The Blue Workhorse

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Break is great for many reasons.

Getting to see the collection of baseball legends along with the current stars on the field at Yankee stadium was a truly special moment.

In addition to the festivities, I have always enjoyed the game itself. Watching stud pitchers give maximum effort for an inning, both leagues assembling a numbers-packed studly lineup, and the overall atmosphere of the game is a great treat midway through the baseball season.

Another great reason for the game: we all get a break from fantasy baseball. A mental break is nice from the leagues we have been keeping up with since late April.

Since we have one-more day of the All-Star Break, I want to give some props to players who brought the wood, and others who fell off the baseball map:

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In 2005, the Chicago White Sox walked away as World Series champions after sweeping the Houston Astros. The following season, the Detroit Tigers fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Then last year, the Cleveland Indians fell in the ALCS to the eventual champs, the Boston Red Sox.

This season, however, hope abounds for each of the division rivals in the American League Central. The Indians look to move past the championship series for the first time since 1995 and are hoping they can get a World Series title on the 60 year anniversary of their last title in 1948.

Detroit, who was the pre-season pick of several analysts to win the World Series, now will have to dig themselves out of an 0-6 start to their season if they want to make it back to the promised land of the October (now partly November) Classic. The White Sox just finished off a sweep of the Tigers and are hoping a rejuvenation to the heart of their lineup can return them to the 90 win plateau they have abandoned the past two seasons.

Opening Day is one of the most glorious days in sports, despite the fact that MLB tried to ruin it by having an opening series in Japan and then by having a one game series (yea, that’s not even possible Major League Baseball - a series means multiple) in Washington.

Now that all the teams and players have each put on the uniform for the first official games of the season, and to honor the first true day of the MLB schedule, we make initial observations on every team about what we saw on Opening Day after watching some games and examining boxscores: