This All-Star Weekend from Big Papi to Miguel Cabrera has been all about redemption. (Photo Bill Menzel)

Anaheim CA: The All-Star Game opening ceremonies began July 15, 2010 with Amber Riley’s (of Glee notoriety) version of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” throughout which the audience was treated to a montage of portraits and special plays by this year’s group of All-Stars. We panned their smiles. We got slow motion. The heartstrings were being worked as only baseball can do. But this years opening ceremonies would have been more cogent if Amber Riley had taken a crack at Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” instead of Aguilera’s “Beautiful” because this All-Star Weekend from Big Papi to Miguel Cabrera has been all about redemption.

Miguel Cabrera’s appearance in the All-Star game is part of the powerhouse American League. (Photo Bill Menzel)

In the spirit of getting things right and back to how they should be, Miguel Cabrera’s appearance in the All-Star game, while fairly unremarkable, was most stunning in the fact that it happened at all. If you had told anyone last fall to count on Miguel Cabrera starting at first base for the powerhouse American League, they may have thrown a peanut shell at your head.

Miguel merely needed to go out there and tip his cap in intros to have succeeded in this year’s All-Star game. He has left behind an incident that may have cost the Tiger’s a post-season victory against the Twins in the first series of the playoffs last fall. He has left behind talk of selfishness, ineptness, and alcoholism and replaced it with batting titles and accomplishment.

Miguel Cabrera joins the line of AL Stars with manager Joe Girardi at the helm (Photo Bill Menzel)

The wake of October’s turbulence has subsided and in its place is a new calm. Miguel has recorded a .338 batting average punctuated by 20 homers. He leads the A.L. with a .631 slugging percentage and ranks second in RBI and on-base percentage. Pretty good for a guy who last year was spending his post season in the drunk tank waking up the next day to go 0 for 4 in the playoffs stranding six of his teammates (not to mention his wife and child). 

His single advanced a runner to third (Photo Bill Menzel)

He’s working hard to regain the respect of his teammates and to power the Detroit Tigers towards this years playoffs. He came into spring training in great shape physically. Mentally, he has shrugged off the stigma that has come from last year’s DUI and its roll in ousting the Detroit Tigers from the playoffs. The ultimate apology would be to win the World Series for his Detroit team and fans. The American League just made that goal a little more challenging for Cabrera by relinquishing home field to the National League for the first time since 1996.

All intents to rectify misdoings have to, just as his swing, have a purposeful follow through (Photo Bill Menzel)

Cabrera had one hit in the 2010 All-Star game. It was a single advancing a runner to third. He fielded a double play and quietly went about the business of baseball.

Cabrera fielded a double play and quietly went about the business of baseball.(Photo Bill Menzel)

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