SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Justin Verlander made his major-league debut for the Tigers in the back half of a doubleheader on July 4, 2005.
What was Verlander’s new Giants teammate, Hayden Birdsong, doing on that day?
“Probably watching some ‘Blues Clues,’ maybe?” Birdsong said. “Or playing with Hot Wheels. I definitely wasn’t watching baseball. Might’ve been playing T-ball, though.”
Birdsong, the youngest pitcher in Giants camp this spring, was a few weeks away from his fourth birthday when Verlander threw his first major-league pitch. Giants left-hander Kyle Harrison, who is 18 days older than Birdsong, said a typical day for him in 2005 probably involved toddling or playing with toy blocks.
“And this guy was already pitching in the big leagues, right?” said Harrison, glancing across the Giants spring clubhouse at Verlander’s locker. “He’s lived longer in a baseball uniform than I have on this earth. It’s nuts to think about. That’s why I’m going to be listening to everything he has to say.
“I was one of the first guys to see him yesterday. He said, ‘I’m Justin,’ and I was like, ‘You do not need to introduce yourself.’”
The Giants set up spring lockers for 35 pitchers when camp opened on Wednesday. For most of them, besides the typical first-day-of-school anxieties of deciding what to wear to the ballpark or whom to choose as a catch partner, there was an additional layer: Determining the right time to introduce themselves to Verlander.
“Seems like he’s getting a little flooded by everything right now,” closer Ryan Walker said. “Today might not be the best day.”
Verlander greets catcher Patrick Bailey after his bullpen session. (Suzanna Mitchell / San Francisco Giants / Getty Images)
Walker was nine in 2005 and assumes he has a few Verlander rookie cards in his baseball card collection. Sean Hjelle would’ve been an 8-year-old growing up in Minnesota who looked forward to two things: recess and playing tennis baseball with his buddies in a local cul-de-sac. Tristan Beck had just turned nine and played so much MLB on his PlayStation that he memorized every MLB roster. Tyler Rogers, who has been in the Giants organization longer than any current player, was a 14-year-old “probably full of acne and braces” on the day that Verlander debuted.
And what about Buster Posey, a likely future Hall of Famer who retired following a 12-year playing career and now runs the Giants as their president of baseball operations? Where was he when Verlander broke into the big leagues?
“Hmmm … senior year, high school,” Posey said.
Posey knew he’d given baseball everything he had between the lines after a dozen seasons. He said he couldn’t fathom what it’d take to keep competing after 20 years.
“It’s a different level he’s at and we’re lucky to have him here, we really are,” Posey said. “No. 1, I think he’s going to be really good for us. Then for our younger pitchers to watch him every day, it’s invaluable.”
For Verlander, who turns 42 on Feb. 20, every pitcher in camp qualifies as a younger pitcher. And that includes a 33-year-old locker mate who required no introductions. Robbie Ray already took care of that when he arrived in the major leagues with the Tigers in 2014 and became teammates with Verlander, who already owned six All-Star appearances, four top-5 finishes in Cy Young balloting including one win, and an AL MVP award.
“He was already fully established and on his way to a Hall of Fame career,” said Ray, who appeared in nine games as a 22-year-old with the Tigers in 2014 and was traded to Arizona after the season. “I remember in 2014, we’re sharing lockers in the same room, and I was like, ‘Man, I’ve been watching this guy since I was a kid.’ And now here we are 10 years later in the same room again. Coming full circle, it’s fun to be in this position and see where we’re at and how far we’ve come in the last 20 years.”
A decade ago, Ray was a young pitcher hoping to learn by observing how Verlander goes about his business. Now Ray is a 32-year-old Cy Young winner with 10 years of service time. And Verlander is still going about his business.
“This guy’s a future Hall of Famer and he’s still trying to get better each and every day,” Ray said. “It’s a testament to the hard work he’s put in and the dedication of taking care of his body. He’s going to pitch until he can’t pitch anymore. He’s got that Nolan Ryan mindset — pitch until the wheels fall off — and it’s definitely inspiring.”
When the Giants called to gauge Verlander’s interest in December, they heard all the right things from his representatives. But Posey hoped to make a more personal assessment. So he and Verlander connected over the phone.
“It was evident to me how motivated he is still,” Posey said. “There’s a reason you have to be almost out-of-your mind motivated to do what he’s done and come back from injuries time and time again. Honestly, it was in his tone of voice as much as anything. You can just tell sometimes. The enthusiasm was all there.”
The enthusiasm was palpable among the rest of the pitchers in camp on Wednesday. Ray, Rogers, Beck, and Spencer Bivens sat at Verlander’s lunch table on Wednesday and listened to his conversation with Logan Webb about some of the near-miss Cy Young seasons they’ve had. Right-hander Kai-Wei Teng approached Verlander after the workout and asked to snap a selfie with him. Other pitchers acknowledged that they plan to make a few autographs requests once Verlander settles in. What they are really after, though, is knowledge that can help them extend their own careers.
“All those little things that are just a natural part of his routine, things he’s acquired over the course of the career, probably half of it will be mind-opening experiences for us,” Hjelle said. “It’s just a 9-to-5 thing for him and we’ll all be sitting here thinking, ‘I’ve never thought of that. That’s incredible.’ It could be literally anything. Who knows? It could be how he ties his shoes. I’m just excited to pick up on those small things and learn. He’s forgotten more than I know.”
Including some unwanted lessons over the past two seasons as Verlander tried to compete through neck and shoulder injuries.
“Unfortunately, it took getting hurt to realize it,” said Verlander, who had a 5.48 ERA in 17 starts for the Astros last year and wasn’t a candidate for their postseason roster. “I think for most of the guys in this room and for some of the best athletes in the world, your greatest blessing is your ability to compensate. But it’s also your biggest curse, because you don’t know something’s wrong until something breaks. So even with all the work and maintenance I do for my body, I didn’t realize that there was an issue until it happened. The only thing you can do is use the new information that you have and point you in a new direction.
“(After) that whole neck thing, I have to reevaluate my whole body and posture and everything and … it kind of leads you down a path.
“Now I’m moving more fluid like I did in the past. I see some of the mechanical issues that I had last year that I wasn’t able to fix, and it’s so crystal clear to me now why I had them. I had limitations that I couldn’t work around. … Now that I’m moving more the way I want, I’m excited to see how that translates to the mound. The benefits I’ve already I’ve seen in my bullpen sessions have been phenomenal. So I’m the most optimistic I’ve been in a few years.”
Verlander made sure to address one issue right away after arriving in Scottsdale on Tuesday. He met with Giants manager Bob Melvin and apologized for running a buzzsaw through his AL West-champion Oakland A’s in the AL Division Series.
“I won’t tell you what I told him,” Melvin said. “But there’s a ton of respect for what he’s done and some pretty dramatic games that he’s pitched against teams I’ve had. So it’s nice to have him on our side.
“Just watching some of the video this spring, he looks like pretty much the same guy. All the internal numbers, the vert and the velos and stuff like that, throwing bullpens, it’s all been really good. He feels fully healthy right now. He’s just one of those guys that defies Father Time and has done it for a long time. Part of it is who he is as a pitcher. He certainly should have confidence based on his career and it’s unwavering as far as what he feels he can do on a baseball field.
“We’re really counting on him. He knows it.”
This is Verlander’s first Arizona spring training. (Suzanna Mitchell / San Francisco Giants / Getty Images)
Even 42-year-old future inner-circle Hall of Famers can experience a fresh start. For Verlander, it involves a new team and a new complex. It’s his first spring training experience in Arizona, so he’s looking forward to exploring the restaurant scene.
But there are familiar touchstones. He smiled when it was mentioned that each of his major-league teams have orange in their color scheme, saying that his wife, Kate Upton, “still gets to wear some of her fun colored purses.”
And Verlander gets to wear his familiar No. 35 after receiving a blessing from Brandon Crawford, the most accomplished shortstop in franchise history, who recently announced his retirement. Crawford acknowledged to Verlander that he expected his number wouldn’t be reissued so quickly, but he “couldn’t imagine a better situation to see it again.”
“I very much respect Brandon, the organization, what he was able to accomplish here, and I just wanted to make sure I went about it the right way,” Verlander said. “We had a great conversation. But even after I got his blessing, I was still kind of on the fence.”
Then Verlander said his mind went to a comment that Posey made after they were in agreement on a one-year, $15 million contract — a deal that will allow Verlander to join Alex Rodríguez as the only MLB players to bank over $400 million in career earnings. Wouldn’t it be something, Posey said, if Verlander won his 300th game in a Giants uniform? Given that Verlander is 38 wins from that milestone, it’d probably take three healthy seasons to get there. But when you’ve pitched in the big leagues for two decades, you know to never say never.
“That stuck in my head,” Verlander said. “What if that happens? And if that happens, I can’t see myself wearing any number other than 35.”
Unless he watches highlights of his July 4 debut two decades ago. The Tigers, tasked with playing six games in five days, had called up Verlander make a spot start at Cleveland. For only the first two appearances of his career, he was issued No. 59.
But other than Verlander, who’s still around to remember a detail like that?
(Top photo: Suzanna Mitchell / San Francisco Giants / Getty Images)
