Tigers legendary star Al Kaline, 81, has some very flattering things to say about slugger Miguel Cabrera, 33.
"He’s one great hitters of all-time. He’s certainly is the best hitter I’ve ever seen in a Tigers uniform,” Kaline, 81, told ESPN’s Buster Olney, according to a report in the Detroit News. “He has tremendous strength the opposite way and to center field, and it’s too bad that he plays in Comerica Park … I mean, it’s not too bad – I’m glad he does – but we have the biggest right-center field in all of baseball.
“I can pretty much say that I’ve seen 60 balls hit to that right-center field – balls caught – that would be possibly home runs or balls off the wall (in other parks).”
But Kaline stops shorts of putting him above sluggers like Willie Mayes and Ted Williams. He also can't help but notice what everyone else does: Cabrera is one slow runner.
“I rank him very close to the top, and the reason I say that is because he can’t run a lick and he still hits well over .300 every year, so he doesn’t get many infield hits or groundball hits. Most of his hits are very will earned,” Kaline said. “But I can’t (put him over) Ted Williams or Willie Mays yet because they’re different eras. And these guys have a lot of things going for them that we didn’t have, and the guys before me didn’t have.
