OT: Verlander is Legend

Submitted by stephenrjking on

The state of Michigan has a curious relationship with its professional sports stars. We've had our share of greats, but our loyalty to them has only a partial correlation to their raw athletic talent. 

Many of our favorites are guys who are great team players with great work ethics. Big stars are good, and big achievements are important, but if you're humble and do your job and succeed Michigan will love you. The 2004 Pistons are a great example of this--no stars, but beloved by everybody. 

We love Steve Yzerman. Not just because he was a brilliant player, but because he was the captain and he played hurt and he changed his game for the god of the team. 

We love Al Kaline. Not the greatest player of his time, but a great player who stuck with the Tigers for his entire career and led them to a title.

We love Barry Sanders, who was saddled with bad teams but was transcendant as a runner and always humble.

Last night, the Tigers horribly choked away a series win in the ninth inning. After winning the first two games at home, Oakland had seized the momentum going into game 5 at home. It was awful, it was dispiriting, it was a nightmare.

It would be unbearable, but for the one man every Michigander knew could stop the bleeding: Justin Verlander.

On the road. Game five. Nine innings. No runs. Justin takes his place in the pantheon of all-time Michigan sports greats.

Verlander is legend.

BraveWolverine730

October 12th, 2012 at 1:58 AM ^

Did the OT tag fool you? Were you expecting a thread about a different Verlander the same night he threw a complet game shut out to win the series? There are plenty of other sports team fans here (see my avatar for one example), but the majority are Detroit sports fans and would like to occasionally discuss their team.

StephenRKass

October 12th, 2012 at 6:27 AM ^

The reality is, this blog has far more partisans from the State of Michigan than elsewhere, and as such, Detroit's pro teams will always get more coverage. Really, it would be more of an issue if the Lions and Pistons were also good. As it is, the Tigers are it this year, other than maybe the Red Wings, a bit.

teamgreg8

October 12th, 2012 at 1:49 AM ^

JV blew the doors off this game and I think it'll inspire the rest of the rotation. I guess we can only hope that's the case since we'll be leaning on the rest of the starters to keep us in contention with the ALCS.

Also, I was surprised to see Verlander hitting 97 (98?) in the 2nd inning when normally that's saved for later in the game. All's well that ends well.

Finally, I'm really glad to see one of the Bay Area teams out of the post season. I grew up in San Jose and it's comical to see people switching between Niners, Sharks, Giants, and now the A's. Whoever's hot gets a big old bandwagon.

goblue1213

October 12th, 2012 at 2:51 AM ^

How many pitchers have a lower opponent BA as the game goes on? I always remember pitchers getting roughed up more the 2nd-3rd time through the lineup. I do agree he belongs near the top of the Detroit pantheon. 2 names I associate in that top group too that haven't been mentioned are Chauncey Billups and Calvin. Chauncey was the go to guy the year they one the title. He was the one you wanted to have the ball. Calvin showed what he was last year in a couple of those comebacks. TD catch in triple coverage vs Cowboys comes to mind.

SanFrancisco_W…

October 12th, 2012 at 3:14 AM ^

Verlander is nasty. Absolutely, 100%, no doubt about it. I'm an Indians fan, so I really had no vested interest in this series other than my inner division hatred of the Tigers. That said, I would have liked to see the A's get a real home field advantage in this series. Granted they got three games at home, but I think it would have been interesting to start the series across the Bay.



I don't want to sound like I'm griping, because I'm not. I think the same could go for the Reds to be honest. I guess I just think that playing at home to start a series is a HUGE benefit. The A's had to be mentally drained tonight. Having to sweep the Rangers to win the division and then heading on the road to start a series with Detroit as their "reward" would have sucked.



I guess I'm just bitter because the Bay Area fell in love with both the A's and Giants this postseason. The A's were an amazing story. I don't want to take anything away from JV, he's a freak of nature, but the odds seemed stacked against the A's.



Congrats to the Tigers, of course, but I think I may become an O's/Giants fan from here on out.

His Dudeness

October 12th, 2012 at 8:20 AM ^

Will be the certified best pitcher of his generation (10 years).

And he is humble or at least he seems to be. The reason I hate Valverde is because he is exactly the opposite. Valverde is the dramatic, look at me, screaming and carrying on player I dislike on opposing teams. I mean look at AL AL, you see that kid carrying on? No. Does Benpoit do a little dance when he strikes a guy out? No. Just do your job. Collect your pay. Crack an occasional wise and I am ok with you as a Detroit athlete. The recipe isn't difficult.

Blue boy johnson

October 12th, 2012 at 9:49 AM ^

Love Valverde, love anybody who owns their mistakes and doesn't hideaway ,such as Coco Crisp after game 2, Jose Valverde after game 4, Denard Robinson after ND game.

Did you see Valverde chompin' on a big ol' victory cigar last night. Classic Valverde.

This is from the Central Division clincher; Still looking for one from last night. Cabby and Valverde with victory cigars. Need to see this twice more this postseason

 

 

French West Indian

October 12th, 2012 at 12:56 PM ^

Or is winning a division series really even worthy of the champagne treatment?

I can sort of understand it for clinching a division (especially if it's been a long time) and it can make sense too when clinching the League pennant (i.e. getting into the World Series) but for a normal playoff round it seems excessive.

I can't think of any other sport where teams break out into party just for winning a playoff round.  In fact, I seem to recall instances where teams specifically didn't celebrate at all because it was just one more step on the path to the big goal.

jmblue

October 12th, 2012 at 4:06 PM ^

I agree - it's a little strange.  But then, baseball is weird in a lot of ways.  Can you imagine a football coach wearing the team uniform on the sidelines?

bacon1431

October 12th, 2012 at 4:18 PM ^

I think it stems from how baseball was set up for so long. You had to win your league to get to the World Series. That was a HUGE deal. So they celebrated. Then they went to two divisions in each league with one more playoff round before the WS. It was still a HUGE deal to win your division and qualify for the playoffs. So they celebrated both winning the division and advancing to the WS. Then they went to the three division + wildcard format. People were just used to celebrating. So they did.

I do like it though. It's a quirky semi-modern tradition that makes baseball unique. Making the postseason is still sacred in baseball (even with the second wildcard) because unlike basketball and hockey, half the teams don't qualify for the playoffs.

True Blue Grit

October 12th, 2012 at 8:24 AM ^

performance by a pitcher last night I've seen.  JV completely shut down the A's on their raucous home field.  The guy is absolutely amazing.  If we had 4 of him, we'd never have to watch Valverde again!  Go Tigers!

saveferris

October 12th, 2012 at 8:37 AM ^

JV took a huge step towards carving himself a place on the Detroit Sporting Legend Mount Rushmore with last night's performance.  He's the best pitcher I've ever seen in a Tigers uniform, Jack Morris included.

JeepinBen

October 12th, 2012 at 8:45 AM ^

But last night I had to stay up and watch most of this. Verlander is the rare type of talent where I'll get to tell my kids/grandkids that "I saw him pitch".

There aren't too many athletes who check that box for me (the biggest one being Jordan) but JV is one of them. I didn't care about the game (again, Cubs fan. Baseball ended in March this year) and I wasn't watching to see who won. I watched to see him pitch.

LSAClassOf2000

October 12th, 2012 at 8:52 AM ^

Watching the game last night as I was, that seemed to me to be one of the best nights to be a Tiger fan ever. This ALDS overall, Verlander's performance has been superb, but he more or less owned Oakland outright last night.

Between games 1 and 5, 2-0, 16 IP, 0.56 ERA with seven hits allowed, one run, five walks and best of all, twenty-two strikeouts (11 in both games). Thus far, an excellent postseason for JV and hopefully this gives us some momentum going into the ALCS.

saveferris

October 12th, 2012 at 8:58 AM ^

We love Al Kaline. Not the greatest player of his time, but a great player who stuck with the Tigers for his entire career and led them to a title.

Al Kaline is "Mr. Tiger" and a legendary player to be sure, but he really didn't "stick" with the Tigers his entire career. With the Reserve Clause in place, no baseball player before the mid-70s had any choice as to what team they played for. Kaline was a Tiger for his whole career because he was a great baseball player and the organization had no reason to trade him or replace him.

This is not to say that Al doesn't belong on the mountaintop of Detroit Sports Legends, but it's moot to imply loyalty to an organization for any baseball player of that era.