Cabrera wins Triple Crown

NEW YORK — It is more rare than a perfect game and about as uncommon as an unassisted triple play.

Detroit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera won baseball's first Triple Crown in 45 years Wednesday night, becoming only the third living player to achieve the feat.

Cabrera led the American League with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 RBIs, making him the 15th Triple Crown winner and the first since Boston's Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

"It's an unbelievable feeling," said Cabrera, whose team defeated the Kansas City Royals 1-0. "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.' "

Cabrera joined an honor roll of Triple Crown winners that includes Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig and Ty Cobb. Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby each did it twice.

In contrast, there have been 23 perfect games and 15 unassisted triple plays in major league history.

"I am glad that he accomplished this while leading his team to the American League Central title," Yastrzemski said in a statement. "I was fortunate enough to win this award in 1967 as part of the Red Sox Impossible Dream Team."

Los Angeles Angels rookie Mike Trout was second in the AL batting race at .326, while New York Yankees slugger Curtis Granderson and Texas star Josh Hamilton finished tied for second with 43 homers. Hamilton ranked second with 128 RBIs.

Granderson homered twice Wednesday night, then was removed from a 14-2 blowout against Boston.

"For me, earning the batting title over Tony Oliva, who we played against in the last series of the year, was the hardest part," said Frank Robinson, a Triple Crown winner in 1966. "For Miguel, I am sure it was even more challenging, given all the specialized relievers in the game today."

Until Cabrera's run, Triple Crowns seemed to be a relic from another era. When the feat was last accomplished, the World Series was still played in the daytime, there were no playoffs and each league had eight teams.

In horse racing, no thoroughbred has won all three big races — the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes — since Affirmed in 1978 became the 11th to sweep the trio.

Cabrera had topped each category before, winning the home run title in 2008, the RBI crown in 2010 and the batting championship last year. His remarkable 2012 season ended the longest gap in baseball history between Triple Crown campaigns.

"He's the best hitter in the game," Trout said. "I think his approach, the way he battles with two strikes; you leave one pitch over the plate that at-bat and he's going to hit it. He had an unbelievable year."

San Francisco's Buster Posey became the first catcher to win the NL batting title since the Boston Braves' Ernie Lombardi in 1942. Posey finished with a .336 average, nine points ahead of Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen.

"I don't think it's something that you ever think about doing. It's such a long season, and from Day One you try to grind out at-bats no matter what the situation is," said Posey, who missed most of 2011 following left leg and ankle injuries from a collision at the plate with the Marlins' Scott Cousins. "I give a lot of credit to our entire training staff for all the work they did in the offseason to get me back on the field."

Posey's teammate, Melky Cabrera, had a .346 average, but the All-Star Game MVP was disqualified at his own request after he was suspended Aug. 15 for a positive testosterone test.

Melky Cabrera missed the final 45 games of the regular season and his 501 plate appearances fell one short of qualifying under an agreement between Major League Baseball and the players' union to change the usual rule, which would have added an extra hitless at-bat to his total.

After his positive drug test was overturned in an arbitration proceeding last winter, NL MVP Ryan Braun won his league's home run title with 41. San Diego's Chase Headley led in RBIs with 115, three ahead of Braun.

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Giants likely won't utilize Cabrera

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants have no plans to bring back suspended outfielder Melky Cabrera for the postseason if the club is still playing when he is eligible to return.

Manager Bruce Bochy said Tuesday that he and general manager Brian Sabean are meeting to finalize their 25-man roster for the best-of-five division series. Cabrera would be allowed to play in the NLCS if the Giants advance that far, but — at this stage, at least — they have no intention of adding him to the roster at any point in the postseason.

An announcement regarding Cabrera is expected before the NL West champions leave town after a three-game series against Arizona that began Tuesday night.

First, they would need to alert all the parties involved: Cabrera, Major League Baseball and the players union. Cabrera can start working out at an instructional league in Arizona 10 days before his suspension ends, so that factor weighs into the mix.

"Right now, we'll discuss that. We'll probably have something before the end of this homestand as far as Melky," Bochy said.

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Cabrera pulls out of batting title race

NEW YORK — Melky Cabrera ended the debate over whether a suspended drug cheat should be able to win a batting title. The San Francisco outfielder asked Major League Baseball officials to disqualify him and on Friday they agreed.

With less than two weeks left in the regular season and Cabrera on track to win the National League batting championship, MLB and the players' association reached a deal on a one-season-only change in the rule governing the individual batting, slugging and on-base percentage champions.

Serving a 50-game suspension, Cabrera entered Friday with a league-leading .346 average, seven points ahead of Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen. Cabrera, the All-Star Game MVP, was suspended Aug. 15 for a positive test for testosterone and is missing the final 45 games of the regular season.

"He was just manning up and saying he was wrong," said McCutchen, who is four points ahead of San Francisco's Buster Posey. "It was man of him to do that. I guess he thought that was the right thing to do, and I commend him for doing that."

Cabrera had 501 plate appearances, one short of the required minimum, but would have won the title under section 10.22(a) of the Official Baseball Rules if an extra hitless at-bat were added to his average and he still finished ahead. With Friday's agreement, that provision won't apply this year to a player who "served a drug suspension for violating the Joint Drug Program."

The process for the change was set in motion Wednesday evening when Cabrera's agent, Seth Levinson, sent an email to union head Michael Weiner with an attached letter from Cabrera in English and Spanish.

"I ask the Players Association to take the necessary steps, in conjunction with the Office of the Commissioner, to remove my name from for the National League batting title," Cabrera wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

"To be plain, I personally have no wish to win an award that would widely be seen as tainted, and I believe that it would be far better for the remaining contenders to compete for that distinction," Cabrera wrote. "So too, the removal of my name from consideration will permit me to focus on my goal of working hard upon my return to baseball so that I may be able to win that distinction in a season played in full compliance with league rules. To be plain, I plan to work hard to vindicate myself in that very manner."

Lawyers from MLB and the union finished drafting the change on Friday.

"Major League Baseball will comply with Mr. Cabrera's request," commissioner Bud Selig said. "I respect his gesture as a sign of his regret and his desire to move forward, and I believe that, under these circumstances, the outcome is appropriate, particularly for Mr. Cabrera's peers who are contending for the batting crown."

On Wednesday morning, Selig had said "we generally don't interfere" in the batting title issue.

Cabrera then took the initiative.

"It goes without saying that the last couple of months have been painful for Melky and he has certainly paid a significant price for the mistake that he made," Levinson wrote in the email, also obtained by the AP. "He wants to show the baseball world that he is remorseful and worthy of a second chance."

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