Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder are big men with huge batting stats, and their combined slugging has contributed greatly to keeping the Tigers’ post-season hopes alive.
Each of their appearances at bat this season touched off a buzz at Comerica Park because fans know the odds are good they’ll witness something awesome.
Something else struck me this summer while watching Cabrera, and especially Fielder, who came to the Tigers in the off-season from the National League. Something that also sets them apart from most other major leaguers: They enjoy themselves on the field. And they don't hide it.
Deep down inside, all big-league ballplayers have to love what they do. But most players rarely show it. During games, the average player displays the range of emotions of a border agent at the Detroit-Windsor tunnel because baseball has a weird code about keeping one’s feelings under wraps, especially on the field. Players can never act too happy about an accomplishment because that would show up the other team. And that's considered bad.
Except in extraordinary circumstances – such as Kirk Gibson’s famous World Series home runs – players who hit the ball into the stands round the bases looking almost ashamed at what they have done. (They get to exchange high-fives once they cross the plate, but they can’t act too enthusiastically, unless it’s a game-ending hit.)
Last month, Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers performed the rare feat of “hitting for the cycle” – getting a single, double, triple and home run in the same game. When Beltre reached first on his final hit that night, he doffed his cap to the applause of the crowd, but he had the look of a man who had just taken out the trash. He barely smiled.
For Cabrera and Fielder, though, smiling is almost their default behavior.
They are careful to obey the code, but they don't let it control them. They laugh on the field. They kibitz with opponents. They act like they like baseball. And they've devised a crazy celebration ritual after Tigers victories that looks like it was thought up by two kids whiling away a summer day in a tree house. And after their finish their hokey-pokey, they wrap their arms around each other in a giant bear hug.
Last season, when Cabrera played first base, I sat along the right field line at one game and couldn’t believe how much time he spent jiving with the players in the visitors’ dugout. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I’m sure there was a lot of needling involved. He laughed a lot.
I was similarly surprised this season to watch as Fielder, with his magnificent, duotoned mane of hair, come to bat in a tight situation in the ninth inning. He was smiling from ear to ear and chatting with the catcher and the ump.
Cabrera shows he can laugh at himself, too, another rare quality in big-time stars.
“I love to hit,” he says in his television promotional video that plays on Fox Sports Detroit. “I like to field,” he continues, and the image switches to the backward somersault he performed while awkwardly catching a foul ball on Opening Day this season at his new position, third base.
With that, Cabrera concludes, laughing and saying, “I say I like to hit?”
When the charismatic Curtis Granderson played for the Tigers, he developed a fan club in Comerica’s centerfield seats. He sometimes waved to fans as they cheered and called his name when he trotted to his position. But it wasn’t a real wave. It was a baseball wave: He shielded his hand in his glove at waist level and waved very subtlety. Wouldn’t want to show too much emotion. That would make him stand out.
Even though baseball is by far the most casual and laid-back of professional sports, when players reach The Show, they have to check their feelings at the dugout’s top step. That’s why Cabrera and Fielder are such transgressive characters. In a good way.
I hope the Tigers make the playoffs. I hope Cabrera becomes the first player since 1967 to win the Triple Crown. I also hope Cabrera and Fielder never grow up.
