Jim, it wasn't "just gossip"
Jim Leyland has to realize that the Miguel Cabrera weekend incident was no more "gossip" than last week's David Letterman extortion flap.
That police report, which is available for the Tigers manager at the Birmingham police department, is not gossip. Nor was the 911 call from Cabrera's home.
The manager owes the Tigers baseball community an explanation for why, and in what condition, Cabrera was in Saturday's lineup after he had blown a .26 blood-alcohol level that morning at Birmingham police headquarters.
Leyland knew what had happened. Dave Dombrowski, the Tigers general manager and Leyland's boss, picked up Cabrera at the police station. Everyone in the Tigers clubhouse who needed to know Saturday, and a few who didn't, understood what had gone down when a long night of drinking and a spousal spat became a police intervention.
The Tigers have a not-so-honorable way of dealing with things they don't want to talk about:
They don't talk about it. That's "internal business"? That's a "private matter"?
It isn't a private matter that almost 9 million people came to the ballpark during the past three seasons to see Cabrera and others play baseball. Those same people deserve more information than has so far been forthcoming about Cabrera's competitive worthiness Saturday night.
The Tigers want it both ways here: They want the fans to be good, obedient customers, who buy tickets and shut down their interest in incidents and events when they're inconvenient for the club. And they want the media to be good drones who cover the games, print the news only after they've released it, and don't ask any uncomfortable questions in the interim.
I don't find it to be a responsible area of operations. I'm sure it's regarded as necessary business principle in the lips-sealed executive offices, but the community has its heart, soul, and wallets invested in this club, and has for 100-plus years.
The people deserve better responses than they got Tuesday when one of the most serious incidents in recent Tigers history was dismissed as "gossip."
Ask the police officer who showed up at Cabrera's home Saturday morning if what he saw was the product of someone's imagination. It, unfortunately, was all too real, and nearly too tragic.
Comments
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Disapointed and hurt tiger fan
Ridiculous comment putting the blame on Miggy. Sure, it was stupid, but if you honestly think ballplayers don't drink and get drunk, you are delusional. This team killed me because of Jim Leland and his godawful mismanagement of the team.
Disapointed and hurt tiger fan
I used to think that when the Tiger management spoke about there commitment to the fans, they meant it. I went back and read the article in Sports Illustrated about the Tigers in September. Jim Leylands commitment about putting the fans first, how much it hurts the tigers to see people struggle to buy a ticket to a game due to the economy in the D. How the players are giving 100 percent everyday to show the fans there comitted to them. That's all hogwash, Cabrera's incident wasn't the first,he's just the first to get caught. No sincere apology to the fans of this team from Leyland for playing Cabera, or from Cabrera himself. The drinking incident was bad enough, drinking with the opposition during our opportunity to stay in a playoff race makes it worse, and the poor handling of it by the management was just the icing on the cake. Now there just glad the season is over so they can high tail it out of here,and go spend the money they make from our hard earned paychecks. As a fan for 50 years, I feel they just walked on my grave. I will always be a fan, but this incident will never be forgiven by me.
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