Detroit Tigers: Miguel Cabrera’s most memorable moments

Miguel Cabrera’s pursuit of history is likely to be the dominant Detroit Tigers storyline over the final two months of the season. And it should be.

Yes, the Detroit Tigers have some exciting young players. And yes, they are flirting with relevance for the first time in five years. But the hole they dug in April was so deep they would have to play .750 baseball over their final 50 games to even threaten the playoffs.

So we celebrate Miguel Cabrera, one of the greatest hitters the sport has ever seen. Tigers fans have had the pleasure of watching him hit for the past 14 years, but prolonged exposure to greatness can sometimes lead us to take it for granted.

As such, we think it’s useful to reiterate the spectacular nature of Miguel Cabrera’s accomplishments. Right now he stands two home runs away from 500, a feat achieved by just 27 players in MLB History. And he’s 55 knocks away from becoming the 33rd member of the 3,000 hit club.

Just six players have managed both 500 home runs and 3,000 hits: Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols, and Alex Rodriguez. Miguel Cabrera will be the seventh.

Cabrera is about to join other “clubs” that aren’t as famous, too. He’s 22 RBIs away from 1,800, something only 21 players have done, and he’s 10 doubles shy of 600, which has been done just 17 times.

Aaron and Pujols are the only other members of the 500/3000/1800/600 club, such as it is. But perhaps the best indication of Miguel Cabrera’s greatness as a hitter is how few current players project to join ANY of these clubs, let alone all four of them.

It’s possible the game’s brightest young stars — Ronald Acuña Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto — will one day own career stats that rival Miguel Cabrera. All they have to do is spend the next 15 years producing at their current level. No sweat.

So let’s celebrate some of Miguel Cabrera’s most memorable moments. Originally this piece was simply going to recall his most memorable home runs, but the dastardly Jason Beck beat us to it. He did a great job capturing most of Miggy’s big blasts, but he didn’t get them all, so let’s start there.