2013 information guide - MLB.com

The Triple Crown is one of the most hallowed achievements in all of baseball. It embodies the combination of
skills that only the elite hitters in baseball history have possessed; the ability to hit for average, hit for power and
maintain consistent production over the course of an entire season. Miguel Cabrera is one of those elite hitters
and in 2012 he etched his name into the record books by leading the American League with a .330 batting
average, 44 home runs and 139 RBI to become the first Triple Crown winner in baseball since 1967.
His Triple Crown marked the 14th time since 1900 a player has accomplished the feat and Cabrera is the 12th
player to win the Triple Crown during that time. The previous 11 players to win the Triple Crown since 1900 have
all been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, four finished their career with more than 500 home runs
and three finished with more than 3,000 hits. The list of Tigers players to accomplish the feat is even shorter as
Cabrera is just the second player in franchise history to win the Triple Crown, joining Ty Cobb, who did so in 1909.
The accolades continued for Cabrera following the completion of his Triple Crown quest. He virtually swept the
awards circuit, including being named the American League Most Valuable Player by the Baseball Writers
Association of America. He became the first Tigers position player to win the Most Valuable Player since Hank
Greenberg did so in 1940. Cabrera is the fourth position player in franchise history to win the award, joining
Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer and Mickey Cochrane. Cabrera joined Justin Verlander, who won the award in 2011,
to mark the first time the Tigers have featured Most Valuable Player winners in consecutive seasons since Hal
Newhouser won the award in both 1944 and 1945.
In addition to his Most Valuable Player honor, Cabrera also earned 2012 Player of the Year and American
League Outstanding Player in voting by his peers in the Players Choice Awards. He was named the 2012 MLB
Player of the Year by The Sporting News, while also bringing home the Hank Aaron Award as the American
League’s top hitter and a Silver Slugger Award as the top offensive third baseman in the American League.
All of the hardware was well deserved after a season that produced a combination of numbers not seen in
baseball in many decades. In addition to leading the league in batting average, home runs and RBI, he also led
the league with 377 total bases, 84 extra-base hits and a .606 slugging percentage, while he finished second with
109 runs scored and 205 hits, fourth with a .393 on-base percentage and seventh with 40 doubles. Cabrera is the
first player in baseball to hit at least .330 with 205-or-more hits, 40-or-more doubles, 44-or-more home runs and
139-or-more RBI since Joe Dimaggio did so for the New York Yankees in 1937. It was just the eighth time in history
a player had reached all of those plateaus in the same season as Cabrera joined Dimaggio, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie
Foxx and Hack Wilson as the only players to accomplish the feat.
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TRIPLE CROWN HISTORY
MIGUEL CABRERA WINS FIRST TRIPLE
CROWN IN BASEBALL SINCE 1967
2013 DETROIT TIGERS INFORMATION GUIDE