Mighty Miggy Cabrera.

Myself, I'm seriously hoping for Miguel to have some great seasons before he retires. I'm not ready for him to be a has been just yet. 

Mighty Miggy

When you think about Major League Baseball players who are playing right now who are also already persons you know will make the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, you think of Miguel Cabrera. In fact, he may be the single first person you think of. The reason is he's already put together a HOF career, and he's still, for all intents and practical purposes, in the prime of his career.

The man we call Miggy sure has an impressive resume. His offensive statistics are a sabermetrician's dream come true. Then there is that thing about the triple crown, and him being the only person to do that in so long. He could do it again, but then there are also some other guys playing who may equal the accomplishment. Maybe this season, maybe the next one.

Seven times in Miggy's first ten seasons in the Big Leagues, he placed in the top five of the league MVP voting. Is Miguel Cabrera the greatest hitter of his generation? Possibly, but his generation also includes the greatness that is Albert Pujols.

Miguel Cabrera Vs. Albert Pujols

Comparisons are never really 'fair,' but baseball is a game where comparisons never cease. We never stop comparing this guy to that guy, and so the Miguel to Albert comparisons are totally delicious. They compare so very very well, and so wonderfully.

Through the first ten big league seasons, hands down, Pujols is the better ball player. But while Pujols seems to be slowing down as he ages, Miguel Cabrera seems to be getting better. It can happen. You also have to recognize the sample size for Cabrera is smaller. The Cabrera to Pujols comparisons are not going to end any time soon, but eventually they will end, and that will be when both of these HOF sluggers are retired, and then only. That either, or of them is, or are the greatest right handed hitters in baseball in a living man's memory, this seems something unquestionable. But give Mike Trout some time here. He may enter this equation with a larger sample size himself.

You look at a guy like Nelson Cruz, or Joey Bautista. Neither one of those guys started off too well in the big leagues. Then they became monster power hitters. So Cabrera and Pujols started their careers as perennial MVP winners or candidates. There's no reason Cabrera, now 32 years old, can't become even better than he was when he won the triple crown. Nelson Cruz has had his best season to date at age 36.

Study the master, this is perfection in a swing at the moment of contact, from Miguel Cabrera

What makes Miguel Cabrera so dang good at hitting?

When it comes to hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely, there is no one in baseball at present who does this, and consistently hits the ball harder than does Miguel Cabrera. He's led the American League in batting average 4 times to date. He's won two AL MVP awards, and won the first triple crown in batting in the MLB in the last 50 years.

Ten times he's been on the All Star team, He rarely ever strikes out, and he rarely ever hits a weak rally killing pop up fly. He's had 9 seasons so far of 30 or more home runs, and had 11 consecutive seasons of 100 or more runs batted in. The streak of seasons with 100 or more RBIs ended last year because Cabrera spent some time on the disabled list. He still won the AL batting title in 2015.

But what is it that makes Miguel Cabrera so dang good? HOW is the the best hitter in the entire Major Leagues? There is a great article about this over at USA Today. In the article, four persons who've been greats in Major League Baseball are asked what it is about Miggy that makes him so very very special as a hitter. Al Kaline says it is that Cabrera hits the ball so very hard to all parts of the baseball field. Tori Hunter says it is something about Miggy's character, the way he is so very humble, and works so very hard. Chris Davis says it is Cabrera's balance which makes him such a great hitter. Wally Joyner echo's Hunter, he says Cabrera is a supremely respectful man.

A graphic with some bullet point analysis of the great Miggy Cabrera's swing

What Miguel Cabrera has can't really be taught, but there is a science to hitting

When I was a kid, I spent countless hours hitting balls with sticks and bats and just doing it over and over and over again. But that wasn't all I did. I studied the great hitters on television, experimented emulating their batting stances, and tried to figure out which one worked best for me. Then, I got into reading about it. There are entire books on the philosophy of what makes a great hitter, and then the studies of the mechanics of swinging the bat. As well meaning as Al Kaline, Tori Hunter, Chris Davis and Wally Joyner were in their comments in USA Today - none of that said was the slightest bit useful to a kid trying to learn how to hit.

With Miggy Cabrera, you can't exactly emulate his swing because he sometimes changes his entire batting stance several times in a single at bat. Also, Cabrera has freakishly good eyesight, all the great hitters do, and there is no possible way to teach that to someone, it is a gift from God. Then, there are the reflexes. One must have near super-human reflexes to hit 100 mile per hour fastballs. And there are not more and more pitchers in the game today, than ever were before, who can reach back and hurl a 100 mph bullet ball up there.

He also seems able to read the minds of pitchers. Cabrera approaches each and every at bat as a psychologist. He's analyzing the pitchers and what they do in different situations, he's guessing what pitch they are about to throw him, and he guesses correctly very often.

So you are a kid, want to be a professional baseball player, and you daydream about being as great a hitter as Miggy, as Bryce Harper, persons like that. You can't emulate Cabrera's stance because he has dozens of them. What do you do? You emulate his work ethic, you emulate his scientific approach to each at bat, to each pitch.

Ted Williams, the Hall of Fame slugger who was the last person to ever hit for a .400 batting average wrote a great book about hitting, and who could ever discredit Ted's theories? No one, but that said, the Charlie Lau school of hitting is also a very highly thought of approach. Not every baseball player has the body to hit home runs, if you're going to be a line drive guy, someone who hits lots of doubles, triples, and singles, you study the Charlie Lau approach, but Charlie Lau style hitters still hit for power. George Brett was everything Lau used to teach. Sometimes Cabrera's swing is a Lau type of swing, sometimes it isn't. Only Miguel Cabrera is Miggy, there isn't another one. There won't be, either.

A much younger Miguel Cabrera with the Miami Marlins

Miguel Cabrera's least impressive years would be career year for many other great players

He's so synonymous with hitting you forget sometimes Miggy was once known for having a cannon for a throwing arm. He's still got the arm. Like Albert Pujols in yet another way, Cabrera has played 3rd base and 1st base, but at one time was primarily an outfielder. While he wasn't the most elegant outfielder there was, he had 13 assists from the outfield in 2004. That's 13 runners gunned down by his cannon like throwing arm.

One of the more telling stories from the early days came in Miggy's very first season. He helped lead the Marlins to the post season, where they faced off against the Yankees. In the first at bat in which Miguel ever saw Roger Clemens, Clemens threw Miggy some chin music, a 92 mile per hour fastball just under his chin. Cabrera famously glared out at the mound. He looked as though he may charge the mound to fight Roger the rocket. Instead, he hit a home run a couple pitches later.

Cabrera was winning Silver Slugger awards as an outfielder with the Marlins. The Silver Slugger is given to the best offensive player at each defensive position in a given year. He put up elite numbers in Miami, and was making the All Star team annually, as he deserved; but what is funny is his worst seasons to date are seasons where he was an All Star with the Miami Marlins. His worst years insofar as batting statistics go, were good enough to be career years for some people who've since become Hall of Fame players.

To date, Miggy's bad year was 2004. He was just 20 years of age. He hit 'only' .294, had 'only' 33 home runs, and drove in 'only' 112 RBIs. His OBP of 'just' .366 would be a dream come true for anyone but Miguel Cabrera.

In 2007 Miguel became the 3rd youngest player to reach 500 runs batted in for his career. The only persons to achieve that number at a younger age were Ted Williams and Mel Ott. One of the many players in the MLB from Venezuela, Cabrera is the most impressive. The level of competition now seen in Major League Baseball is so far and gone more impressive than in the old days before Jackie Robinson. Thank God above for the integration of baseball, a truly international sport.

The great Miguel Cabrera with the Detroit Tigers

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Miguel Cabrera becomes one of the greatest hitters of all time in Detroit

The trade that sent Miguel Cabrera from the Marlins to the Detroit Tigers is ancient history now, but man, what a bum deal it was. Cabrera was already one of the elite hitters in baseball, and what he became in Detroit was one of the elite hitters of all time in Baseball, not just an elite for the day or the year. What Miami got for him? Forgettable. Best forgotten, actually, if you are a Marlins fan.

If you are a Tigers fan, the deal that brought Miggy to Detroit has got to be the single best swap in the history of the game for you. For Miggy, though he was already a major force in baseball, he grew into his prime in Detroit. Became an infielder in his first year there, and led the American League in home runs in his second. In 2009 he had his sixth straight season of more than 100 runs batted in. But Miggy was reaching milestone after milestone, and he's still doing so today. When you've got the talent Cabrera has, changing leagues doesn't affect you much, or at least not for long.

He did lead the American League in errors at first base in 2010. Miguel is not a poor defender by any measure though.He also led the AL in runs batted in, with 126. By 2011 he was demonstrating what folks suspected, he was perfectly capable of winning a triple crown in hitting. He won his first batting title by hitting .344, a career best at that time. Winning a batting title is always harder for right handed hitters because a a right handed batter has to take a couple extra steps to get to first base. But he won more than just the batting title, he led the AL in doubles with 48. Miguel's league leading on base percentage was .448. He reached base almost 50 percent of the time he came to bat!

2012, 2013 Miggy wins a triple crown and two AL MVP awards

In 2012 Miguel did what hadn't been done by anyone since 1967. He won a triple crown in hitting. The triple crown, of course, is won win the hitter leads his league in home runs, batting average, and runs batted in. Miguel hit for a .330 average, which for him, wasn't so impressive. He'd hit for higher averages in past seasons. He hit 44 home runs, which ought to be enough for anyone. While a .330 batting average isn't always high enough to lead a league, 44 home runs is more often than not. He also knocked in 139 runs, and 139 runs batted in is a very impressive statistic for any single season.

In 2012 Miguel wasn't playing 1st base. The Tigers had signed Prince Fielder, and he was their first baseman. So Miggy was playing 3rd base in 2012. Who knows how the defensive position he played figured into any of this? Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. Before the season began Miguel was hit by a ball in the face, breaking a bone beneath his right eye. There is always something amazing going on in the stories we have about the amazing humans among us, and this is one of them. Somehow a broken bone beneath Miguel's right eye didn't faze him any.

So Miguel Cabrera won the triple crown and the American League MVP in 2012. His 2013 season was probably even more impressive. In 2013 he hit for the same number of home runs, 44, but he hit for an even higher batting average. He won the batting title again in 2013 with a higher .348, a career best. His 44 home runs in 2013 were not enough to lead the American League. His outstanding 137 runs batted in were not league leading either. But in 2013 Miggy Lead the AL, besides in batting average, in on base percentage (.442), slugging percentage (.636) , and rather obviously, OPS. He won his second straight AL MVP award.

Miguel Cabrera - 2014 to present

Baseball is a game of statistics, and all statistics are analyzed over and over and over again. What's amazing is it has always been this way, and there are only ever more and more kinds of statistical analysis added as the game grows older. One of the newfangled and super sexy statistics used now is the WAR. WAR stands for wins above replacement. The triple crown is a very sexy accomplishment, if you follow my meaning, in a statistical sort of way. And so if you are a big believer in the WAR analysis, Cabrera was better in 2013 than he was in 2012, when he won the triple crown.

Just in case there is a reader here who isn't familiar with WAR, then I've got a nice link here so you can brush up on it. Here is FanGraphs explanation for WAR. I've got another great link for you to see Miguel's WAR over the years, and you would likely note with a lot of septicemic, as I did, how low of a WAR rating he had in 2008. Here's the link, from numberfire.com. But the link is really about what happened after Miguel won two straight American League MVP awards. He seemed to have gone into decline. But you're talking about a decline from having some of the best offensive seasons in the entire history of Major League Baseball. A Miggy decline year is a career year for most anyone else.

Commentary on the numberfire website is strange. They venerate WAR ratings, then talk about Cabrera's 2012 season as though it were better than his 2013 season. But his WAR rating was better in 2013. So I'll leave it to you, dear reader, to figure out which season was the better one. In any event, Cabrera is a professional athlete, and professional athletes always wind up with injuries, and Miggy is no different. He tailed off in productivity in 2014, had a surgery to get himself ready for 2015, then won another batting title in 2015 despite having to miss a lot of games due to injuries. So here we are now in 2016. The season just started, and the Tigers of Detroit actually have a bargain in paying Miguel Cabrera just $22 million. Can he return to MVP status? I wouldn't bet against him. I'm rooting for him, and so should you. He's the finest hitter in baseball, and likely will be remembered as one of the single best right handed hitters in baseball history, if not one of the single finest hitters in baseball history, period

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Justin Verlander, future HOF pitcher

Justin Verlander, future HOF pitcher

Justin Verlander has been one of the most dominating and impressive pitchers in all of Major League baseball since he debuted. He was indisputably the single best starting pitcher in baseball for some years. Then he seemed to spin into a decline so typical of power pitchers who're heading into their 30s.

But was the decline permanent? Perhaps not. Justin Verlanded finished the 2015 season looking like the ace he had been in earlier years. In all fairness to humanity itself, we can't go around thinking a 33 year old alpha male type athlete is over the hill. So he had a couple of seasons where he was off the mark of his previous greatness. Isn't that just the way life goes for most all of us, at some point or another?

I witnessed with my own two eyes the second to the last start Nolan Ryan ever had. Nolan was pitching in the old Arlington Stadium, and throwing 96 miles per hour on the stadium radar gun. He was more than ten years older than Justin Verlander is now. So there is no reason Verlander can't continue to pitch at the level he had previously pitched, and for many years to come.

You just have to work harder at keeping your physique in order as you age. That's all. You get to become wiser as you age, and Verlander becoming a pitcher who approaches pitching as a science, that should scare hitters.

The classic power pitching repertoire of Justin Verlander

Verlander is a master craftsman of pitching. He has all skills necessary for success. He is one of the lucky persons born in this world with the rare gift to where he can throw a baseball at or over 100 miles per hour. But the great fastball Verlander has wouldn't be worth so much were his other pitches also not very good.

His secondary pitches are very good. He throws a terrific 12 to 6 curve-ball which often buckles the knees of batters. He has a great slider, and throws a circle change up too. Perhaps most important of all is he has the ability to change speeds on any of these pitches while still throwing them for strikes. Three times thus far he has led the American League in strikeouts.

Verlander is well documented to add velocity to his fastball when ahead in the count. With no strikes, Verlander averages under 95 miles per hour with the fastball. When ahead in the count, he reaches back a little further and blows an average of 97 miles per hour towards home with the fastball. The circle change-up, which can sometimes act like a screw-ball is generally reserved for left handed batters. Verlander also generally only throws his slider to right handed batters.

Justin Verlander - flawless pitching mechanics allow him to be a workhorse pitcher

Verlander has been an absolute workhorse of a pitcher. He had 8 straight seasons of more than 200 innings, and for a ten year stretch, he threw more total pitches than anyone in all of baseball. How many pitches did he throw? Yes, MLB absolutely has the answers to such questions. 35, 547 pitches did Justin Verlander throw.

Verlander is that rare throwback pitcher. A guy from out of the past, like Roger Clemens, able to throw 150 or so pitches in a game, and then still make it out there to the mound in his next start, and turn out a quality start. He can do this for his flawless pitching mechanics. Verlander's pitching delivery is something to be modeled. You'll see pages online comparing the flawless mechanics of Verlander to the iffy delivery of someone with equal talent, like Stephen Strasburg.

Also, Justin is a big man. He goes six feet and five inches, and weighs 225. When a man is built like that, the dream build for a starting pitcher, and then said man has such beautifully mechanical deliveries, and the competitive desire to be the best. Well, that's Justin Verlander. The 8 straight seasons of over 200 innings pitched could have easily been 9 straight. In 2006 Verlander was limited to 186 innings, likely by team management.

Complete games? Well, Verlander has led the American League in complete games. He did so in 2012. he had 6 complete games that year. Completed games by starting pitchers are increasingly rare in baseball. Gone are the days of Clemens and Schilling completing 15 or so games in a season.

Justin Verlander at Goochland High School

Verlander was rather good at baseball in high school and college

Before any of these things had come to pass, these things about workhorses and pitchers and 100 mile per hour fastballs, there was baby Justin Brooks Verlander, born on February 20, 1983. He had an interest in baseball and a father who wanted to see him pursue that interest, and so his father invested in his son. He sent him to attend the Richmond Baseball Academy.

Justin attended Goochland High School in Virginia, and then went on to Old Dominion University. He did exceptionally well at the university and set records for things like strikeouts, and then in the next year, he'd break his previous record, setting then a new one. Scouts in Major League Baseball look at the frame of the man, literally, his physical body. Justin had the size, still does, and the scouts surely saw, to become a Big League starting pitcher. Oh you do not have to be six foot five, but if you are, then there is a chance you may be very durable. Justin was and is.

He was drafter very highly by the Detroit Tigers. He was the second pick over-all. He proved the Tigers scouts to be about their own game well. As he surely has panned out as expected for Detroit. Justin barely ever saw the minor leagues, he was in the Major Leagues pitching for the Tigers in his very first professional season. Oh, he lost the two starts he got with Detroit in 2005, but the next season he'd show us all what he could do.

Rookie of the Year

In 2006 Justin Verlander put up an terrific win/loss record. He won 17 games, and lost just 9. He wasn't striking out Big League hitters at the rate of a power pitcher. He struck-out just 124 in his 186 innings.

There is little doubt he was being shut down innings wise. This is just the way of the game nowadays. Still, 186 innings is a large workload for a rookie. And Verlander had never seen that many innings pitched in a year before.

Another statistical oddity, and baseball is a sport where statistics are something like religion, happened in June. At a game against Oakland's Athletics in their stadium, Justin, Joel Zumaya, and Fernando Rodney all threw multiple pitches over 100 miles per hour. The first time this was recorded to have happened, that three men from the same team hit 100 mph in a game.

The Tigers made the post season that year, and then the World Series. Justin Verlander got a start in a World Series in his rookie season. But the Tigers did not win.

Justin Verlander in 2008

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Verlander becomes a true rotation Ace

For all intents and practical purposes Justin Verlander became the Ace of the Detroit Tigers pitching staff in his second Big League season. He pitched over 200 innings, and nearly reached the 200 strikeout mark. He won 18 games that year.

But maybe the most impressive thing was Justin threw a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers on the 12th day of June. In the game, he struck out 12 batters, and threw fastballs clocked at 102 miles per hour.

Watching the highlights from the no-hitter, you see a no-hitter is truly a team accomplishment. Baseball is a team sport, of course. Verlander dazzles with a huge breaking ball, and that monster power fastball, but there are some outstanding fielding plays by his team-mates which make it all possible.

As good a season as Justin had in 2007, he did not have a great season in 2008. In fact, he led the American League in loses in 2008. Just like Corey Kluber, another man with a Verlander type of ability, led the American League in losses last year after winning the Cy Young award the previous season. These things happen.

Again, baseball is a team sport. So that Verlander led the AL in losses in 2008, the blame can't be entirely on Verlander, but the truth is Justin didn't have the same greatness on the mount in 2008. His earned run average was rather inflated from the previous season. But he pitched over 200 innings in 2008. He provided great value to his team.

In 2009 Verlander would return to dominate American League hitters with a vengeance. He'd win 19 games, while losing 9. This gave him a great winning percentage of .679, the highest he'd had since 2007 when he won fewer games, but had a .750 winning percentage.

In 2009 Verlander would lead the American League with his 19 wins. He'd also lead The American League in innings pitched with 240 innings, and strikeouts with 269. You would think he'd have won the Cy Young award that year, but he did not. He was beat out by both Zack Greinke in the Cy Young award for Greinke's superlative earned run average, and runner up was Felix Hernandez.

Verlander was in his prime now though, he was nearly superhuman for a stretch of four years. In 2010 he became a very wealthy man, as the Tigers signed him to a large contract. The kind of contract you'd have to be a fool to ever see a poor day in your life after signing. And Justin is far from retired. He'd win 18 games and lose 9 in 2010. But it would be the next season when Justin would shine the brightest.

2011, Justin Verlander wins the triple crown in pitching, the Cy Young, and the AL MVP

In 2011 Verlander would put everything together. He was absolutely on top of the world. He was the kind of pitcher that made you feel sorry for the batters in the batters box. He seemed to be able to do whatever he wanted to do with every batter.

He'd record his 1,000th strikeout for his career. He also pitched another no-hitter. A lot of great pitchers never throw a no-hitter. The game was an odd one in some ways, Verlander wasn't striking out many batters. But he carried a perfect game into the 9th inning. He lost the perfect game, but he recorded the no-hitter. But the no-hitter against Toronto's Blue Jays that year wasn't nearly the only game where it looked as though there wouldn't be any hits, he flirted with no-hitters many times that season.

Verlander would make his 4th All Star team, but he'd not participate due to scheduling and where the All Star game fell after his last start. Before the end of August, he'd already have 20 wins. He'd wind up with the triple crown in pitching, Leading the American league in wins with 24, strikeouts with 250, and earned run average, 2,40. Oddly enough, Clayton Kershaw had also won the triple crown for pitching in the National League; and this was the first time there's been duel triple crown of pitching winners since 1924. But Verlander also led the American League in innings pitched, and winning percentage.

Justin Verlander with friend Kate Upton

Celebrity pitcher Verlander had his own cereal at one point

Justin Verlander 2012-2014 with Detroit Tigers

Verlander continued the next season (2012) pitching at the same level as before, but after the All Star break, he seemed to have got tired. He was the starting pitcher in the All Star game, but got bombed. For the season he again led the American League in innings pitched, strikeouts, and he placed second in earned run average. His won/loss record was 17 wins and 8 loses.

The Tigers were a winning team that year, and went to the playoffs, and all the way to the World Series again. Verlander had a winning start in the AL Division series, and another in the AL Championship series. But when he started game one of the World Series, he did not do well at all. For the year, he'd place second in the AL Cy Young voting to David Price.

In 2013 Verlander would become the highest paid pitcher in MLB history, but only for the time being. He made his 6th consecutive opening day start for the Tigers, and made the All Star team again. His numbers for the season, however, declined dramatically. Again, baseball is a team sport, and the pitcher in the American League doesn't get to contribute offensively except in inter-league play, and Verlander isn't Madison Bumgarner with a bat in hand anyway.

For the season he'd win 13 and lose 12. He'd have nearly one strikeout per inning, but his total innings were the lowest they'd been since 2008, and the total was just 217 innings. This is a fine total for most starting pitchers, but not for what was expected out of superstar workhorse Justin Verlander.

The Tigers again went into the post-season, and Verlander shut down the Athletics of Oakland in his start against them. Then in game 5 of the AL Division series Verlander helped his team to the AL Championship series. Following the season Verlander underwent core muscle surgery, to repair existing abdominal injuries which had been wearing him down.

Verlander, known for his strong work ethic and his never ending desire to be competitive, to be the best of the best, was ready for the following spring training, but was unlikely to be fully healed. In 2014 Verlander would turn in another workhorse season, he was just no longer looking like the dominating power arm power pitcher he'd once been. Perhaps he wasn't recovered from the surgery. Perhaps the Tigers had over used Justin over the years. All those pitches and innings were catching up with him, was the prevailing thought.

But MLB pitchers used to regularly throw more pitches and innings than even Verlander had done. In any case at all, the truth was he had lost several miles per hour off of his glorious fastball, and so he wasn't striking out hitters so often any more. Other scouts say he was throwing his slider too much, instead of his outstanding curve-ball.

He did better in the second half of the 2014 season. Was this recovery from the core muscle surgery? He finished the season with a won/loss record of 15 wins and 12 losses. His 159 strikeouts were alarming in that his rate per 9 innings was very very low for Justin Verlander. 6.9 punch-outs for ever 9 innings.

Justin Verlander in 2015

Justin Verlander in 2015 and beyond

Verlander spent a significant portion of the 2015 season on the disabled list. But the man needed some rest, and he got it. When he did return in 2015, he was looking a lot more like the Justin Verlander who'd won Rookie of the Year so long ago, or even the Verlander who'd won Cy Young awards, and then placed highly in the voting for that award in other years.

He was flirting with no-hitters again, and he was striking out batters again. The second half of the 2015 season was nothing if not a huge good sign for the Detroit Tigers starting rotation, and for Justin Brooks Verlander.

Sure, he's maybe lost a little from that fastball that once could top out at 102 miles per hour. But he could and did still reach back and throw balls at 98 miles per hour, and when you can do that, you can be the ace of nearly any pitching staff in Major League Baseball. Especially when you have a lollipop 12 to 6 O'clock knee buckler curve-ball, and a great change of pace.

Justin is only 33 years of age, and won't be 34 until the 2017 season. He's wiser in baseball sense than ever before, and even if he only has 7/8ths of the physical ability he once had, that is enough to be a Cy Young candidate this year, and don't be surprised if he shows himself to have ALL the physical ability he had in years past. I hope the best for Justin Verlander, and you should too. Thanks for reading.

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On Becoming An Electrician

Apprentice Electrician

I've once again went to work in an area in which I am pretty well versed in, but not a sector of employment I've every truly thrived in. Again, I have taken a job as an apprentice electrician.

Now I first started working in this field when I was but twelve years old, and I believe that had something to do with me never being able to see it as something I'd ever want to do. No I was not unhappy for working at twelve, that was honor of family then. I was working with my late grandfather who'd recently lost his wife, my late grandmother - and we were working in the Texas heat wiring houses here in Kaufman, County. I was with him because my family didn't want him alone in those circumstances. I am honored I was esteemed able to fill such a role.

I again worked as an electrician wiring houses at sixteen years of age during the Summers, and again at seventeen years of age, during the Summer break from school. Virtually every male in my family is an electrician - other than myself and my brother, who also happen to be very experienced as electricians..

While in need of a job in 2005, I fell back again into wiring houses as an apprentice electrician -learning a trade is forever a wonderful thing.

While I'm mostly a heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration technician by experience and choice, I'm finding that work as an electrician is not nearly so against my grain as I'd once thought, and the job I took literally landed in my lap as the Summer ended. Quite naturally, when one is an electrician he or she is involved with powering an air conditioner or heater, and conversely, when one is involved in HVAC, one must forever be cognizant of electricity, and furthermore, plumbing, as an air conditioner produces a lot of condensate water.

Electricians

I'm totally for cute young women becoming electricians....for several reasons, actually.

Much more common - the male electrician.

About The Apprentice Electrician's Licence

In 2005 when I went to work for the Fall and Winter as an apprentice electrician, that time was the first in which I was officially working in that capacity. What do I mean? I mean I had to get an apprentice electrician's license.

Before then - there was no license needed for the job, and today, it is the exact same thing - one needs no license to actually do the job; the "license" is NOT a license at all. What a "license" actually is - is a certificate received for having demonstrated knowledge or skill - but the apprentice electrician's license is ONLY a certificate received for having paid the state of Texas twenty dollars cash.

While I have no idea if the other 49 states of the USA or the provinces of Canada require money exchanged so government can hand over something called a "license" for someone to do manual labor or not, that is the exact thing done here in Texas.

With a cursory search of the term "apprentice electrician" and the powers of Google, I found this one link that looked pretty good, but this one concerns California. The job of an electrician is something that isn't going to be much different anywhere in the world - there is the job itself, and then there are only the legalities and codes for getting the job done.

So What Does An Apprentice Electrician Do?

Simply put, the job of an electrician is labor intensive. It can be hard work, and it is often repetitive busy work - especially at the entry level. Personally, I've never been involved with electrical service work as an electrician. I am primarily an hvac service technician, and there really is a lot of differences between the job of a service electrician and an hvac serviceman.

Growing up, my father owned a business called Shaw Services - and my father is a Master electrician who's had that license over forty years now. Primarily, as Texas has always been a booming place, my dad's company installed the electrical service, wiring, lights, etc, in new homes. Both of my father's brothers also did the exact same thing, as did their brother in law, their father - and virtually every male in the family.

My family of electricians always made their living wiring houses and small businesses, and lots of apartment complexes. The work is done on construction sites, so it is dirty work, and it is hard work, but with the right frame of mind, the work isn't unpleasant. One can find that doing such work whips them into a nice physical condition, as the electrician in the building of buildings is forever up and down a ladder, and carrying loads of this and that here and there.

Literally, a body can get itself into pretty good shape doing the grunt work of an apprentice electrician. Going up and down a ladder all day pulling Romex wires through the rafters of a home under construction is a lot of exercise. Work hard, get fit, get paid a bit. I've convinced myself here lately that I'm getting paid to exercise.

Of course there is a lot more to the job I'm doing than just the pulling and installing of wires, but that is certainly the most physically demanding thing. When all the wire installing is done, then one must return to the building or home under construction a bit later on when the entire project is nearer completion, and install all the plugs, switches, and lights.

Building ceiling fans is another thing, which can be somewhat interesting, as there are surely hundreds upon hundreds of designs for ceiling fans, and they do not come from the distributor house ready to hang on the ceiling, they have to be put together, as do a lot of the fancier light fixtures.

Installing all these things is one thing, and of course the goal is forever to get it right the first time, but then there is also the reality that determines that sometimes things get damaged in the construction process, or were never done correctly to begin with - so just before a home or business is ready to be used and occupied towards its intended purpose, things must be made to work that did not work. It is all, of course, very real work.

Tools For The Trade - Electrician's Tool Belts

There is simply no way around it, anyone wishing to be an electrician must have a tool belt, or a tool pouch with a belt through it to wear around the waist. In the field of HVAC, nobody carries their tools on a belt because they generally have no clue what tools will actually be needed until they arrive at a job - but the electrician's job is rather different. The electrician tends to know what he will be doing pretty exactly from day to day, and especially in the field of construction - and the electrician knows he needs tools around his waste where he can always get to them - as he needs very specific tools, and ready access to them at all times.

I myself carry a very ancient leather tool belt - with pouches on either side of the thing - and this, my friends, is important because the construction end electrician is very often up and down a ladder of various sizes, and when standing high up on a ladder one needs to be balanced. Balance is crucial to maintaining a non injured state - and so there is a two section tool pouch or tool belt - with pouches or sections for tools and materials on either side of the body, connected to the waist via the belt.

The Claw Hammer

Quite literally, some days the claw or carpenter's hammer is in my hands more than just about anything else. On the construction end of the electrician's job, nobody but the actual carpenters are swinging hammers around more. Very often, the framing carpentry crew will be present at the same time as the rough in electricians, and so the cacophony of banging combined with pneumatic nail guns, can be rather intense.

What the electrician needs a hammer for are multiples of tasks too great to enumerate on here, but suffice it to say, wires must be secured to the wooden frames of buildings, and so too must the boxes or pans that lights, plugs, switches, and fans mount to.

Wire Strippers, Side Cutting Lineman's Pliers, and Needle Nose Pliers

Electricians are so obviously persons dealing with electrical wiring it goes without saying, but I've here said it once more - and utilizing such wiring towards and end always involves connecting the wires - which is mostly a very simple task, but one that is most often done by using many tools, and none more or less important than the actual wire strippers used to strip away the protective insulation that keeps a home safe - and in order to connect the circuitry.

There is more to it than that, of course, as also a pair of lineman pliers or "side cutters" must be used to properly and effectively twist together the stripped wires; and then this new electrical wiring connection must be protected anew with what is often referred to as a "scotch lock," or a "wire nut."

Often are the times when coarse copper wires are in places where they are hard to get to, to manipulate towards the end of providing an electrical service, and often in such times, ye old needle nose pliers are needed to fish out, pull out, bring forth the wires for stripping, cutting, twisting, and connecting.

Screwdrivers - You Have To Have Them

In my life the only jobs I've had that didn't involve screwdrivers all involved wearing a suit and a tie, and even then I often got home and had to use some screwdrivers to do something or another. Lets face it, practically everyone on the planet at some point or another is going to need some screwdrivers, and the electrician's apprentice most certainly needs several.

I don't suppose I need to go into much detail here about the kinds of screwdriver, and what they are used for, but suffice it to say there are flat heads and Philips head screwdrivers that must be had and used virtually every work day, and I do mean of various sizes too.

A little note here about Klein Tools - my thoughts are they are the best hand tools of any and all varieties that I've ever seen or used, and so I do endorse Klein Tools. Craftsman Tools are also very good tools, and there are other brands too, of course. With Klein or Craftsman, one has a lifetime guarantee on those, and if one breaks, it can be replaced. They do cost some money to buy, and this is because those brands make tools worth having.

If you are in a pinch and need to rustle up some hand tools on the cheap - then you can always search the local pawn shop.

Now despite how awesome is the Klein Ten In One screwdriver, you won't be able to get by with just that, as you will sometimes need a screwdriver with a longer "neck" on the thing.

For some jobs the newer style "cabinet tip screwdrivers" with the swivel - those things are marvelous, I don't own one, as I tend to stick to more traditional tools - but one of those is sure on my shopping list.

Additional Tools Needed For The Apprentice Electrician

Now it is important to know here that generally speaking, the apprentice electrician won't be expected to have every tool in the world, as the job foreman will have them, and will let you know what he expects you to have for the types of jobs you will be doing, but what I am hoping to provide here are the fundamental tools - as these are tools that will be used by any electrician of any degree of skill of license regardless of it all, and most handyman types are going to have these things around anyway.

If you don't know just what "Romex" wire is, then let me assure you - you will become intimately familiar with it, and in order to access the wiring to even put the wire strippers on what wires need connecting, one much have a VERY sharp knife to cut the outer levels of protective insulation away, and for this, the traditional box cutter razor knife is the absolute best tool imaginable.

Now Klein tools does make an electricians knife especially for this job, but my opinion is that it is an inferior tool to the razor knife or box cutter, simply because with a razor blade knife - one merely needs replace the razor blade from time to time, and not ever worry about sharpening a dulling blade.

"Dykes" or "diagonal cutting pliers," are another absolutely essential tool for all electricians, and their entire purpose in life is to cut wires of various thickness with ease, and precision.

Tape measures - you just won't get far in the electrical field without one! Electricians are forever measuring distances from walls to determine where to cut or drill holes, or where to nail up cut pieces of two by fours for the hanging of light fixtures, and fans, and the appropriate boxes used to install them and their wiring.

Lastly, when it comes to light fixtures, and especially in homes - those things must be level, lest they become an eyesore, and jobs done right are the jobs a worker can be proud of having done. So a simple torpedo level is something that any electrician's tool pouch needs to have in it

That Would Be Me, An Electrician

Me

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Adrian Beltre - Headed for the Hall of Fame

Baseball is definitely a team sport, and of course all sports are entertainment. We don't hear so much about team sport players as individuals being entertainers, but with Beltre, you're talking about a guy who always acted like the spotlight was on him.

If you paid attention to him, and him alone, what you'd see was someone who loved the game he played as much as it could be loved. Always smiling. Always being a clown. Always performing at an exceptional level. No doubt he's going to the Hall of Fame. That may as well be settled already. What a great player he was! 

Adrian Beltre, a No Doubt Hall of Fame Player

Adrian Beltre - the best defensive 3rd baseman in Major League Baseball

I jumped up and down the day I read the Texas Rangers had got Adrian Beltre to come to the team. Quite literally, the team's history will record my excited jumping up and down to be in accord with the results. It isn't something that comes off the lips as odd to say it, but at the time it wasn't a given, but here goes: Adrian Beltre is a future major league baseball hall of famer.

People are calling Adrian names these days, they call him a freak of nature very often now. Outside the context of major league baseball, if someone calls you or anyone a 'freak of nature,' then it is usually an insult. Inside the context of Major League Baseball? Well, Nolan Ryan was the other guy we in Texas call by that phrase. Adrian is a hall of fame player, no doubts over here. He's a freak of nature.

So Adrian Beltre is one of the best defensive third basemen in baseball history. Everyone knows this. He's also a power hitter who can hit for high average, and comes through in the clutch situations as if he lives for them. He does live for those situations, of course. Adrian Beltre isn't playing baseball to make big money, he's playing baseball because he absolutely loves the game of baseball. You can't fake love. Everyone can see Beltre's love of the game when he's on the field. That love is returned to him in kind by the adoration of the fans, the respect of the team from the front office to the bat boy; and of course, through those big paychecks.

A young Adrian Beltre

Adrian Beltre was a sure pick prospect from a very young age

Adrian Beltre started his professional baseball career at a very very young age. In fact, it wasn't legal at all to draft a fifteen year old boy into professional sports, but it happened. You can't blame young Adrian, he was pursuing his dreams, and we are all very pleased with this in the end, it just wasn't legal at the time, or at this time either. The illegal act didn't go unnoticed or unpunished; and of course, Beltre wasn't punished, he was a child. The Los Angeles Dodgers scouting program was banned from scouting in the Dominican Republic for one year over the situation. It was still likely worth it to them.

Adrian was very very thin when he was signed by the Dodgers. He only weighed one hundred and thirty pounds, but again, he was fifteen years old. What abilities did the scouts from Los Angeles see in young Adrian? Well, despite his size, he already had a very very quick bat swing, and a very strong and accurate throwing arm. Just four years after an illegal signing of a 15 year old boy, Adrian Beltre would be a 19 year old man and debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a major league third baseman.

Adrian Beltre -Master of defense for the Los Angeles Dodgers

At the time, Adrian Beltre was the single youngest player in the MLB

During Adrian Beltre's major league debut, and he debuted as the youngest player in the National League, he hit a two run double to tie the game in his first at bat. It would only be a few weeks later that he'd hit his first Major League home run.

Adrian got to play a little less than half a season that year, his first, with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He showed some power due to his bat speed, he was yet a skinny and very young guy. Oh his batting average wasn't terrific, but nobody expects a 19 year old playing professional sports in a foreign land to do too much. The Dodgers, and other scouts from other teams, however, they saw the potential that was there, and they watched, they waited.

Adrian Beltre takes a big cut with the Los Angeles Dodgers

Adrian Beltre and the Los Angeles Dodgers

Still just 20 years old and not with the full size of his manhood grown into as of yet, the 1999 season would see Adrian Beltre getting most of the playing time at third base, and he'd proved by then to everyone what he and his cat-like reflexes, shotgun like arm, and quick bat were capable of. It was only going to be a matter of time until the Los Angeles Dodgers were known to have the best young third baseman in the ever increasingly diverse population of Major League Baseball players in America. His quick bat allowed him to hit for a much higher average than he had shown the previous season where he'd only played a half a season. His power was impressive for what was still such a very slightly built man.

The year 2000 saw Adrian Beltre improving still. He missed some games, only appearing in one hundred and thirty eight of the possible one hundred and sixty two, but his home runs increased to 20, and his batting average rose to .290. He also drove in 85 runs.

Adrian Beltre's Big Swing

Was Adrian Beltre a steroid user?

Now the next three seasons Adrian Beltre spent with the Los Angeles Dodgers were solid seasons. He was nearly always superlative on defense. He's just much quicker with the reflexes than most humans, even most humans able to play third base in the Major Leagues. He can move to his left side and his right side further and faster than most, and he has a rocket launcher for a right handed throwing arm. He often throws off balance and still laser beams a baseball to first or second base accurately. He'd been hitting from .250 to .290, and averaging about twenty home runs, and then came the season of 2004, and following the 2004 season Beltre would be up for free agency.

Did Adrian Beltre use steroids in 2004? The answer to the question is most likely a very affirmative. In 2004 Beltre suddenly led the not just the National League in home runs, but the entire Major Leagues in home runs. He hit 48 home runs in 2004, and that was more than twice his previous best in a season. He also knocked in 121 runs, and batted for a terrific .334.

There is a very clear motivation for using steroids the season prior to becoming a free agent, and then the facts of his statistics almost certainly prove that he did use steroids that year. He's never got close to repeating those home run totals since that season, though he has managed some very good power numbers since then for other teams, and he's also hit for high batting averages since the 2004 season. Who can blame a guy for doing what a huge lot of others were doing? Everyone wants a big payout, and Adrian Beltre succeeded in getting one. He signed a five year deal with the Seattle Mariners for sixty four million dollars.

Adrian Beltre in a Seattle Mariners photo op

Adrian Beltre with the Seattle Mariners

Now Adrian Beltre has been asked point blank about whether or not he used steroids in the 2004 season, and Beltre maintains that he's never once cheated in baseball. It is possible he simply increased his performance to the level he showed in 2004 without steroids, but it is possible he cheated. In the end, nothing is ever going to be proven one way or the other, and life goes on.

Now the people in the Mariners' organization and the fans in Seattle have a right to the way they feel about things, and a lot of them were disappointed in Beltre's performance there. He didn't come close to hitting the number of home runs they thought he'd hit, but he hit a lot of doubles, drove in a fair amount of runs, and he proved that he was a legitimate three hundred hitter, as his batting average was often among the leaders of the American League during his stay there.

Adrian played four solid seasons for Seattle. His last year with the Mariners, however, wasn't so great. He'd only make it to play in one hundred and eleven games the 2009 season. Baseball is a tough sport, and involves a lot of physical work, and Adrian was injured. He'd soon leave Seattle for the Boston Red Sox.

This is the signature Adrian Beltre(With the Boston Red Sox) slugging a ball from down on one knee swing

Adrian is famous for this, and it is always a neat thing to see when it happens!

Adrian Beltre's year with the Boston Red Sox

Theo Epstein plainly stated he'd not acquired Adrian Beltre for his offensive abilities, but rather, for his amazing defensive abilities. Who wouldn't want a human vacuum cleaner over on the hot corner? Oh Adrian has led whatever league he was playing in in errors before, but this is mostly deceptive, as Adrian is forever able to put a glove on a ball that lesser third basemen wouldn't have been able to touch. So in essence, sometimes Beltre gets an error simply for being better than the rest, i.e., getting his glove into a play other men wouldn't have been able to.

Adrian had a terrific year with the Red Sox, he led the team with a nice and high .321 batting average. He tied David Ortiz for the team lead in runs batted in, and he led the entire Major Leagues in doubles. Adrian is built like a horse, he's only five feet eleven inches tall, but he weighs two hundred and twenty very very solid pounds. He broke ribs of two different Red Sox outfielders that season in collisions while chasing a ball.

Another of Adrian Beltre's famous 'knee shots' with our Texas Rangers

Usually when Beltre goes down on one knee he's hitting a curve ball, and hitting it far.| Source

Adrian Beltre, Captain of the Texas Rangers

Now I'm a North Texan, and I'm a lifelong Texas Rangers fan. To me, Adrian Beltre will always be a Texas Ranger, and there's no doubt the front office of the team wants Adrian to play in Texas with the Rangers until he retires. He's our team captain, and as is so often said, the beating heart of our team. Adrian Beltre has been such a staple at third base for our Texas Rangers I literally had to look up who'd been playing the position before him. It was a forgettable person, I assure you. Beltre's presence is unforgettable, and how can anyone replace a guy like Beltre?

He's the most loved and respected member of our team. That's saying a lot, we've got people like Josh Hamilton, Prince Fielder, and Cole 'Hollywood' Hamels, just to name a few. Beltre is the team captain, and he's now being called a freak of naturebecause he can seemingly perform even better when he's playing with a painful injury. How does he do that? Beltre, I think, just likes to show people how much of a man he really is.

Beltre has hit 30 or more home runs in three different seasons with the Rangers. He has hit for an average of over .300 three different years with the Rangers, and twice he's knocked in more than a hundred runs. His dazzling defense brings back, to us, memories of the great Buddy Bell. Adrian lives for the highlight reels, and Beltre has been our most clutch player in the field and at bat since Rusty Greer.

Adrian Beltre seems to live to play baseball. You can easily see this isn't some job to him, he's not playing for the money, he's being paid very very well, but you can't really fake the sort of joy you see from Adrian on the field in most every game, even when he's playing hurt, as he so very often does. Adrian is a guy who could make the Baseball Hall Of Fame for his defense alone, but he's got over 400 home runs now, and some years left to play. He wins golden gloves and other fielding awards regularly, and makes it all seem so damned easy that it can be either inspiring or discouraging to anyone wanting to become a third baseman at any level of play. He's so inspiring that it doesn't seem possible the Texas Rangers would have made it close to that world series they went to without Beltre, much less any of the other playoff spots they earned. The man will literally risk an injury to his testicles by not wearing a cup just so he can be more flexible on the field - that's dedication, and talent can never be faked. Going into 2016 we've got Adrian at full health, and the Texas Rangers are set to race to the playoffs, Adrian Beltre will be smiling most of the way, and remember, if you think you're going to touch his head, you'd better be Elvis Andrus. Thanks for reading.

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