Don Newcombe Says Miguel Cabrera Needs to Confront His Problem

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Before the Tigers can contend for the playoffs, before Miguel Cabrera can put on their uniform, before Cabrera can get on with the rest of his life, one thing has to happen.

Cabrera will have to admit he has a problem.

Don't take my word for it.

"The problem is going to get worse, not better, until you listen to the doctors, you listen to the people like me who's been through it all," Don Newcombe told FanHouse on Saturday from his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. "They have to listen.

"If you want to play games and want to do it your way, I say you are going to fail."

Newcombe, 84, should know. A pitcher for the Dodgers, Newcombe was the 1949 Rookie of the Year, 1956 MVP and Cy Young Award winner.

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He is also an alcoholic.

Newcombe has been sober for 47 years, and he not only works for the Dodgers in community relations, but since 1976 he has been a crusader against substance abuse.

A year ago, Cabrera made it to the first day of spring training -- and told reporters, "You guys write in the paper 'alcoholic,' that's not right. I don't know how to explain, but it's not an alcohol problem."

This year, Cabrera didn't even make it to the opening of camp. He was on his way from his Miami home to Lakeland when his radiator blew. A police deputy saw the smoking car and found Cabrera with, the police report said, the odor of alcohol on his breath, bloodshot and watery eyes and slurred speech. Cabrera, according to the report, even drank from a bottle of Scotch in front of the deputy.

Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said Saturday that Cabrera will meet early next week with a doctor selected jointly by Major League Baseball and the players' union to determine a course of treatment for Cabrera.

"That shows me that the Tigers are on the right track, doing the right thing (and) Major League Baseball is on the right track, doing the right thing in trying to get through, in some way, to Miguel to find out what he has to do," Newcombe said.

Newcombe stressed he does not know Cabrera and is not involved in his case and that he is not allowed to intervene with any major-league player.

But Newcombe said big-league players with substance-abuse problems fall into the trap of thinking that because of who they are, people will believe them when they say they don't have a problem and it "will go away by itself."

It won't, of course.

Cabrera was arrested in October 2009 and had a blood-alcohol content three times the legal limit. Dombrowski said it was his understanding that Cabrera -- runner-up for AL MVP last year -- didn't drink again until Wednesday.

"It tells me that he had a relapse and he wasn't as well (as was thought)," Newcombe (shown below) said. "There's no halfway. There's no quarter-way. It's all the way or nothing at all as far as alcohol is concerned.

"I haven't had a drink in 47 years. I have not had one can of beer in 47 years. Either you do it all the way or it's going to get back to you."

Cabrera will have to buy into that notion before he can get better. And maybe he will.

"He's cooperative," Dombrowski said, "and realizes that he's had an alcohol problem in the past that he's addressed and that he's worked through. And he fell off of that program. And he acknowledges that and he will do what's necessary to get himself back on track.

"He has a problem. He knows that. We know that. And we're willing to work with him. ... He wanted to come (to camp) yesterday. But it didn't take long (to convince him otherwise) because he understands he has to do what's best for himself."

Fortunately for Cabrera, Major League Baseball has come a long way in dealing with his issue.

Newcombe said he went to then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn in 1978 to try to set up an alcohol-abuse policy and was told, "We don't have an alcohol problem in baseball. We may have a drug problem."

The turning point, Newcombe said, was when he and the Dodgers helped Bob Welch get sober in 1980. Newcombe still carries with him a letter that Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley wrote after Welch one-hit the Braves in May 1980, thanking Newcombe for pushing the team to institute an alcohol-treatment program.

The Tigers are doing the right thing, it seems. The route to treatment is prescribed by agreement with the union, and that process is in place. All the team can do is prioritize Cabrera's health over his baseball, lend its support and welcome him back when it's time to come back -- and as far as we can tell, that's what is happening.

"I think any time you deal with alcoholism and addiction," Dombrowski said, "and I've been doing this for a long time in my career, you realize it's an ongoing battle. And it's not easy.

"We will help him take care of his problem, and we know he has a problem."

Most of the work will have to be done by Cabrera.

All he has to do is dedicate himself to sobriety like he did his offseason workouts.

"I saw him two weeks ago, three weeks ago," teammates Carlos Guillen said. "He looked really good. Big. He looked like he had worked hard."

Said Dombrowski: "He's tested better in every test he's done, as far as strength and quickness, than he ever has in his life."

Cabrera turns 28 in April, and for his age he is fifth all-time in RBI (after Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx, Alex Rodriguez and Joe DiMaggio) and third in doubles (after Joe Medwick and Albert Pujols).

Newcombe was once on the track to greatness too. He won 112 games in his first six seasons (1949-51 and '54-56), which only Tom Seaver has done since.

"I will never get into the Hall of Fame because of what I did," Newcombe said, "because of what I did to myself and my career."

It's up to Cabrera whether he eventually has the same lament.

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