White Sox honor longtime division rival Miguel Cabrera

This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin’s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DETROIT -- This tale eventually will be about the excellence and dominance of Miguel Cabrera, who faces the White Sox for the final three times this weekend at Comerica Park in Detroit.

Let’s first go back to a time when the White Sox almost acquired one of the greatest right-handed hitters in the history of the game. The year was 2007, and we were gathered at what is now called the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center for the annual Winter Meetings.

Ken Williams, who was the White Sox general manager, was cordially chatting with Chicago media in a quiet locale just outside the Old Hickory steakhouse on a Tuesday evening in Nashville, Tenn. At some point during that talk, news broke of the Tigers acquiring Cabrera and left-handed hurler Dontrelle Willis from the Marlins for a six-player return including Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller and Mike Rabelo.

There was immediate disappointment from Williams. The White Sox were heavily in on acquiring Cabrera, but it wasn’t overwhelming disappointment since they weren’t inclined to take on Willis in the deal. A few Chicago columnists wrote about the White Sox in the Wednesday newspapers missing out to a division rival on an impact force such as Cabrera, who is still close with then-manager Ozzie Guillen, and Williams seemed a bit more annoyed by those critiques.

Our media session on that Wednesday was in one of the seemingly 25 lobbies at Opryland, which are about as quiet as your average rock concert due to the throngs of people moving through, especially around the holidays. Williams was more direct and a little less conversational with his responses, eventually uttering one of the more prophetic gems from his 23 seasons as general manager or executive vice president.

“All this has done is put the Tigers in a better position to contend with us,” Williams said. All the White Sox did was win the 2008 American League Central via the famous 1-0 victory over the Twins in the division tiebreaker known as the Blackout Game. The Tigers finished last at 74-88.

Of course, Cabrera went on to four playoff appearances with the Tigers, and the White Sox have captured one division crown since ’08. Cabrera, 40, enters Friday’s series opener with 510 career home runs, 3,159 hits, 1,875 RBIs, a .901 OPS and 40 stolen bases for good measure over 21 seasons.

The White Sox honored Cabrera last Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field, with Elvis Andrus one of the players on the field for the pregame tribute. Andrus is quite an accomplished player over his 15 years but tipped his cap to a fellow native of Maracay, Venezuela, by gifting him a bottle of Louis XIII.

“It’s been an honor as a fellow countryman. It’s been in some way our idol,” said Andrus of Cabrera. “He’s a guy that represents our country in the best manner. He’s still hitting, even with just his hands. You can see how good of a hitter he is and it’s entertaining to watch.”

Andrus’ Rangers faced Cabrera and his Tigers in the 2011 ALCS. Cabrera finished 8-for-20, with four doubles, three homers and seven RBIs, as well as drawing seven walks as the Rangers won in six.

“Well, we didn’t pitch to him, and that’s what you do,” Andrus said. “With great hitters, it’s not like having a plan. Praying that the guys in front of him doesn’t get on base so you can just walk him. Because when they get on, anything you throw in the strike zone is a homer. He was unbelievable.

“I always play around, ‘The only postseason we played we beat your [tail].’ He’s always like, ‘We’ll get the next one.’ And thank God it didn’t happen. It was a lot of fun, especially that team they had.”