Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera joins camp after drunken driving charges
Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera joined spring training session with teammates at the team’s clubhouse on Friday, a day after apologising to fans, teammates, club officials and family for drunken driving. He practiced at first base position and chirped like
he was playing in mid-June. He was in his nest, his home – his comfort zone on earth.
“I’m excited man,” he said on Friday morning. “These guys, I appreciate a lot what they do for me. I feel comfortable with these guys. I love these guys. They have always been good to me. Right now, I do what I think is good for them. Right now, I prepare
to play every day hard and be ready to win games.”
On February 16, Cabrera was arrested on drunken driving charges and court set the case pending until March 16. He expressed regret on his bad conduct with the police officers in a press conference at the Tigers’ camp. However, he missed the Tigers’ 17-5
win over Florida College on Friday.
Detroit Tigers Manager Jim Leyland was not sure about Cabrera’s inclusion in the spring workout scheduled this weekend in spite of his presence in the training session. Leyland said position players had taken part in exercises and had prepared for full performance.
“If the same would hold true for him, I'm not sure, but I would think so. He asked somebody else if he could play today, and obviously, he is not going to play today, but he has been working out and he is in very good shape. We'll just play that by ear,” he
said.
Leyland said Cabrera would gear up for action like other position players, but dodged the question about his inclusion in the squad. He left things unclear, saying that a line-up with Cabrera might be seen on opening day on March 31 in New York.
Cabrera was cautious while talking to the media about his status in the team. When asked about his indictment on 16 March, he dodged the question and steered the conversation to his weight. About the mess he was stuck in, Cabrera said it was good to know
that everybody, including rivals, were worried about him. Though reporters clearly wanted to talk to him about his drunken driving case, he ended the press conference talking about his performance during the training session.
Cabrera put on board .622 slugging averages with 38 homers and 1.042 OPS last year. The stats were his career-best and he has pledged to work out more to gain the same momentum that he had in 2010.
When asked about upgraded training, the slugger who finished second in the American League’s Most Valuable Player voting last year, said baseball was an ever demanding game and the players had to show a lot of strength to impress the public.
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