The positivity that surrounds Miguel Cabrera’s 21-year career can be best described with the words “global impact.”
Growing up in the Le Pedrera barrio of Maracay, Venezuela, Miguel has become one of baseball’s most caring, selfless and giving individuals. Accomplishments on the field will forever follow Miguel, but the impact he’s made on the lives of countless others -- many of whom he may never meet -- is what will live on for generations to come. Typically, the first to raise his hand to help communities in Michigan, Florida and Venezuela, Miguel has personally contributed and helped raise millions of dollars throughout his iconic career. This altruistic spirit was displayed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic when Michigan needed Miguel’s time and resources the most.
Answering the bell from Governor Gretchen Whitmer and community leaders, Miguel and his wife, Rosangel, donated $250,000 to benefit children and families in Detroit. As one of the largest publicly known donations from a professional athlete in Detroit, the contribution helped fill many of the community’s immediate needs, including meals for thousands of children through Detroit Public Schools Community District; necessary technology for public school students through the Detroit Public Schools Foundation; affordable daycare for families returning to work through Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, Detroit Police Athletic League and Brilliant Detroit; and high-quality face masks for Detroiters during the COVID-19 pandemic through G1 Impact. Additionally, Miguel stepped up to the plate to co-chair the Protect Michigan Commission to help promote the state’s COVID-19 vaccination and education efforts.
Miguel’s dream of becoming an accomplished baseball player inspired him and Rosangel to establish the Miguel Cabrera Foundation in 2007, a charitable organization founded on Miguel’s belief that we can achieve great things when we work hard, dream big and help others. With a mission to promote the practice of active sports, give children the opportunity to improve their education and provide support to individuals and their communities to cope with health issues, the Miguel Cabrera Foundation has awarded grants locally and around the world. This includes gifts to renovate the Clark Park neighborhood baseball field -- centrally located in southwest Detroit’s vibrant Hispanic community -- and baseball registration scholarships for metro Detroit’s disability population through the Miracle League of Michigan.
Over the years, Miguel has never wavered from his personal commitment to inspire others to dream big and help those in need around the world. When Haiti experienced a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010, Miguel contributed $100,000 to provide medical relief support through Project Medishare For Haiti. To help inspire kids to succeed on the diamond, Miguel launched MiggyBall24, which has impacted thousands of kids in Venezuela, Florida and Michigan.
Closer to home, Miguel continues to be an avid supporter of the Detroit Tigers Foundation, serving as the annual host of the “Keeping Kids in the Game” event, helping raise more than $2.4 million since 2009 to benefit children’s health and youth baseball. Miguel’s commitment to the Tigers Foundation throughout his career can also be seen in many of its past and current programs, including support for the launch of Play Baseball Detroit in 2008, which was reintroduced as “Play Ball Detroit” during MLB’s 2023 PLAY BALL Weekend. This program alone has helped deliver access to the game for more than 10,000 young Detroiters.
Establishing a legacy of impact that will live on well beyond his playing career, Miguel created the Cabrera Family Scholarship endowment in 2017, awarding two annual renewable college scholarships to first-generation college students in Michigan and Florida. Reflecting on the incredible impact made through each scholarship, recipients recently shared what this support meant to them as first-generation college students.
These decades-long contributions, and the powerful reflections from those impacted directly, strike at the core of who Miguel is as a person and what he means to communities worldwide. Miguel’s caring spirit will be forever etched into the fabric of what it means to be a Major League Baseball player in Detroit and beyond. As he takes the field for the final time this season, Miguel and his family can enter the next chapter of their lives knowing that the game, its communities and the people within, have been forever changed -- a true global impact.