General Motors added three panels to its LED sign over the weekend on top of their Detroit headquarters to honor Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera for winning the American League Triple Crown.
To win the Batting Triple Crown, a player must lead his respective league in batting average, runs batted in, and home runs. Cabrera had previously led the league in all such categories, but never in the same year.
Cabrera led the American League in batting average after hitting .330 for the season, slugged 44 home runs, and drove in 139 runs as well. This feat will go down in history as one of the most impressive seasons by a player in any era.
"It's an unbelievable feeling," Cabrera said in a press conference after accomplishing the feat. "It was hard the last two days because everybody talked about it. I just had to focus, I had to go out there and do the job. The hardest part was to go out there and focus and win games. I said, 'If we win the division, everything would take care of itself.'"
The new panels on the GM headquarters building will say: "AL Central Division Champions", "Congrats Miguel Cabrera" and "Triple Crown Winner".
The Triple Crown hasn't been accomplished in 45 years when former Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski did it in 1967. When he hit for the Triple Crown, he led the league with a .326 batting average, 44 home runs, and 121 runs batted in. Only one active player was alive when the last Triple Crown occurred.
The feat is considered rarer than a pitcher pitching a perfect game or a player accomplishing an unassisted triple play. Only 15 previous players have accomplished the feat before, including 12 who are in the Hall of Famer. Of those players, Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby each accomplished the Triple Crown twice.
Cabrera's teammate and 2011 AL MVP Justin Verlander won the Pitching Triple Crown last season, but that occurs much more often than the Batting Triple Crown does by a long shot.
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