Lindbergh Reference or ABA Reference?
It looks like Miguel Cabrera will play today against the St. Louis Cardinals, even as the release of those strange, worrying transcripts related to his DUI muddies the Triple Crown candidate's attempts to deal with his ongoing problems with alcohol.
The Cardinals have had a terrible history with personal problems in general—Khalil Greene hasn't played a Major League game since his anxiety problems shortened his stint—and substance abuse in general. Cabrera's ability to play at an extraordinarily high level in spite of his own problems—his 179 OPS+ in 2010 was the AL's highest since Travis Hafner in 2006—is impressive, somehow, but it's frightening, too. It's hard to tell a guy who led the league in RBI last season that he needs to take some time off, but it's clearly impossible to pretend that baseball skill tracks especially closely with mental well-being.
It's impossible to know what's best for Cabrera from here, but I certainly hope somebody in the Detroit Tigers organization can help him figure it out.
0 comments
Edited by Dan Moore
Dan Moore has been writing about baseball on the internet since that was a novel thing to do. A graduate of the University of Missouri, he lives in Springfield, Illinois. See my profile
