Forget Mitt Romney or President Obama -- Washington’s biggest winner on Wednesday was President Teddy Roosevelt. But even he doesn’t wear the nation’s crown. That would be Detroit third baseman Miguel Cabrera, who actually has all three.

Teddy ended his 525-race losing streak with a Phillies-aided victory in the Presidents Race (video above) during the Nationals' regular-season finale.



Cabrera ended an even longer drought -- 45 years. He led the American League with 44 home runs, 139 RBIs and a .330 average to become the first major leaguer since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 to win the Triple Crown.

Id like to congratulate @miguelcabrera on a truly amazing feat! This is a great day for you, the city and team of Detroit, and baseball fans

— Barry Sanders (@BarrySanders) Oct. 4

Yastrzemski congratulated Cabrera in a statement issued through Major League Baseball. "I am glad that he accomplished this while leading his team to the American League Central title," he said.

I don't know him but I give pros where pros is due. Congrats to @miguelcabrera on getting the #TripleCrown #45YearDrought #Amazing

— LeBron James (@KingJames) Oct. 4

It has been a great season, I want to thank God, my fans, family and @tigers teammates, can’t wait for the postseason #tigers

— Miguel Cabrera (@MiguelCabrera) Oct. 4

Back in Washington, Teddy defeated George Washington, Abe Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson during the Presidents Race held during the fourth inning of each Nationals home game. It was his first win since the races began in 2005. Teddy took the victory after a faux Philadelphia Phillies mascot sprinted on the field and took out the competition.

Huge congrats 2 NY’s own @teddy26nats for pulling out the win during the “presidential race’ today! ow.ly/ecffY

— Chuck Schumer (@ChuckSchumer) Oct. 3

#Teddy won! #Teddy won! #Teddy won! We've defeated the massive left wing conspiracy!

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) Oct. 3

Scott Ableman, a self-described "huge Nationals fan," has been chronicling Teddy's efforts in his "Let Teddy Win" blog, with help from several other Nats fans, since 2007.

"It's been a long wait, it was worth the effort," Ableman told Playbook on Thursday. "The current phenomenon is now a past phenomenon."

Teddy's win no doubt served as inspiration as third baseman Ryan Zimmerman homered in the Nationals' first at-bat after the victory, and was followed by consecutive doubles from Michael Morse and Tyler Moore. The Nationals won 5-1 and clinched home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs.

What's next for "Let Teddy Win"? "I've gotten that question 500 times. Nothing changes as far as I'm concerned except we're celebrating Teddy's victory instead of lobbying for it. As long as people want to keep reading about it, I'll still write about it."

Many suspected Teddy's victory was in the works. "As the day went on it became clearer and clearer that the Nats were going to let Teddy win," Ableman said. "A lot of people were shocked when it actually happened."

Elsewhere:

• Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban lights it up in the latest "Gangnam Style" sports-based parody video trending on YouTube:



• The Boston Globe reports that Curt Schilling may have to sell his famous "bloody sock" from the 2004 American League playoffs due to his current financial problems.

• There's no NHL hockey anywhere on the horizon, but singer Michael Buble suited up in Vancouver to tape a scene for an upcoming holiday show:

From michaelbuble via Instagram

Michael tapes a segment for his NBC Christmas special today in Vancouverinstagr.am/p/QVIW7FpS-H/

— Michael Bublé (@michaelbuble) Oct. 3

If you see any offbeat links from your favorite sports site or catchy tweets that might be of interest to others, pass them along to me @billsperos or to bsperos1@gmail.com.