a consecutive hitting streak (via MLB Film Room).
It's the first time in Miggy's career that he has ever had seven base hits in seven straight plate appearances — this guy is 38 years old, folks! — and he tied the record for the longest streak of its kind for a player of that age.
He also improved his batting average in September to a casual .526 figure, and became just the fifth player in MLB history — along with Lou Gehrig, Al Simmons, Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron — with 80 games of three-plus hits and three-plus RBI. And he inched closer to 3,000 hits. Etc. Etc.
The only negative about Thursday night is that it's a shame there weren't more people in attendance to witness the greatness of his performance. When we say that PNC Park was empty, we mean that it was empty, which perhaps isn't all that surprising considering it was a duel between the 50-89 Pirates and the 65-75 Tigers.
Or maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all. According to MLB.com's Jason Beck, the fact that the stadium was so barren allowed for two fans in the upper deck — yes, all the way up there — to scream down to Miggy and actually get a response from him.
"He’s fun to watch at first base," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said after the game. "The interaction between him and literally everyone on the field is pretty entertaining, even for those of us in the dugout."
And, apparently, even for those of us in the stands, hundreds of feet up.
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