Now that Memorial Day has come and passed, summer has officially begun, accompanied by the heart of the schedule of America’s pasttime.

With two full months of baseball behind us, the All-Star break is little more than a month away. This season has delivered plenty of excitement for fans and promises to provide even more as the season enters the dog days of summer.

There’s a statistic that says 53 percent of teams that are in first place as of Memorial Day reach the playoffs and that number rises to 59 percent by the Fourth of July.

Heading into play May 30, there were 22-of-30 teams within eight games of first place, exhibiting the parody of talent level this season despite payroll discrepancies.

It’s true, Boston and the New York Yankees are well on their way to buying themselves into the playoffs, but the surprise Detroit Tigers are leading everyone — including last season’s World Series champs, the Chicago White Sox, and the Cleveland Indians, this year’s World Series pick by esteemed baseball analyst Peter Gammons.

Entering play May 30, the Tigers led the majors with 35 wins and a .686 winning percentage.

The St. Louis Cardinals have been equally as impressive in the NL Central as both the Cardinals and Tigers hope to march to a rematch of the 1968 World Series in which the Cardinals defeated the Tigers in seven games.

St. Louis is well on its way behind Albert Pujols, the RBI machine, who leads the ’Bigs with 64 (the next closest is Jim Thome with 49). Pujols’ 25 homers and .314 average also highlight the individual efforts to watch throughout the rest of summer as he makes an effort to attain baseball’s elusive triple crown.

This season has already displayed pursuit of some of baseball’s most historic records with Jimmy Rollins’ pursuit of Joe Dimaggio’s 56 consecutive-game hitting streak and Barry Bonds’ assault on Hank Aaron’s career home run record.

Therefore, there is much to be excited about this summer for baseball fans. Whether you have a favorite player like Bonds or Pujols or a team to watch there’s something for everyone this season.

And if nothing else, everyone can collectively hope the Yankees, baseball’s equivalent of a monopoly, miss the playoffs.