Cabrera's chase brings Tigers legend Sam Crawford back into limelight

Twice in a week, Miguel Cabrera has passed a name in his historic season, giving baseball fans a chance to hear a name that isn’t a household one, even for Detroit Tigers fans.

Sam Crawford was one of the greatest players in the history of the game, enough to make the Hall of Fame and have his name on the bricks at Comerica Park.

Cabrera passed him on two lists this week, first on the all-time RBI list as a Tiger, then on Tuesday, passed his career hit total of 2,961 with a three-hit performance in Pittsburgh.

While Cabrera is marching toward the illustrious total of 3,000 career hits — and he will get there whether it be by the end of the season or early next year — his pursuit and passing of Crawford shows how extremely close “Wahoo Sam” was of reaching that mark as well.

So why didn’t he?

The biggest reason is that when Crawford played, the 3,000 hit club wasn’t really a sought-after milestone at the time because so few players had reached the mark.

When Crawford retired, only Cap Anson, Nap Lajoie and Honus Wagner had reached the milestone, and Anson played in the 1800s and no one at the time was quite sure how many he actually had.

Crawford’s teammate Ty Cobb was well on his way to becoming the first of two Tigers to reach the milestone, but wasn’t there yet.

So had the club been a bigger deal, there is no doubt Crawford would have hung around long enough to reach the mark, especially since he went on to play a couple of seasons in the Pacific Coast League after his career in Detroit was over.

But Crawford was so much more than someone who put together a ton of hits.

He still holds the all-time record for most triples in a career with 309. He was the first slugger of the modern era, and even though this was before Babe Ruth and the power surge, the power of the Dead Ball Era came in doubles and triples.

Baseball historian and statistician Bill James wrote that if Crawford played in a live-ball era, he would have been close to 500 home runs.

As it stands, Crawford is one of the most under appreciated stars in baseball history.

In addition to being the all-time triples leader, and nearly reaching 3,000 hits, he led the American League in RBIs three times (and had 15 times leading the league in something), totaled 458 doubles and 97 home runs — most of the inside-the-park variety, and batted .309 for his career. If you like advanced metrics, he had a WAR of 75.3 and an OPS+ of 144, which are both stellar figures.

So why isn’t he remembered well enough?

The first answer is obviously that he played more than 100 years ago, retiring in 1917. The bigger answer is that despite all of these heroics, he wasn’t even the best player on his own team. Cobb is in the argument for best player of all-time, still holding the record with a .367 career batting average, and played most of Crawford’s career alongside him in the outfield.

One more factor is that like many sports heroes in Detroit history, Crawford was blue-collar and quiet. He just let his bat do the talking. It is something that Harry Heilmann, Charlie Gehringer, Al Kaline, Trammell and Whitaker and more have continued, embodying their fan base.

But Crawford played before television and before radio was a part of the game. There are no video clips of his highlights easily accessible. There is just the legacy and the numbers.

Crawford should be remembered, especially by Detroit fans. The all-time triples leader was one of the greats of the game. Everyone knows this about Cabrera, and thanks to Miggy, Crawford’s name has been coming up a lot lately, something that is helping a new generation of fans take a good look at “Wahoo Sam.”

 — Contact Sports Editor Dan D'Addona at Dan.D'Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDAddona and Facebook @Holland Sentinel Sports.