- 9 hours ago
Will Verlander go down as one of your favorite Tigers?
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00:00Hey, streaky team, streaky sport. Yankees have lost 11 of 13.
00:04Our bipolar baseball team has the best record in the American League since June 1st
00:09after having the worst month in 30 years of Tiger baseball in May.
00:13That's a mojo moment right there. You lose your best hitter, arguably.
00:17And then he comes in and has really struggled this year and hits a home run.
00:22Yeah. And a big spot in the game, right? It's early.
00:26Two run shot to extend the lead to three.
00:28We know how this team's been in one-run games. Give them a little breathing room.
00:31Melton ends up throwing a career-high nine strikeouts in five-plus innings.
00:37Torek with his, what, 15th?
00:38Sure, there you go.
00:40Yeah, look, if you're going to get something from a right-handed bat, might as well be him.
00:46Look, we got some text coming in.
00:48We have audio from Verlander who made the decision yesterday this will be his last season.
00:52We'll get into legacy and how he'll be remembered and stuff like that.
00:56I think the Tigers' confidence is through the roof without having to have a dominant performance against the Phillies.
01:05Have you looked at the second half of July?
01:06The Tigers are rolling the players' no at Stan and Shelby.
01:10When it comes to the trade deadline, what record will the Tigers have to say no to trading Scooble?
01:16I'm sure they have it in their heads, how many games they're out, all this kind of stuff.
01:20I don't know what it would be.
01:22I really don't care.
01:23I think they should trade him anyway.
01:26We have audio from him as well because he wants to see this team push.
01:30Surprise, surprise.
01:31Today feels like a big swing game.
01:33You have a team like the A's reeling.
01:34A sweep here is massive if you're going to get back to 500.
01:37I think 500 is the target at the deadline if you're going to seriously be in this.
01:40Yes, the Tigers are going to win this division, aren't they, question mark?
01:45Stranger things have happened.
01:46We've seen them the last two seasons.
01:49Absolutely.
01:50Some wild swings both ways.
01:51Yeah.
01:51By the way, Minnesota has also won like seven out of their last ten like the Tigers have,
01:56and they're only two games ahead of the Tigers, I believe.
01:59What's the Red Sox?
02:00They were eight and two in their last ten before last night.
02:03I didn't see if they won.
02:04They're also in this weird wild card pod.
02:06Their rotation, by the way, is really good, too.
02:09Sometimes we live in this bubble, and I'm not trying to take away from what we've seen
02:12from this group of starting pitchers lately.
02:15The Yankees starting pitching is very good, especially when healthy.
02:18The Mariners starting pitching is very good.
02:20Boston's got four dudes with an ERA under 3-5.
02:25Still got work to do.
02:26Oh, a ton of it.
02:27Absolutely.
02:27I don't think anybody is sitting there buying their playoff tickets.
02:31No.
02:31Again, 32% chance they make the playoffs per fan graphs today.
02:35Yeah.
02:35Make sure that's the tone today.
02:37Yeah.
02:38It's going up.
02:38If they're asking me to bet, I'm going to say they're not going to do it.
02:41But whatever.
02:43Look, I'd rather have a team that's playing well and entertaining than tease us and all
02:49that stuff.
02:49Yeah.
02:50But rather than what we've gone through where it's just boring.
02:53Yeah.
02:54Actually have a team to talk about in the summertime.
02:56Yes.
02:57That's what baseball's about.
02:58Summer.
03:00Justin Verlander's retiring.
03:01This is it for him.
03:02His final season.
03:02His body's breaking down.
03:03He's going to give him what he's got.
03:04He hopes to get back on the mound.
03:05I know this city badly wants to see, even if it's just one appearance where he gets
03:10a proper send off, where he comes out to the mound.
03:13They play Eminem standing ovation, and it's a full circle moment for Verlander.
03:18And he gets out of an inning or whatever.
03:20I don't really care what happens at that point.
03:22He can get shelled.
03:22I just need to see him go out.
03:24I want to see him walk off with his moment.
03:26Okay.
03:27That'd be preferable.
03:29Yes.
03:29Yeah.
03:29Turn back time and put out one more outing for everybody to remember you.
03:33Stoney, how will he be remembered?
03:36Well, I think you see time, right?
03:38When you get to the end of it.
03:39Okay.
03:39Look, he never won a World Series.
03:41All right.
03:41Fine.
03:43I think, personally, he goes down as the greatest pitcher in Detroit Tigers history.
03:47Sorry, Jack.
03:48Sorry, Mickey Lulich.
03:51You know, Lulich has, obviously, the one, you know, 68 postseason, pitching three games
03:58in the World Series and winning.
03:59That can never be taken away.
04:01But Verlander was one of the most dominant pitchers of his era for a long period of time.
04:08I mean, not just here, but obviously in Houston.
04:11I think people should also remember him.
04:12He really didn't want to be traded.
04:14He took it down to the end, and finally, they talked him into it.
04:20Yeah.
04:21He's going to be remembered as, and I think, the greatest Tiger pitcher ever, personally.
04:29It's lofty, but I'm not fighting you on it.
04:32So, you focused on how he'll be remembered in Detroit, and I get it.
04:35We're doing a radio show in Detroit.
04:36But I think his legacy is the pitcher of his generation, the best pitcher of his generation,
04:42and the last, more importantly, the last of a dying breed.
04:46I know.
04:47The workhorse starting pitcher.
04:49Justin Verlander's the last pitcher to throw 250 innings in a season.
04:52He did it in 2011 when he won the MVP.
04:55If you go back to 2011, 39 pitchers threw at least 200 innings.
05:00Last season, only three.
05:03He is the last of that era.
05:06The bulldog, give me the ball, I'll throw nine innings.
05:10Stoney, and I say he's the best of his generation.
05:11People can argue Kershaw.
05:14Verlander has three no-hitters.
05:16Only two pitchers all time have more.
05:18He ties Kershaw in Cy Youngs with three, and MVPs with one.
05:23Verlander has more strikeouts, top 10 all time.
05:26His war is top 25 in the history of the sport.
05:29Ahead of Kershaw, to me, he's the pitcher of this generation.
05:32And although Verlander did not pitch well in the World Series for the Tigers, his postseason,
05:39I believe, is better than Kershaw.
05:41And Kershaw's had a bad postseason.
05:43He was known for that, too.
05:45Yeah.
05:45So I know it's 1A, 1B.
05:47I think some of the numbers point to JV being the face of his generation, the best pitcher
05:51of his generation, and that generation being the workhorse starting pitcher.
05:55Right.
05:55They're gone.
05:56They don't exist anymore.
05:57Exactly.
05:58If a guy throws 202 innings, they're going, I don't know about his arm.
06:03I don't know how much longer he can do this.
06:05Well, for your generation, for you growing up, he was your guy, right?
06:09Okay, so yes.
06:10If you are, so I'm 33.
06:1233, if you are in that age range, Tiger baseball, for me, was non-existent in the 90s.
06:20Non-existent in the early 2000s.
06:22There was nothing to talk about.
06:23When did the Tigers become relevant to someone who's 30 years old?
06:272006.
06:28And what was 2006?
06:29His rookie year.
06:30His rookie season.
06:31They go to the World Series.
06:32And then Zomaya, the whole thing.
06:33Yes.
06:33They come out of nowhere.
06:34But then think about it.
06:35So now I got the bug.
06:36Yeah.
06:37I'm late to the game because I didn't have a good baseball team growing up, but now I got
06:40the bug and I care about baseball.
06:42You know, at that point, I'm in middle school.
06:44It's a great time to get into baseball.
06:47I am ushered into an era of Miggie and Verlander and MVPs and division crowns and deep postseason
06:54runs and another World Series appearance in there, too.
06:57Right.
06:57And it all centers around Verlander's arrival in the city of Detroit.
07:01I owe my love of baseball in a lot of ways to Justin Verlander.
07:04Absolutely.
07:05Anytime he would pitch, what was the expression we used?
07:07Up tonight, it's must see JV.
07:09I remember getting home from, I was working like a summer job at Meijer and he was pitching
07:13against the Pirates and I'm like, I got to go home and watch because he might have
07:16a no hitter.
07:17And he almost did.
07:18That's the Josh Harrison game, I think.
07:19The Josh Harrison game.
07:20That was a Friday night.
07:21Yep.
07:22I was at some restaurant slash bar in Birmingham and the TVs were on and I wouldn't go to
07:29my seat to eat dinner because of what was going on.
07:32I think he actually, in a weird way, pitched better that game than he did in both no hitters.
07:37He was unbelievable in that game.
07:39Yeah.
07:39His first no hitter, I say I had a chance to go to, but it wasn't my call.
07:45So a good friend, his mom would always get tickets to work to some Red Wing games and
07:50Tiger games.
07:50Right.
07:51Right.
07:51And I got to go to a bunch of Red Wing games that way, but there was a chance for
07:55me to
07:55go to the game to see the Tigers.
07:58And I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm in.
07:59Let's go.
08:00And somehow someone else claimed the tickets.
08:02We didn't get to go.
08:03Well, it's very funny because that same game, I remember debating whether, you know, with
08:08our media pass to go down there to go to the game.
08:11I said, now I'm going to go the next night because I've never in all my many multiple
08:18baseball games that I've seen in my life.
08:21Never saw that.
08:22Never saw no hitter.
08:23I was at the Galarraga game, but I missed the no hitter.
08:27I got to say, I think the thing with JV for me was when he was on, I'm not sure
08:33there's
08:34any other athlete in my lifetime that could be more on than the way he was.
08:39Like you guys, you reference the no hitters.
08:41Like once when you start getting into the third or fourth inning, you could already start
08:45toying with the idea because you could just see he was at his when he was at his best.
08:50I'm not sure if there were many in my life that were.
08:52A guy that comes to mind actually for me is when they were on, Peyton Manning was ridiculous
08:57when he was on.
08:59Do you remember too?
08:59He'd be throwing harder as the game was on.
09:02Yeah.
09:02He was ramping up and it was just like, it was, I mean, it almost became like it wasn't
09:09real.
09:10Yeah.
09:10I mean, the playoff series, those games, they had the win games against Oakland, you know.
09:15The chill the F out.
09:16I got this.
09:17Yeah.
09:18Two years in a row.
09:19Was it?
09:19I believe.
09:20I mean, I know there's a game five in there.
09:22Oh yeah.
09:22Yeah.
09:23And in Oakland and he just was unbelievable.
09:27And that's what you're at.
09:28You want your ace, your horse, whatever you want to call them to be.
09:31And the world series performances really, I mean, it's Pablo Sandoval.
09:36It's the one thing that you just think of when it comes to maybe why they didn't win a world
09:40series.
09:41You know, you three home run game off JV and game one changed that series.
09:45I think it's a little unfair to criticize him for his game one performance against St.
09:48Louis.
09:49No, I know.
09:49He was a young kid.
09:50I mean, he was a rookie.
09:51Yeah.
09:51So I've got the 2012 in route to the world series, Tony.
09:55They faced Oakland in a game five.
09:57Yeah.
09:58Nine innings, complete game.
10:00Did he go to Sonny Gray that game?
10:02He may have.
10:03He had 11 strikeouts and one walk.
10:05Yeah.
10:07I mean, it's unheard of that a starting pitcher today would go nine innings.
10:10Yes.
10:11He's just dominant.
10:12They won two, nothing.
10:13You mean he didn't take himself out after five?
10:15No, the jokes are there.
10:17The jokes are there.
10:20When I say on, like I saw Greg Maddox in his prime.
10:24Okay.
10:25Maddox never threw a no hitter.
10:27Right.
10:27That's what I'm saying.
10:28When their perfection, when they were at their best, I just don't know if there's many athletes
10:32I've seen that were better.
10:33Jordan, obviously.
10:35Matt Maddox.
10:36So, as great as he was, and he was great, obviously.
10:41And it was all, it was, a lot of that was more mindful.
10:44I mean, he wasn't dominant as far as power and all that stuff.
10:47That's why JV, when he was unhittable, it was crazy.
10:51They couldn't get near it.
10:52So, I've got, it's funny, the 2013 Verlander postseason, he made three starts, twice against
11:00Oakland, once against Boston.
11:02The Boston game, I referenced yesterday, I think, when somebody was talking about the
11:06Big Papi game.
11:07Because Leland said, yeah, that game, you know, everybody talks about that.
11:10I mean, the game I regret was, not regret, but the one that killed him, was when they
11:15came back, the 1-1, and Verlander pitched game three at Camerica, and he lost 1-0.
11:22Napoli hit a home run.
11:23It's the only run that Verlander gave up in that postseason.
11:26Yeah.
11:27He pitched 22 innings, 7, 8, and 8 innings in his three starts.
11:33He struck out 31 batters in 22 innings and gave up one run the entire postseason.
11:41Again, there's a lot of nice things you could say about the guy.
11:44This is...
11:45I mean, the only negative, I mean, it leads into the World Series, you know, problem in
11:502012 in the opener.
11:51There are a lot of people who believe, because in those days, whoever won the All-Star game,
11:57that league was going to have home field advantage.
12:00And if you remember, Verlander started for the American League, I believe the World Series
12:05was in Kansas City, and he just, you know, macho JV, had to, like, try to throw 130 miles
12:11an hour or whatever from the first inning, and he just got bombed.
12:15The American League loses, and if they would have won that game, I'm not saying if he would
12:18have pitched well, they would have won.
12:19But, you know, people say, oh, if he would have won, he wouldn't have pitched so bad in
12:22the All-Star game.
12:23We might have had home field advantage.
12:25It could have been completely different.
12:26I remember being mad at him, as a fan, going, dude, what the hell?
12:31Well, now, who cares?
12:32The game doesn't count for anything, but when it counted for something, you've got to take
12:34it seriously.
12:36Text Porn in, 248-539-9797.
12:39We also have audio from Verlander.
12:41We'll play that coming up next, and how we reach this decision.
12:44It's 97-1.
12:44The End
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