Baseball icon Miguel Cabrera soaks up a lot of the latest at the World Baseball Classic

On April 23, 1939, Alex Carraskel, a right-handed pitcher for the Washington Senators, was called out of the bullpen in the fourth inning of the game to face Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees. Carrasquel was the first Venezuelan-born player to appear in a Major League Baseball game, and 461 players born in the baseball-crazed South American nation have followed in his footsteps, according to the Baseball Reference.

However, none was better than the right-handed batter who made his major league debut on June 20, 2003. Miguel Cabrera, a lean 20-year-old prospect who hit a homer that day and later helped the Florida Marlins win the World Series. that season, has been crushing baseballs ever since. But the wear and tear of 2,699 regular season games has taken its toll, and Cabrera’s cranky right knee can take a lot more. Over the winter, Cabrera, the designated hitter for the ever-recovering Detroit Tigers, reiterated that 2023 would be the final season of his career.

So, as Cabrera, 39, prepares to hang up his spikes, he’s been soaking up a lot of the latter since his fifth and final World Baseball Classic. Cabrera, who was chosen as the team’s captain, said he hopes this farewell lap will start with a title in the four-year tournament that Venezuela has never won despite his participation in every tournament since it began in 2006.

In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more important than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us make history right.

SUBSCRIBE NOW