Miguel Cabrera’s journey: From Venezuelan teen to world fame

Fecha:

ESPN.com publicó esta semana la lista de los 100 atletas más famosos del mundo, que puedes consultar haciendo click aquí. En ella aparece un venezolano, Miguel Cabrera, y esta es la historia que me encargaron sobre cómo llegó a ese lugar

Ignacio Serrano

Al Ávila
was assistant to Florida Marlins general manager Dave Dombrowski in 1999 when
he attended his eagerly awaited meeting at a restaurant located in Las
Delicias, a wealthy area in the city of Maracay, Venezuela, around 70 miles
from capital of Caracas.
There at
the restaurant El Portal de la Abuela, Ávila met with a 16-year-old boy and his
father, a welder by trade and a baseball fan who was married to a former member
of the national softball team.
The Marlins
executive was really the host that evening, although it was he who was visiting
the South American country. The other diners were Venezuelans.


The young
man stayed with them, even as the clock approached midnight. Finally, after the
clock had struck twelve, Ávila placed a sheet of paper on the table and signed
his name next to the signatures of the father and his son.
The date on
the calendar had just changed. The adults raised their glasses. When a waiter
approached the table, Ávila told him excitedly: «We’re signing the best
Venezuelan player since David Concepción.»
That July
2, 1999, with a $1.8 million signing bonus, Miguel Cabrera made the jump to
professional baseball.
Concepción
was born nearby, in the town of Ocumare de La Costa. During the 1970s and ’80s,
he was the most popular sportsman in this baseball-loving nation — a mantle he
inherited from the immortal Luis Aparicio and would later pass on to Andrés
Galarraga and Omar Vizquel — and a member of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine.
Venezuela
is located in the north of South America, a region whose first and greatest
love is soccer. But not here. In Venezuela, the great love is baseball. And the
greatest baseball idol is Cabrera.
The Detroit
Tigers first baseman is the most popular cover star on the sports pages. And
that is true not only because of the size of his achievements.
Carlos
Valmore Rodríguez, director of the Meridiano newspaper, has the numbers to
prove it.
«Having
Cabrera on the cover boosts our sales,» he says. «Other athletes like
Félix Hernández have the same effect. But the true king of the front pages is
Cabrera, by far. That’s why every time he does anything, [it] should be on the
cover».
That was
not always the case. The infielder was a key figure in the Venezuelan winter
league since he was 19 years old, when he became the cornerstone of the
greatest dynasty in the history of the local circuit.
The Tigres
de Aragua signed Cabrera even before the Marlins. In Venezuela it is legal for
a 14-year-old to join one of the eight teams who compete in the winter league.
Cabrera was 16 when he got his first hit in the league in December 1999. And
when he made the transition from Class A Advanced to Double-A, he was already a
third baseman for an Aragua team that would go on to win six titles in nine
finals in 10 tournaments.
Dave
Dombrowski was general manager of the Marlins when they signed Cabrera as a
16-year-old. Dombrowski also traded for Cabrera after moving to the Tigers. Carlos
Osorio/AP Photo
The Tigres
enjoyed the services of the young slugger until January 2008, when they won
their fourth title in five attempts. Two months later, in Lakeland, Dombrowski
gave a press conference to Venezuelan reporters that would change this story.
It took
place moments after it became official that Cabrera had signed a multiyear,
multimillion-dollar extension with the Detroit Tigers.
«Today,
I am officially announcing Miggy’s retirement from Caribbean baseball,»
said the executive, who by then, along with the inseparable Ávila, had left the
Marlins and moved on to Detroit, taking with him the group of scouts who had
discovered the slugger in Maracay a decade earlier.
Dombrowski
was able to bring Cabrera to Detroit from Florida in a trade in December 2007
and has since given him two contract extensions to make him the one of the
highest-paid players in major league history.
Cabrera was
admired for his achievements in the majors, but it was a blow when he stopped
playing for a team in his homeland. He then became more like just another MLB
superstar.
In 2009,
Vizquel was the favorite among Venezuelan fans thanks to his 11 Gold Gloves and
his infectious smile. That year, he also surpassed Aparicio as the Venezuelan
with most hits in the majors, 2,877 at the time of his retirement.
When asked
who could break his record, maybe Bobby Abreu or Magglio Ordóñez, Vizquel had
no doubt that it would be Cabrera, who was on around 1,200 at that time.
«That
kid is going to break all our records,» predicted the shortstop.
Then came
Cabrera’s first American League batting title in 2011, which was followed by
the Triple Crown a year later along with his first of two consecutive AL MVP
awards.
That’s how
he became the most popular cover star on Venezuela’s sports pages. That’s how
he ended up in the ESPN World Fame 100 list of the planet’s most famous
athletes.
«He’s
a phenomenon,» said compatriot Tony Armas, the American League home run
leader in 1981 and 1984. «I was strong, but only on one side. He’s as
strong to the right as he is to the left. It’s extraordinary.»
«And
his discipline goes unnoticed because everyone pays more attention to his home
runs,» Abreu added. «He seeks out his pitch and ensures he makes the
best contact.»
Ávila was
not wrong on that early morning of July 2, 1999, that the teenager would go on
to become the best Venezuelan player since the days of Concepción.
«We’re
very proud of him.» Concepción said. And Aparicio, the only one among his
countrymen with a plaque in Cooperstown, agrees with the man who took over his
mantle: «Right now, I would vote for him for the Hall of Fame.»

Publicado en ESPN.com, el miércoles 1° de junio de 2016. Aquí el original.
Ignacio Serrano
Ignacio Serranohttps://elemergente.com/
Soy periodista y actor. Escribo sobre beisbol desde 1985. Dirijo ElEmergente.com. Soy comentarista en el circuito radial del Cardenales de Lara y en Televen, tanto en las transmisiones de la LVBP como en la MLB. Premios Antonio Arráiz, Otero Vizcarrondo y Nacional de Periodismo.

1 COMENTARIO

  1. Sencillamente debemos darle gracias a Dios por tener la dicha de ver la carrera de uno de los peloteros mas grandes de la historia del Beisbol. Y como dice Aparicio desde ya es una Salon de la Fama…

    Quizas Avila si se equivoco ese 2 de julio de 1999, porque no era el mejor pelotero desde David Concepcion, sencillamente era el mejor pelotero nunca antes visto en Venezuela!!

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