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Commissioner Bud Selig wasn't the only one to congratulate Detroit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera for his Triple Crown win on Thursday. The previous Triple Crown winner, Carl Yastrzemski -- who won the award in 1967 -- released a statement via the MLB Public Relations Twitter account, in which he congratulated Cabrera for becoming the first man to win it since, well, him.
"I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to Miguel Cabrera on winning the Triple Crown. I am glad that he accomplished this while leading his team to the American League Central title. I was fortunate enough to win this award in 1967 as part of the Red Sox Impossible Dream Team. I am sure Frank Robinson joins me in commending Miguel in reaching this significant milestone in his career."
As referenced in the end, Robinson was the man to win the Triple Crown prior to Yastrzemski. He actually won it the previous year, in 1966, and he did, in fact, join Yastrzemski in congratulating Cabrera. In another tweet from MLB's Public Relations Twitter account, Robinson, who is MLB's executive vice president for baseball development, congratulated Cabrera in kind.
In Robinson's congratulation message, he noted that Cabrera's challenge was likely tougher, given the specialized relievers in the game today. While that wasn't something totally unheard of back then, you never saw the kind of pitch-by-pitch management that goes on in today's game. Every single pitch to Cabrera this season was calculated to stop him. Of course, they didn't stop him nearly as much as they'd have liked, or he wouldn't have won the Triple Crown.