The Detroit Tigers wrapped up a 4 game series against the Texas Rangers on Sunday.

Three of those games were on national TV. Yes, both teams are at the top of their respective divisions and provide some intriguing pitching matchups…but both times the Tigers have been on Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN has chosen one person to be the center of their promos for it: Miguel Cabrera. The 30 year old reigning MVP and Triple Crown Winner is in his prime and missing him play at this point of his career is missing out MLB history.

Since the 2006 World Series run, the first thing people thought about when it came to Tigers baseball was pitching. Justin Verlander is one of the only pitchers to win the Cy Young Award and MVP in the same season. There’s a phrase around Detroit that’s “Must See JV” which is an ode to his usual dominance. However, last season, as JV just kept doing his thing, the eyes of Tigers fans turned to Miggy’s bat. After having to change defensive positions to make room for Prince Fielder in the lineup, Cabrera also benefited of teams no longer pitching around him as often with Prince up next.

After the MVP vote was fairly close with Mike Trout Last year, Miggy is simply picking up where he left off in October. Just over a quarter of the way through the 2013 season, both announcers and analysts seem to think it’s a foregone conclusion that not only will he repeat as the MVP, but also expect that we’ll also see a back-to-back Triple Crown Winner. When you stop to think about it that sounds outrageous (and it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see this happen). When Carl Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown in 1967, few thought we would wait 45 years to see it again – let alone now be talking about a repeat. There are only 2 guys who’ve won it twice and it’s never happened in consecutive seasons. Yes, there is a lot of season to play still, but media’s newfound love affair with Miguel Cabrera has been years in the making.

When he first played in the majors for the Florida Marlins in 2003, he helped them win the World Series as their cleanup hitter. He has been an MVP caliber player since entering the majors at just 20 years old and has received MVP votes in each of his ten major league seasons – placing in the top five in six of those seasons. Some arguments against him for MVP were because he wasn’t doing anything much better than his pervious season – pretty crazy to be penalized for just being really good. Regardless, he’s a perennial all-star and the Tigers are fortunate enough to have him locked up on their team while he’s in his prime. Both home ballparks he’s played in are usually known as pitchers parks – but Cabrera never laments about that and just leaves fans to wonder what records would be broken now if he was hitting at Tigers Stadium instead of the spacious Comerica Park. Baseball Tonight posted a graphic last night (below) that I found very interesting. In a statistical comparison to the same point in their careers, Hank Aaron and Miguel Cabrera have amazing similar numbers. Does one really need further proof of just how good Miggy is?

Graphic From Baseball Tonight

In case you missed it, Miggy looked like a machine last night. Other MLB players were tweeting and wondering if he’s from another world. He went 4 for 4 and had 3 homeruns and 5 runs batted in (RBI’s)…yes, that’s 3 home runs in 1 game that went for an estimated total of 1,250 feet. He at the point where announcers are running out of superlatives to use when talking about his game as one last night called his performance ‘stupid good.’ This was his 27^th career multi-HR game and the 2^nd time he’s had 3 in one game. He’s leading the AL in both batting average and RBI’s by a large margin and is now only 1 homerun off leading there too (the Triple Crown). Yes, he will have slumps and some of these crazy numbers are bound to slowdown, but it’s a very impressive start to the season – especially since the numbers are so much better than last year. It’s also refreshing to see an athlete live up to the hype being made about him leading up to the game. The best part in my opinion? I’m not sure there’s anyone in baseball that smiles more than Miggy – he genuinely enjoys the sport he’s playing!

Miguel Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball. He’s likely the best player our generation will see play live – the kind of guy we’ll be telling our kids and grandkids about someday when discussing America’s pastime. He’s a player you’ll want to watch when on local TV (or visiting your ballpark) just to see what he’ll do that night. We don’t always know when we’re witnessing history take place, but the career or Miggy so far has served as a warning for us to avoid missing out on it. Enjoy what you’re seeing as a baseball fan, what you’re seeing when he comes up to bat is very special!

George Washington Carver once said, “When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” Miguel Cabrera is simply doing the same things every other MLB player goes out to do, he’s just hitting so much better than everyone else that we can’t help but stop to watch history in the making!