THIS DAY IN BÉISBOL July 22: Miguel Cabrera reaches 300-HR mark
With 477 career home runs, 36-year-old Miguel Cabrera will likely be the last player to pass the magic 500 milestone for a few years.
On this day in béisbol, July 12, 2012 the Detroit Tigers first baseman took a huge step toward that goal, blasting a pair of solo homers — numbers 299 and 300 — to key a 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox at home.
It was a typical performance that season for the Venezuela-born Cabrera, who became the first Triple Crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.
Cabrera’s league-leading 44 HR, 139 RBI and .330 average also gave him the first of back-to-back MVP awards as he led the 88-win Tigers to the World Series (a loss to the Giants) in 2012.
Also on this day: Cleveland Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel did a rare thing: He booted a ball. The miscue snapped the defensive wizard’s own 95-game streak without an error.
— Robert Dominguez
Robert Dominguez is co-author of “Bronx Bummers: The Unofficial History of the New York Yankees’ Bad Boys, Blunders and Brawls” and writer of the upcoming “El Salón: The Trials and Triumphs of Baseball’s Latino Hall of Famers.”
Photo source: Rick Briggs — Under Creative Commons License
