Sports

Dodgers broadcaster shares great story about Miguel Cabrera seconds before his first homer of season

Joe Davis talks about Cabrera’s teaching moment with former Tigers catcher James McCann

Derick Hutchinson, Digital Executive Producer

Published: May 3, 2022 at 9:38 AM

Tags: Detroit Tigers, Tigers, MLB, Major League Baseball, Baseball, Sports, Miguel Cabrera, Joe Davis, Joe Davis Miguel Cabrera, James McCann, Los Angeles Dodgers, Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera, Tigers' Miguel Cabrera

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Joe Davis shared a classic Miguel Cabrera story this weekend, seconds before the Detroit Tigers star blasted his first home run of the season.

Davis, the play-by-play announcer for SportsNet Los Angeles, shared the story during Cabrera’s final at-bat in the top of the eighth inning Sunday. The two teams were playing the rubber match of a three-game series, and Cabrera came to the plate with Javier Baez on second base and the Tigers trailing 6-0.

Recommended Videos

Here’s the full story from Davis:

Besides being one of the great hitters of all time, (Miguel Cabrera) has been such a great example and teacher to so many hitters across baseball -- often subtle teachings, where young guys say they don’t even realize that he’s teaching them something, but dropping little hints here and there.
James McCann -- a catcher who’s bounced around the last few years but started his career with the Tigers -- when he was a rookie, Cabrera rolled over in his first at-bat and goes up to James McCann in the dugout and says, ‘Hey, go back in the video room and watch the tape, tell me what I did wrong.’
And McCann’s, like, ‘What? Does he really want me to do that?’ Everybody’s, like, ‘Yeah he does. Go back there, watch Miguel’s at-bat, come tell him what he did wrong.’
So McCann goes down there, very quickly sees that his posture had changed from his previous at-bat and says to Miggy, ‘Look, this is what I noticed: You looked like you were really stiff. You weren’t quite crouched down as much.’
And Miggy already knew. He already knew what had gone wrong. He just wanted the rookie to go look through it, think through it.
So Cabrera’s on deck before his next at-bat, McCann to bat after him, and before Miggy goes up to the plate, he looks back at McCann, he says, ‘Does this look right?’ Shows him, he’s a little more crouched. McCann says, ‘Yeah, that’s it. That’s good.’ He says, ‘OK good, watch this.’
He goes up to the plate, first pitch, home run.

Exactly seven seconds after Davis finished his story, Cabrera obliterated a 1-2 hanging slider from reliever Phil Bickford into the left-center field bleachers.

With this home run, Miguel Cabrera ties George Brett with 1,119 extra-base hits, the 18th most in @MLB history. pic.twitter.com/XG3nHlEjzR
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) May 1, 2022

The Tigers still lost the game, but that was an entertaining moment to cap off an otherwise difficult road trip.

About the Author

Derick Hutchinson

Derick is the Digital Executive Producer for ClickOnDetroit and has been with Local 4 News since April 2013. Derick specializes in breaking news, crime and local sports.

Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines.

Detroit police want help finding missing 66-year-old man

Warren officer left lying paralyzed for hours after fall during hunting trip

Will it snow in Southeast Michigan on Friday? Here’s what to expect

How ‘potentially destructive’ fruit fly larvae were intercepted at Detroit Metro Airport

Make household chores easier and more with these Insider Deals

Tired of bumper-to-bumper traffic? Swap your car for this electric scooter