Miguel Cabrera Wins the Triple Crown

There are some accomplishments in sports, that come around once in a blue moon, but when they do occur, you have to simply sit back and acknowledge it. On Wednesday night, Detroit Tiger 3rd baseman Miguel Cabrera achieved one of those rare accomplishments, the Triple Crown.

The Triple Crown is when you lead the league in batting average, home runs, and RBIs for an entire season. With a .330 average, 44 home runs, and 139 RBIs, Cabrera led the American league in each category through tonight's final game making him the first to win the Triple Crown since 1967 when Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski did it.

It took 45 years for this feat to happen and who knows when it will ever happen again. As a fan of sports you have to marvel at the fact that this achievement spans over 6 months, in 162 games. As a player, in order to accomplish this feat, you have to be on your game each and every night. You need to have a team that gets on base. And finally you need to have power. Not to mention again you have to be very, very consistent.

With all of the talk around the AL MVP race between Cabrera and Angels rookie outfielder Mike Trout (.326 avg/ 30 HRs/ 182 hits/ 129 runs/ 49 SBs) I really think you need to consider what Cabrera did this year. Sure, Trout has a higher WAR, which is becoming a much more important stat when it comes time to vote, but the Triple Crown is unfathomable for players at the beginning of the season.

Many people argue that the stats that go along with the Triple Crown are just 3 random categories picked and that if you picked 3 other categories, Trout would lead them instead of Cabrera. These same people also say that if Cabrera wins, this means that speed and defense are virtually unimportant. To this argument I simply say how rare is this feat that Miguel Cabrera accomplished. It took 45 years for another one. These are major offensive categories, and it isn't like Cabrera is around the top for them. No, he leads them all. The most in the entire American League in each category.

One Last Thing: Getting away from the MVP debate and focusing back on the Triple Crown, hats off to Cabrera. The guy had all of America watching him throughout the entire month of September and he still managed to get it done. I'm so thankful that he achieved this goal because as an avid fan of sports, I love witnessing these types of moments in sports history.