Tigers All-Star first baseman Miguel Cabrera reported to Tigers Spring training on Thursday, nine days after he was arrested for DUI and resisting arrest in St. Lucie County Florida.
This obviously wasn’t just another player reporting to Spring Training, this would mark the first time the media and fans would hear from Cabrera himself regarding what happened in the late hours of February 16th.
Cabrera made most of his comments in Spanish and spoke through Al Avila, the Tigers assistant General Manager.
Here are quotes from Cabrera via Steve Kornacki’s article on Mlive.com…
“I want to apologize to everybody … to my teammates, family and fans,” Cabrera said. “This is very important to me. I’m very sorry for what I’ve done … everybody, I let down.”
When asked when he began drinking again, Cabrera said, “It was just one bad decision on my part.”
He was asked again minutes later to elaborate but would not. He did, however, say “personal issues” played a part in his decision to drink.
Thursday, Major League Baseball also recommended that Cabrera undergo a a multi-faceted, professionally-administered program with supervision to assure his adherence.
Cabrera will be able to take part in this program on an out-patient basis and will take part in full time activities with the team Friday.
Like we mentioned earlier in the week on The Majors, Tigers President Dave Dombrowski confirmed that the team will look to hire someone to shadow Cabrera such as a handler or life coach. This will be done after the success it had with Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton whose also had his troubles with alcohol and went on to win the AL MVP this past season.
“I want to regain my reputation,” Cabrera, 27, said. “I will work hard to gain that respect back.”
Source: Mlive.com
