(having moved to Nashville, alleged Jason Von Bondie facial rearranger Jack White is most certainly not a suspect in the case below)
Hey, way to cast a shadow over Carl Pavano’s Moment Of Destiny. Following yesterday’s events in the American League Central —- Minnesota beating K.C., 5-4, despite the on-paper mismatch of Nick Blackburn vs. Zach Greinke, and Detroit making Freddy Garcia look a Cy Young contender rather than a hurler who couldn’t crack the Mets rotation — the Tigers could become the first AL club to blow a 3 game lead with four to play. Things are obviously tense in the home clubhouse at Comerica, appreciably so with the Detroit News’ Lynn Henning suggesting there’s a cover-up over unexplained facial injuries to the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera.
Cabrera showed up Saturday with a face that somehow had changed since Friday night’s game. The Tigers first baseman, the team’s premier talent, had clearly encountered some kind of mishap during the preceding hours.
Based upon all the secrecy Saturday night, which included a lot of amusing I-know-nothing responses from his manager and his teammates, something was up.
Cabrera didn’t quash any of the rumors when he somehow made it out of the postgame Tigers clubhouse without running into a media person. There aren’t many escape routes once a player has returned from the field. But Cabrera, who stands 6-foot-5 and weighs at least 240 pounds, slipped the dressing room the way Houdini once shed straitjackets.
If there had been some kind of accident or incident, none of the suburban police jurisdictions in the radius of Cabrera’s residence were offering any assistance Saturday night. Call back Monday, was the universal response.
This might prove to be a fairly innocent situation. But early indicators aren’t good. Cabrera and his cohorts should have been able to offer Saturday some kind of explanation for blemishes that were about as subtle as a black eye.