Cabrera went 4-for-4 with 3 runs scored and 5 RBIs in the game. He started off with a line-drive single in the top of the first for Detroit’s lone hit of the inning. Two innings later, he followed hits from Omar Infante and Torii Hunter with a prodigious 3-run home run to right-center off Derek Holland:

Clear your eyes for a second and comprehend what you just saw. Miggy took an 83-mph change-up from lefty Derek Holland and sent it 441 feet to the opposite field. A 441-foot opposite field home run off a change-up from a lefty. Seriously. Do you realize how insane that is? Not only is a pitch like that intended to keep a hitter off balance or induce them to ground out weakly to the right side, but it requires a lot of power from the batter to deposit an 83-mph pitch 441 feet.

After getting burned with a change-up to Cabrera, Holland figured he’d bring the heat in the next at-bat to see how it would go. He brought in a 94-mph fastball, and Cabrera sent out a line drive to straight away center that left the park in about half a second:

After proving he could handle the off-speed away, and a fastball over the middle, reliever Tanner Scheppers decided he would see how Cabrera could do with a 96-mph heater on the hands. Cabrera didn’t even extend his arms and still got enough of the ball to see it carry over the center field fence:

I was banging the Mike Trout for MVP drum louder than anyone last season, and still say he deserved the award, but I remained consistent in saying one thing: Miguel Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball. I have been saying that for the last several years. The guy is just awesome.

Let me ask you one thing: When is the last time you have seen Miggy slump? Albert Pujols, A-Rod, Robinson Cano, Buster Posey, Ryan Braun — all MVPs and All-Stars — all of them have slumped. Has Miggy? Ever? For more than like a three-game stretch? No. The guy is just the best all-around hitter in baseball and has been for the last several years.

Want to see something scary?

Miggy’s numbers last year through 42 games: .304 average, 8 home runs, 34 RBIs.
Through 42 games this season: .387 average, 11 home runs, 47 RBIs.

Someone else might beat him out in one or more of those categories, but he’s going to put up a fight.

The Bella Twins and Mick Foley hung out at Busch Stadium on Saturday as a cross-promotional weekend between the St. Louis Cardinals and WWE. The wrestling stars hung out on the field before the game and held an autograph session for fans. Foley aka Mankind also took some batting practice, though his swing certainly left a lot to be desired. As for The Bella Twins, well, there’s a lot to be desired between the two of them. Chris Jericho also showed up to the park on Sunday and threw out the first pitch.

Many more photos below.

This is the most alive Bob Uecker’s felt since Rick Vaughn dusted Clu Haywood on three pitches:

Look who we ran into at the @cardinals game! Bob Uecker! Always amazing laughs! :) B&N twitter.com/nicoleandbri/s…

— The Bella Twins (@nicoleandbri) May 18, 2013

Double Trouble takin’ over Batting Practice with the @cardinals! twitter.com/nicoleandbri/s…

— The Bella Twins (@nicoleandbri) May 18, 2013

David Freese got in on the fun:

.@dfreese23 plays catch with @wwe stars @nicoleandbri. twitter.com/Cardinals/stat…

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 18, 2013

Carlos Beltran was chatting up Foley:

.@carlosbeltran15 with @wwe star @realmickfoley. twitter.com/Cardinals/stat…

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 18, 2013

And Matt Holliday wasn’t going to be left out:

.@mattholliday7 meets @wwe stars @realmickfoley and @nicoleandbri. twitter.com/Cardinals/stat…

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 18, 2013

Here’s Jericho throwing out the first pitch on Sunday:

WWE superstar @iamjericho threw out today’s ceremonial pitch. And then, he apparently told jokes to Matt Adams. twitter.com/Cardinals/stat…

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 20, 2013

Here’s a video of Foley and the Bella Twins hanging out at the park on Saturday, with Foley taking BP:

H/T Cut 4
Photo credit: Twitter/Bella Twins

If you are a pet/dog lover, this video will make you melt.

The story of Ricochet the surfing dog was featured on SportsCenter on Sunday night. Ricochet is a female golden retriever born into the “Puppy Prodigies Neo-natal & early-learning program” with the intention of becoming a service dog for a person with a disability. Early in life, she could help pull down zippers on a person’s jacket, pull a laundry basket, and do much more. But at 16 weeks, Ricochet stopped responding to the training and didn’t want to do more. One video says she was dropped from the program because of her instinctual fascination with chasing birds. However, Ricochet and her trainer finally found something she could do well — help people surf.

They began setting up fund raisers where Ricochet helped people surf by standing towards the back or on the sides and balancing the surf board. Her first fundraiser was with a quadriplegic named Patrick Ivison, and she helped raise $10,000 for him.

In the SportsCenter feature video, Ricochet can be seen helping three people with disabilities surf: Ivison, a young boy with brain damage from a fatal car crash, and a boy with autism.

Below you can watch a 2009 video of Ricochet that has amassed over four million views on YouTube:

And my favorite image from the ESPN story:

Ray Rice did.

Rice posted the above picture on his Facebook page on Sunday with the caption: “y’all catch the Preakness yesterday?”

Hilarious. His photo had over 11,000 likes and nearly two thousand shares on Facebook at the time this was posted.

If you’re wondering whether a football player can actually beat a horse in a race, I present you with this.

Rocco Mediate recently shared a story about Tiger Woods that gives us an interesting glimpse at the golf legend’s personality.

Mediate sat down with Golf Channel’s David Feherty for an interview on “Feherty” (Mondays 10:00 p.m. ET on Golf Channel) last week and said he still hasn’t had a chance to chat with Tiger about their dramatic playoff at the 2008 US Open. Woods, playing on a bad knee that would require season-ending surgery, sunk a birdie putt on the 72nd hole to tie him with Mediate, who was in the clubhouse at -1. The two played an 18-hole playoff on Monday to determine the winner. Tiger again made birdie on the last hole of the playoff round to tie Mediate. Woods then beat Mediate in a sudden-death playoff hole to win the tournament.

Battling Woods head-to-head for the entire day is Mediate’s biggest claim to fame. So when he saw Tiger the next year at the 2009 Players Championship, he was hoping his competitor could give him a nice personalized autograph.

Mediate told Feherty that he placed a manila envelope containing a pin sheet and great photo of the two of them on the course together that day. He said he included a note asking Tiger to sign the pin sheet and write a personalized message on the photo.

Mediate returned from his round at TPC and saw the envelope sitting in his locker. He was eager to read what it said. When he opened it up, he saw there was nothing written on the pin sheet, and that Tiger only signed his name on the photo without leaving a message. He was disappointed to learn that Woods ignored his request.

“Why wouldn’t he just go, ‘Roc, you suck, you got lucky for six days. I had a broken leg’ … just mess with me, and then sign my pin sheet so I could put the damn thing on the wall and say, ‘Almost got the guy that day,’” Mediate said to Feherty.

Mediate says he threw the picture away.

“I could go buy one of those pictures if I want one,” he told Feherty.

As bad as the story sounds, Mediate said he wasn’t sharing the story to bash Tiger, but to “tell you how this guy’s programmed.” Mediate also says he’s still one of Tiger’s biggest fans.

“I love the way he does his job.”

If you want to give Tiger a break here, you can say he was in the middle of a tournament and was too busy to worry about jumping through all of Mediate’s hoops. Or maybe Mediate should have asked him personally to sign it so that he got it right. Or maybe this story shows just what Rocco thinks: Tiger is just wired that way.

What do you think?

H/T Devil Ball Golf

Chad Johnson filed paperwork with a court to ask a judge to lower his child support payments for one of his children, TMZ reports.

Johnson’s payments to Andrea Pearson, one of the mothers of his children, reportedly are $5,420 per month. Johnson agreed to that amount in March 2012 when he said in filings he was making $66,000 per month. Johnson was not with an NFL team at the time, but he had plenty of endorsement deals, a TV show on VH1, and he was later brought to training camp by the Miami Dolphins.

Johnson’s NFL prospects ended after the Dolphins released him following his altercation with ex-wife Evelyn Lozada. He also lost endorsement deals and their TV show as a result of the arrest.

Naturally, Johnson says he can’t afford the support payments.

TMZ reported last November that Pearson accused Johnson of being late and missing payments. The two have a son together who was born in 2010.

Let this be a lesson to athletes everywhere who think that making millions entitles you to plant your seed anywhere you please. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up owing thousands per month in child support payments.

Singer Miguel jumped off the stage at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night and landed directly on a woman’s head, nearly crushing her. The ill-advised moment instantly went viral for obvious reasons.

First off, did you see how badly Miguel demolished her? The poor woman’s head disappeared after Miguel banged it directly into the stage, crotch-first. Not to mention that he took out a second woman with a kick to the head. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Secondly, Miguel somehow managed to land a textbook leg drop on the woman. You cannot teach a better leg drop than that. When Vince McMahon brings new wrestlers into the WWE, I guarantee you he shows them this clip.

The best part of the whole ordeal was the immediate memes of Miguel’s stage jump fail and a top-rope WWE move:

Miguel Be Like twitter.com/Sports_Moneyy/…

— LB Gotti✋ (@Sports_Moneyy) May 20, 2013

MIGUEL WAS LIKE twitter.com/WavyJay_/statu…

— Doc (@WavyJay_) May 20, 2013

Miguel tonight at the Billboard Music Awards … He’s now a wrestler twitter.com/_Duhwayne_/sta…

— Dwayne Tyrek(@_Duhwayne_) May 20, 2013

And here is the leg drop as called by wrestling announcers Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler:

So Miguel lookin like “Damn I hope her neck ain’t broke” twitter.com/CursedByNike_/…

— Le King. (@CursedByNike_) May 20, 2013

The good news is it looks like there was a happy ending to this story — Miguel later brought the woman backstage.

aw Miguel brought that girl backstage who he jumped on… aw that’s so nice! twitter.com/MarisaGJB/stat…

— Marisa Gasbarra (@MarisaGJB) May 20, 2013

However, her nose may have been a little injured:

Miguel took that girl backstage LMFCOOOO!! twitter.com/MarajTyler/sta…

— Tyler Maraj (@MarajTyler) May 20, 2013

Alright, and here it is in Vine form for one more time:

GIF via @CorkGaines

Brittney Griner says she was discouraged by her coaches and the Baylor athletic department from being openly gay while in college the past five years.

Griner just completed her senior season in Waco and was selected No. 1 overall by the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury. The former two-time first-team All-American center came out publicly last month, though she says she has been openly gay since high school.

Griner told ESPN The Magazine/espnW that she was discouraged from being open while at Baylor. She says she was told to keep it private because it could damage recruiting.

“It was a recruiting thing,” Griner told ESPN The Magazine and espnW. “The coaches thought that if it seemed like they condoned it, people wouldn’t let their kids come play for Baylor.”

Griner says she told Baylor coach Kim Mulkey up front when she was being recruited that she was gay. She says Mulkey told her that was not an issue. However, she was discouraged from being open about her sexuality.

“It was more of an unwritten law, but come to find out it was a written law. It was kind of one of those things like, ‘just don’t do it.’ They kind of try to make it like, ‘Why put your business out on the street like that?’” Griner told espnW’s Kate Fagan.

Griner says the issue first came up when she tweeted something.

“I tweeted something out and it was kind of like ‘hey, you need to probably not do that, pull that off.’”

Griner says she tweeted something to her ex and was asked to take it down. She believes it was someone from the compliance office who asked her to remove the tweet.

One of the reasons Griner was likely discouraged from being openly gay in college is Baylor’s religious affiliation. Baylor is a Baptist school that does not believe in homosexuality. Here’s the school’s Statement on Human Sexuality as it appears in the student handbook:

Baylor University welcomes all students into a safe and supportive environment in which to discuss and learn about a variety of issues, including those of human sexuality. The University affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God. Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm. Temptations to deviate from this norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. It is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching.

I’m sure Baylor wasn’t complaining about all the positive attention Griner brought the school through her basketball career, but it’s not like Griner didn’t know what she was getting into. Or, if she didn’t know, then she didn’t do her proper research ahead of time. Either way, this really explains why there has been so much about Griner’s sexuality recently; she was discouraged from talking about it before.

Photo Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

“We’re not just another team,” James told reporters, via ESPN’s Michael Wallace. “I don’t understand what he’s saying. But we’re not just another team. That’s not true. He said we’re just another team in their way. We’re a great team. If we’re just another team, you really don’t prepare for just another team. You have to prepare for us.”

Vogel made his remark after the Pacers beat the New York Knicks 106-99 in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series on Saturday.

“It’s exciting, but this is not about getting back at Miami,” Vogel said when asked about facing the Heat. “You’re in the final four, you’re competing for a championship. You’re competing for a championship. And they’re just the next team that’s in our way. And that’s how we’re approaching it.”

Indiana gave Miami a tough test last year when the team’s met in the Eastern Conference semifinals. They were up 2-1 in the series before Miami came back to win in six. The way last year’s series went probably had the Heat on alert. But Vogel’s comments are already leaving an impression; James referred to them as “bulletin-board material.” Also recall that Vogel tried pulling the same trick before the teams met last year when he called the Heat the biggest floppers in the NBA.

“We’re very confident,” James said. “We’ll be ready for them. We don’t need bulletin-board material. We’ve heard everything, we’ve seen everything. But I would say we’re not just another team, though.”

The way Vogel described how they view the Heat is good for his team. If you want your team to feel like they can compete with the Heat, you have to view Miami as just another team. The problem is Vogel should have kept those words between himself and his team rather than say them publicly. Now, James is going to have extra motivation entering the series. That’s bad, bad news for Indy.

Competitive instinct seemed to take over for Tony Allen during Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.

Early in the third quarter, Spurs point guard Tony Parker rebounded a Mike Conley miss and was off and running in transition. He took the ball up by the sidelines and did a spin move around Allen, but Allen stuck out his foot and tripped Parker. The two quickly made up and Parker seemed to be a good sport about it, while Allen apologized.

Allen didn’t appear to have any malice with his act — it seemed like he was just trying to stop Parker out of instinct — but tripping a guy like that can be dangerous.

Parker played extremely well during the game. He went 9-of-14 for 20 points and nine assists in San Antonio’s blowout 105-83 win. They were ahead by so much that Tracy McGrady even registered seven minutes, though he did not score. Kawhi Leonard went 4-of-5 on 3-pointers, Matt Bonner was 4-of-6, and Danny Green was 3-for-5. They shot 48.3 percent on their threes. You’re not going to beat the Spurs when they’re making that many outside shots.