Then he floats a question out of nowhere: "You do archery?"

IT'S A WARM winter day in Fort Lauderdale, two weeks after the Detroit trip, and Cabrera is staring down a synthetic deer at Bass Pro Shops. He lifts his compound bow and lets the carbon-fiber arrow fly.

Thwap.

It hits the deer's "kill zone." If it were real, it'd be dead. "Mejor," Cabrera says. He's happy.

The itinerary for our two days together is vague but includes a lunchtime interview, dinner with the Cabrera family and archery, Cabrera's latest hobby. He used to play golf. He didn't enjoy golf because he is a terrible golfer. Miggy is a great archer. Miggy loves archery.

"He's a great kid," manager Jim Leyland says. Andrew Kaufman for ESPN

As Dombrowski put it, "Miguel doesn't like toand he thinks too much as it is. "My wife says I don't listen when she talks," he'll explain, "but when people talk, I'm in my own world. I think, always thinking."

Cabrera doesn't overthink his archery. He picked up the sport last year, because hunting is a pastime of his kin, and kept at it because he found it relaxing. In November he spent the tense hours prior to the MVP announcement at this range with his agent of more than six years, Diego Bentz, who is with us this day to serve as communication facilitator and protector. But things are going well. I'd even surprised Cabrera earlier with my choppy but excellently pronounced Spanish. ("Mi espanol es baser.") He seemed confused, so I explained: I acquired English