Alexander Alberto Cabrera (born December 24, 1971) is a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

batter who played in 2000 for the Arizona Diamondbacks of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

and for 12 seasons in

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

. Also played several seasons in the LVBP in his native Venezuela.

Career

He was signed by the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

as an amateur

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 1991, and moved to the

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home venu ...

organization before the 1998 season. He played for

CPBL The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; ) is the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan. The league was established in 1989 and played the first season in 1990. CPBL eventually absorbed the competing Taiwan Major League in 20 ...

Koos Group Whales Koos may refer to: * Koos (name), a masculine given name and a surname * Koos (fashion label), a former haute couture fashion label * Koos (island), in the Bay of Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany * Koos Group, a Taiwan-based pan-Asia ...

in 1999, and then signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2000. After toiling in the minors for nine seasons, Cabrera finally got a shot in the majors with the Diamondbacks. A muscular slugger (6' 2", 220 lb.), Cabrera hit a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

during his first

at-bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a bat ...

. He ended the 2000 MLB season with a .262

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

, five home runs, 14 RBI, 10 runs, two doubles, one

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

and a .500

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

in 31

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

. After the 2000 season, the Seibu Lions of the

Japan Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...

purchased his contract from Arizona. In 2001, Cabrera batted .282, with 49 home runs and 124 RBI. He was even better in 2002, with a .336, 55, 115 batting line, winning the Pacific League's

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

award. His 55 home runs tied Japan's single-season record, equaling the mark set by the legendary

Sadaharu Oh Sadaharu Oh (Japanese: , ''Ō Sadaharu''; born May 20, 1940), also known as Wang Chen-chih (), is a Japanese-born former baseball player and manager Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Ō Sadaharu"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 758. who ...

in 1964 and matched by former big leaguer

Tuffy Rhodes Karl Derrick "Tuffy" Rhodes (born August 21, 1968) is a retired American professional baseball player. He played six years in Major League Baseball in the US, and thirteen years in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in Japan. Rhodes is the all-ti ...

in 2001. (In 2013,

Wladimir Balentien Wladimir Ramon Balentien (; born July 2, 1984), nicknamed "Coco", is a Curaçaoan-Dutch professional baseball outfielder who is currently a free agent. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, and in ...

, playing for the Yakult Swallows, established a new record with 60 home runs.) In 2003, Cabrera hit an impressive 50 home runs and produced 112 RBIs, while batting .324 for Seibu. Injuries limited him to 64 games in 2004, with 25 home runs and 62 RBIs. On October 26, 2004, Cabrera hit a two-run towering homer as the Seibu Lions defeated the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...

7–2 in Game 7 of the

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...

to win their first championship since 1992. The ball bounced off the glass-enclosed private boxes above the

left field In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

seats at the Nagoya Dome. It was Cabrera's third home run of the series. He also hit a

grand slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

and a two-run homer in Game 3. In six seasons with the Lions, Cabrera was a .308 hitter with 246 home runs and 605 RBI in 708 games. In January 2008, Cabrera signed a one-year contract with the Orix Buffaloes. It was reported that the contract had a requirement that Cabrera pass a drug test when he reported in February. He obtained

free agency In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

rights following the 2009 season after playing 8 years in Japan, thereby removing the designation as a "foreign player," becoming the fourth non-Japanese player to obtain such classification in NPB. In three seasons with Orix (2008–10), Cabrera slugged a combined 73 home runs and produced 225 RBIs. After his career in Japan came to a close with just 97 games played in 2011-12 with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Cabrera continued to play professional baseball during the winter season for

Tiburones de La Guaira The Tiburones de La Guaira ( en, La Guaira Sharks) are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Based in the city of La Guaira, they play their home games in Estadio Fórum La Guaira and have won seven national champions ...

in his native Venezuela. In 59 games during the 2013-14 season, Cabrera batted .391, with a record-setting 21 home runs. He broke the league single season home run record set by Baudilio Diaz, who hit 20 in 1979-80.

Mitchell Report

On December 13, 2007, Cabrera was linked to steroid use in the

Mitchell Report The ''Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball'', informally known as the Mitchell Report, is the res ...

, one of many MLB players so identified. The report detailed an incident in September 2000 when Cabrera was playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Team officials found a package that contained a vial of what they suspected to be anabolic steroids and several hundred pills. Clubhouse attendants claimed the package was intended for Cabrera. The contents of the package were tested and it was determined that the vial contained the anabolic steroid Winstrol, but the pills were legal, over-the-counter diet pills. Before the tests came back, however, Cabrera's contract had been sold to the Seibu Lions, so he was never tested for steroid use. Cabrera denied knowing why the package had been addressed to him After the report came out, Cabrera denied ever using steroids.

''"I couldn't have used the substances that are identified. I never had possession of the alleged box that supposedly contained the pharmaceutical drugs."''

During his career in Japan, Cabrera never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Personal life

Cabrera's son Ramón is also a professional baseball player. The younger Cabrera, a switch-hitting

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

, signed his first pro contract with the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

organization in 2008, at the age of 18. Ramon made his major league debut with the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

on September 5, 2015.Badler, Ben
International Signing Roundup: NL Central
, Baseball America, published October 13, 2008.

References

External links

*
The Baseball Guru Japanese Baseball Data Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabrera, Alex 1971 births Living people Arizona Diamondbacks players Arizona League Diamondbacks players Bakersfield Blaze players Daytona Cubs players El Paso Diablos players Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks players Geneva Cubs players Koos Group Whales players Leones del Caracas players Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball players from Venezuela Mexican League baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball designated hitters Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Award winners Orix Buffaloes players Pastora de los Llanos players Pastora de Occidente players People from Monagas Peoria Chiefs players Rojos del Águila de Veracruz players Seibu Lions players Tiburones de La Guaira players Tucson Sidewinders players Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Japan Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Mexico Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Taiwan Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States Venezuelan people of Japanese descent

Career

Mitchell Report

Personal life

See also

References

External links