Jim Leyland on Miguel Cabrera not talking to media

As I’ve written several times, Jim Leyland is flat out fascinating. He just held his pregame presser. He was asked about Miguel Cabrera not talking to the media after Game 3. Here is Leyland’s commonsense answer:

Q.  Miguel Cabrera was the only one that didn’t speak to reporters after last night’s game.  Obviously the team was disappointed.  Does that make you worry at all about where his mindset might be, to just kind of leave in that situation?

JIM LEYLAND:  No, I think you’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt when you’re on a national stage like this, and that’s one thing that at some point I’ll talk to him.  But I’m also going to say this, and I’m not defending anything, I’m just making a point:  As a manager you have to be careful.  I will deal with the situation and check into it, because you have to be there through the good and the bad.  You can’t be on this podium only when you win.  When we’re 0‑3, I’ve got to be up here and I’m not the happiest camper in the world.  However, you have a responsibility.

On the other side of that coin, families are here, mothers are here, young kids are here.  I don’t know that somebody might have been sick, I don’t know that something wasn’t right in the family, he had to get out.  As a manager you guys can all laugh and say, oh, you’re covering for your player.  No, I’m not.  I’ll deal with the issue because I want to find out what it was about.  But at the same time before I go rant and rave and talking to somebody about that, you’ve got to be a little careful with that.

So I don’t know what the situation was, but I will address the situation.  But at the same time, I want to make sure I don’t make a fool of myself.  The mother is out there, maybe she’s ill or your father is ill, and you rush out of the clubhouse.  I don’t know that that was the issue, I doubt that it was.  But we’re all big boys, and you’ve got to face you guys whether you like it or not.  You can’t just be here when everything is going well.  That’s our responsibility.  Nobody from the Detroit Tigers ducks that.

We’ll deal with that internally, but like I said, I need to find out a few more facts before I go national across the country and be saying something that I’d be sorry for.

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